What can be the reason for lower back pain at the age of 14?

Question

Hi doctor,

My daughter is 14 years old. I wonder whether she has herniated disc. Because, she has all the symptoms except the numbness in legs and feet. It hurts in the lower part of my back. Usually a herniated disc is from sports injury and heavy lifting. But, she recently have not had any sports injuries or have not done any heavy lifting. But, in the past she had. Her back has been hurting when she cough, sneeze, sit or even walk down my porch steps. It has been hurting for may be two to three weeks now. I have not heard people of her age have a slipped herniated disc and other stuff. Please help.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com. Let us analyze different reasons for back pain of her age. The most important is a back sprain rather than a disc prolapse. We also have to make sure that your daughter is not suffering from urinary tract infection. It would be nice to know if she has any symptoms of burning urine, bad smelling urine or peeing too much in the night or any fever. Also kidney stones are a possibility. I would suggest using Tylenol and a muscle relaxant, with stretching exercises and obtain a urine test. If she did not feel better by doing the stretching exercises and Tylenol then we would have to think more in terms of a prolapsed disc or other gynecological causes. I would suggest you to get a plain KUB (kidney, ureter, bladder) x-ray to look for renal stones and urinalysis with culture. Take Tylenol two pills every 8 hours for pain on as needed basis and Flexeril 5 mg (Cyclobenzaprine) every 12 hours as needed for pain.