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Date Posted: 11:20:14 01/14/15 Wed
Author: Knut Holt
Subject: HOW TO CHECK YOUR CHILD FOR SCOLIOSIS

How to Check Your Child for Scoliosis

Scoliosis is abnormal bends and twists in the spinal column which often progress. Scoliosis often begins in childhood or early puberty and can get very severe if not treated. It is important to detect the onset of scoliosis at an early time.You can easily do so on your children yourself.
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By scoliosis the spinal column is bent and twisted in abnormal ways, often sidewise. Often the deformities occur in opposite directions at several places so that the condition is not easily seen without a close examination. Injuries, paralysis, rheumatism or other specific conditions can cause scoliosis. By the most common type, idiopathic scoliosis, the spine is growing asymmetrically, but the cause of the asymmetrical growth is not well known.

Idiopathic scoliosis often begins during infancy or early puberty and progresses as long as the child is growing. The condition can gradually become very severe. Therefore it should be detected early so that treatment begins in time. Most children are checked for scoliosis during well-child physicals or in school. But the programs for scoliosis checks are not often consistent, or the checks are done too seldom.

It is however easy for the parents themselves to check a child for scoliosis, and the parents should therefore do such a check on the child at least 4 times a year. You check a child, or an adult too, for scoliosis this way:

The child stands upright with bare back from the neck to the buttocks. You stand or sit at a chair behind the child. The back should be well illuminated. First take a broad overview of the back of your child from the top of his head to his feet. Look to see if his body as a whole is symmetrical and without bends or twists.

Then let the child turn his side to you, then let him turn so you see his breast and belly area, and then further to the other side and finally turn so that his back aging faces you. Take a broad overview of the child from top to bottom also at his front and sides as he turns. Look each time to see if something looks asymmetrical or twisted.

When his back faces you, look at his shoulders to see if they are on equal height. You can lay a flat hand upon the shoulders to observe better. Look also at the iliac crests (the crests on each side at the top of the pelvis) to see if they also are on equal height. Also here you can place your hands just over the crests to observe better. Unequal heights of the shoulders or of the pelvic crests are often due to scoliosis or other spinal misconfigurations.

Then look along the spine from the top of the neck to the buttocks to see if there are some sidewise bends. Also stroke your fingers over the mid of the spine all the way from the neck to its end. Make sure you feel the crests on the mid of the spine when you stroke. If some part of the spine is not well visible, bends or other abnormalities can more easily be detected by keeping attention to the path of your finger.

Then let the child bend forward with straight legs and touch his toes. Look along his back from your position behind. See if there are bumps or elevated areas on each side. If the spine is curved towards one side, the curved portion of the spine will be pressed up at the other side.

Have something to note upon during the check, and note down all observations that may suggest scoliosis or other misalignments. Keep your notations in a journal so that you can compare with earlier notations. This way you can keep track of gradual changes going on. The best is perhaps to note shortly on a paper and then register it on a digital file.

If you find some kind of symptoms that may suggest scoliosis, you should in short time consult a doctor. If the symptoms are just small, the doctor will often choose to just follow the development over time in the first place. But it is wise that also you, the parents follow the development with regular exams and notations as here suggested.


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Knut Holt is a business consultant and marketer focusing on the health field. At his site there is a lot information useful to improve health and fitness, including slimming and exercise advices. You can also find presentation of products to combat common health issues and to improve fitness

http://www.abicana.com/health_information.htm

This article is free to copy as long as the author's link is present.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Check-Your-Child-for-Scoliosis&id=8879528

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