Chest Pain in Children

Chest pain in children may not be something very serious, but it affects the normal activities of the kid and their school attendance. It is a matter of anxiety for parents. When the chest pain is for some serious reason, then it is accompanied by other symptoms. The pain could be acute or chronic. The origin of the chest pain could be the ribs, breastbone, muscles of the chest walls, or the internal organs like lungs and heart.

Causes

Following are the main possible factors responsible for chest pain in children.

Injury
This is the most common cause of acute chest pain in children. The origin of this kind of sharp pain is the chest wall. The ribs of the chest wall are attached to the breastbone present at the front of the chest and form joints. When there is some inflammation in the rib joints, then the muscles of the ribs get stretched. As a result, it gives chest pain when breathing. The rib joints and muscles often get hurt because of direct blow on the chest while playing a sport or a bad fall and lead to chest pain. Exercise movements or lifting of heavy objects can badly strain the rib muscles and put a lot of pressure on the chest wall.

Respiratory Problems
The symptoms of chest pain with asthma are difficulty in breathing and severe cough. These symptoms of asthma worsens particularly at night and early morning after getting up from the bed. It tends to get intensified after crying or activities like running. When the pain is due to lung infection like pneumonia or bronchitis then its other symptoms that are observed are chills and fever, headache, cough, stomach pain, wheezing, vomiting, etc.

Cardiac Problem
There is a little chance that a child can get heart attack like adults. However, there are condition related to heart that show symptoms of chest pain. Pericarditis is one such problem where the heart lining gets swelled up due to some infection. Abnormalities in coronary artery is an inherited heart condition that can give chest pain. Excessive thick heart muscles and rhythmic disturbances of heart rate are two other heart problems which cause chest pain. This type of chest pain often get extended to neck, shoulder, arms and jaws. If there is chest pain with exercise and is accompanied by irregular beating of the heart or fainting symptoms then the cardiac condition is likely to be in a serious state.

Acid Reflux
This is a condition where the stomach acids rise up into the esophagus or food pipe and cause a burning sensation and irritation in the area just below the breastbone. This causes chest pain after eating. The pain gets aggravated if the child is lying down after having food. The child often fail to explain the pain. Other symptoms of acid reflux disease are sore throat, acidic taste in mouth and nausea or vomiting.

Other Causes
Sickle cell anemia and chest tumors like lymphomas could be responsible for chest pain in children. A form of infection in the cartilage between the ribs and the breastbone can give chest pain in girls in the adolescent or pre-adolescent stage. Chest pain can be associated with anxiety or panic attacks as well. It gives a dull pain in chest and is accompanied by headache.

The medical history as well as physical examination of the child is studied to diagnose the cause of the chest pain. Only in a few rare cases the laboratory tests like X-ray, EKG are conducted. If it is caused injury, then doctors suggest stretching exercises and heat compression on the injured area for pain management. To get rid of pain and inflammation of the muscles, pain reliving medicines are given. Bacteria infections are treated with the help of antibiotics.