Arthrosis and osteoarthritis are traditionally considered age-related diseases. However, like many other diseases, joint pathologies tend to grow younger, so today they are increasingly found in very young patients. What is the reason and what treatment is indicated in such cases?
Osteoarthritis in children is being diagnosed more and more often today.
Causes
The root cause of the development of degenerative changes in cartilage in children is often genetic factors. There are so-called defective genes. They are also found among those responsible for the functionality of joints and connective tissue. However, this is far from the only reason:
- Congenital pathologies of the musculoskeletal system, such as clubfoot, flat feet, etc., can provoke joint problems at an early age;
- against the background of overweight and obesity, joints are subjected to increased stress, which also affects cartilage, bone tissue, and internal organs;
- sometimes treatment for arthrosis and osteoarthritis can be prescribed to a child after numerous serious or, conversely, minor bruises, sprains, and microtraumas;
- If, due to circumstances, a child has undergone surgery on a joint, the risk of developing osteoarthritis increases significantly.
Injuries, injuries, injuries... It is not surprising that young football players develop arthrosis very early
How to behave correctly if a child complains of joint pain? Advice for parents from a pediatrician:
What you need to pay attention to
Pain caused by movement of the limbs indicates the beginning of the development of pathology. Parents need to take the baby to a specialist and get a diagnosis.
When visiting a specialist, he will definitely explain why a baby’s joints are cracking and what features you need to pay attention to. Occasional sounds while the baby is moving are acceptable.
You should suspect the onset of inflammation in the joint tissue when symptoms appear:
- When a crunch occurs, the child begins to become very capricious. He can pull a limb under himself, which causes discomfort and pain.
- Carrying out the slightest movement, sound in the joint tissue is heard from several places at the same time.
- At the site of localization of the pathology, swelling of the soft tissues or an increase in body temperature occurs.
- Hyperemia of the skin appears.
- When attending a massage course, the joints of the knee and pelvis make sounds when the legs are bent in different directions.
Important! If your baby’s joints are cracking and causing him discomfort, you should contact a pediatric orthopedist to take an X-ray and prevent the development of the inflammatory process.
Rheumatoid arthritis distorts the functioning of the heart. An experienced specialist will notice changes in tones and the addition of noise when listening to the organ during a routine examination. An ultrasound examination will confirm the development of pathology.
Signs of osteoarthritis in children
The main symptom of the disease is aching pain after physical activity in the area of a particular joint. At night, the pain subsides, and in the daytime, during physical activity, it resumes. If the pathology has progressed to the second or third stage, the pain may persist even at rest. There are other characteristic signs:
- frozen joint syndrome – it is difficult for a child to move the affected limb due to sharp piercing pain;
- swelling, which appears in the morning and leads to stiffness of the affected area;
- sometimes the disease is accompanied by varicose veins of the lower extremities, and over time, other joints are also involved in the pathological process, especially if the child is not provided with timely medical care.
If your child complains of joint pain, take him to an orthopedist as soon as possible
Symptoms
Routine examination by a specialist orthopedist of a three-month-old child.
A fragile child's body is formed in such a way as to protect the baby from possible injury when turning over from side to side, while crawling and taking the first steps.
The bones of babies have the structure of cartilage tissue. The joints are underdeveloped and when making the first movements, parents may hear them crunching.
In the first months of life, babies lie on their backs and play in the air with their legs. The baby's joints crack when he tightens his limb and returns it to its original level position. The ligaments contract and produce a characteristic crunch.
A common position in which parents pay attention to extraneous sounds when the child makes movements at home.
In a healthy baby, sounds disappear during growth and full development. Parents can help get rid of crunching by attending massage courses at a children's clinic. The procedures will help the child actively develop physical abilities.
Important! In the medical practice of orthopedists, there are cases when the crunching sound does not go away on its own and an inflammatory pathological process begins to develop, in which the child needs to receive specialized treatment.
Tight swaddling inhibits the physical development of babies and their motor activity.
Treatment tactics in childhood
Treatment of arthrosis and osteoarthritis in children is complex: it includes medication and physiotherapeutic components. With the help of painkillers in a dosage specially selected for age, it is possible to relieve pain spasms. Sometimes it is advisable to use anti-inflammatory ointments and balms only as prescribed by the attending physician.
In some cases, intra-articular injections of a synovial fluid substitute, for example the safe synthetic drug Noltrex, help cope with the disease. As a rule, this method is used if the disease has progressed to the second or third stages and is accompanied by a severe course.
In the initial stages, physiotherapeutic measures - massage, electrophoresis and UHF, as well as a course of special exercise therapy - help cope with symptoms. During the period of remission, it will not be superfluous for a small patient to go for sanatorium treatment. In general, tactics depend on the child’s health status, physical capabilities, and lifestyle.
A child with osteoarthritis should be seen by an orthopedist at least once a year
The structure of the joints
To understand the nature of crunching in joints, you need to have an idea of their structure. For simplicity, let's compare them to hinges. Only the bones slide relative to each other. And the role of lubricant is played by synovial fluid. The top of the bones is covered with articular cartilage. This is a kind of housing that does not allow liquid to leak out.
For strength, ligaments are woven into it. In some parts of the body, the bones are not completely adjacent to each other. For better “adhesion and mobility”, they are equipped with special gaskets - menisci.
Articular fluid contains nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. The accumulation of gas bubbles provokes a cracking joint. This usually occurs when the joint capsule is overstretched or sudden movements.
How parents can help
Arthrosis and its forms are a disease with which a child will have to coexist for many years. Therefore, it falls on the parents to worry about how to teach their son or daughter proper nutrition and daily routine, as well as instill necessary, healthy habits.
- To prevent excess weight, which is so dangerous for joints, it is important to adjust your diet - enrich it with vegetables and fruits, dairy products, removing flour and chocolate.
- As prescribed by your doctor, it is advisable to take vitamins that include calcium.
- The specialist will recommend special exercises for the joints, which will have to be performed regularly to avoid relapses.
- The task of parents is to provide their son or daughter with the correct workplace (a chair with a straight back), and also to take care of a bed with a hard base or an orthopedic mattress (depending on the form of the disease).
- Shoes are also of great importance: they must be made of high-quality materials.
The most important thing for a caring parent is to find a competent doctor who will not only prescribe treatment, but also discover the root cause of osteoarthritis at such an early age. This is the only way to keep the disease under control and stop its progression. So, if the source of the problem is a malfunction of the endocrine system, it is necessary, first of all, to restore the balance of hormones, and if the knees suffer from excess weight, the child will have to be offered a strict diet.
Be that as it may, if your child complains of pain in the knee, elbow or other joint, do not self-medicate. The sooner you get an appointment with a good orthopedist, the more chances your heir has for a full life, full of physical activity!
The child's bones crunch. Why do the bones of a little baby crunch?
The prerequisite is often a specific weakness of the ligamentous-muscular system (Equipment, equipment - a complete set of parts or elements to perform a function). This occurs due to a missing amount (a category expressing the external, formal relationship of objects or their parts, as well as properties, connections: their size, number, degree of manifestation of a particular property) of synovial water that washes the joint or due to inflammatory diseases (this is a state of the body expressed in a violation of its normal functioning, life expectancy and its ability to maintain its homeostasis).
Often clicking and soreness appear with Osgood-Schlatter disease. This pathology affects only the knee joints and is characterized by the fact that it does not cause inflammation, but pain is observed when walking, jumping, and running. The uniqueness of this disease is that it passes without the help of others, without healing.
The prerequisite for crunching in a child and infant can be diseases such as gonarthrosis, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, glenohumeral periarthrosis, coxarthrosis, rheumatoid or infectious polyarthritis, etc.
To exclude the presence of pathology, you need to visit a doctor who, for diagnostic purposes, will refer the patient to a biochemical blood test (C-reactive and total protein, alkaline phosphatase, rheumatoid factor, creatine kinase) and ultrasound of the heart.
If the results of the research did not show any anomalies, then in this case the crunch is an anatomical individuality. Perhaps the specialist will advise you to diversify the baby’s diet with foods rich in calcium (cottage cheese, milk, fish, etc.), as well as drinking plenty of water - water provokes the production of synovial water (a commune in France, located in the Champagne-Ardenne region).
What parents should pay attention to:
- The crunch is produced only by a certain joint (for example, knee, elbow, shoulder, hip);
- Clicking sounds are heard when the limb is flexed and extended;
- If the crunch of the hip joint is accompanied by asymmetry of the skin folds on the legs and at the same time the legs do not spread well to the sides. This phenomenon indicates a dislocation or subluxation of the leg;
- The crunch is observed for a long time;
- If the child gets excited and cries during the clicking;
- Swelling and redness of the skin occurs.
If you notice at least one of the symptoms listed above, you should consult a doctor.
