5 Golden Rules to Prevent Hunchback in Children
Kyphosis, which is known as hunchback in common, is described as the anterior curvature of the spine. Revealing itself as an opposite curvature especially on the back, it is not usually accepted as a disease and can also be resulted from poor posture. Having been related with insufficient physical condition in children, it can cause some social problems between children and families.
Hunchback may be structural or posterior
In a normal spine, there is a mild rounding on the back till the end of rib cage, which is named as “thoracic kyphosis” and an opposite of this is in the waist area which is known as “lumbar lordosis”. These two curvatures are necessary to balance the body and head on pelvis on a normal spine. A normal back locates between the 1st and 12th vertebral bones and has a slight kyphosis between 15° and 45° .When the rounding of the back increases over 45°, this is named as “hyper kyphosis” and it is categorized as postural or structural.
Poor posture causes hernia of the loins
Nowadays children spend their time on the desk, in front of computers or tablets as a result of the information era. Because sedentary life poses an obstacle against sports, physical conditions of children decreases and spinal anatomy is affected badly because most of the time is spent with bad sitting and lying positions. Besides, although no evidence is found about carrying heavy schoolbags’ causing hunchback in school children, these are not good for spinal health. The load on spine paves the way for the situations like low back pain in youth, and backache and hernia of the loins in adulthood.
Low back pain may be seen in structural kyphosis
Anterior parts of the vertebral bones grow slower than the back parts. Structural kyphosis is the vertebral bones’ becoming a combined shape spine instead of taking an aligned rectangle shape on each other. While this is experienced between the ages 12-15 in boys, which is the period of rapid bone growth, it is seen in girls earlier than this period. In structural kyphosis, patients consult doctors with the complaints of poor posture and low back pain in general. Low back pain is most frequently seen in puberty and usually decreases while reaching maturity.
Encourage your children for sports
Parents usually warn their children to posture because they can do so when warned; however, children return to their hunchback position in a short time again. The repetitive warnings may result with obstination. Therefore, in order to fix the poor posture, families should encourage their children for doing more sportive activities. Sports will prevent postural roundback by increasing the physical condition of the child and the strength and durability of the muscles which hold the spin straight. A sportive activity of one hour in at least 3 days a week will help to solve the poor posture problem.
Reach the solution by finding the underlying reasons of postural roundback.
Arrange the sitting habits of your children even if they do not complain
Ensure the right position of the desks and chairs of children with respect to location, angle and height,
Adjust the height of monitor and keyboard
Encourage your children for sports
Consult a specialist if the posture cannot be achieved
Curvatures bigger than 80 degrees may necessitate surgery
Kyphosis treatment is planned to fix the hunchback, stabilize the problematic area, alleviate the pain and develop the neurological functions. If postural roundback is over 75-80 degrees and severe pain becomes frequent, surgery may be recommended. Surgical intervention is planned according to the patients. The patients are made to stand up after the day of operation and discharged in approximately 4-5 days. Corset may be applied on some patients till 3 months. Returning to work or school after the operation is approximately 3 weeks. The exercises like walking and swimming are permitted after 3 months. Riding bicycle is permitted after 6 months. Patients can return their normal daily activities in the 4 th-6th months after the operation. Contact sports (like football and basketball) are prohibited until the end of the first year. Patients are allowed to return their normal lives entirely at the end of the first year. The improvement gained by surgical intervention is quite significant.
Prepared by the Medical Editorial Board. Our health library contents have been prepared for informational purposes only and with the scientific content on the registration date. For all your questions, concerns, diagnosis or treatment about your health, please consult your doctor or health institution.
