please, check your child's back for teenage scoliosis

[amphion]

Hello, Scoliosis is a sideways curving of the spine. 'Teenage' scoliosis has no known cause, can happen in any family, and 1 in 1000 children will need treatment, although 1 in 20 of us have small curves which are of no consequence.

It happens during the child's growth spurt - from about age 10 up, and is more likely to progress to a level needing treatment in girls. Unfortunately there is no screening for this here in the UK, and we didn't know that my daughter has it until she was nearly 16 and her curve had progressed to a serious level.

Please screen your children for this - it is SO simple, you just get them to stand with their back to you, they lean forwards with their arms hanging loosely by their sides, and you have a look to see if their spine looks fairly straight. There is more info. on the internet. If you are worried see your GP. The good news is that if caught early the curve can be monitered, and further progression stopped with a brace.

I was so upset that we had never heard of this. Please check your children, and tell anyone else you know with children this age.

Thank you amphion for the tip.

I hope that your dd is able to overcome this without too much trauma for all of you.

? I thought that this was a standard thing that was checked in schools by a nurse? I can definitely remember being checked for this when I was about 11. Is this another thing that has been stopped because of cut backs?

I don't think they have a school nurse service like they used to Madameplatypus. They screen for this in USA but I think in this country the excuse is that it would throw up too many false positives and that even if detected there are some doubts about the efficacy of bracing. This is not much consolation to people like my daughter (one or two in every large senior school) who's curve was not detected until there had been body shape changes i.e. uneven waistline, rib 'hump' on back, and earlier detection and bracing would have given her a chance of preventing this. There seems to be a bit of a conspiracy of silence about this condition - but I bet the professors and consultants in this field get their own children checked out! (yes I'm bitter!)

good tip. i remember reading a book about a girl with scolisis (Deenie?) when i was a teenager.