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Chest pains in 7 year old girl...

My 7 year old daughter has been suffering from chest pains for the past 4 months.  I can dismiss acid reflux and stress/anxiety.  She is now experiencing back pain too.  I have tried osteopathy, and although they recognise a significant tightness in her chest they are unable to relieve the pain.  Her chest x-ray and ultrasound are clear.
I am now awaiting blood test results that may or may not point to a virus of some kind.
The general consensus is that it is Costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage around ribs & breastbone).  However this should abate after a 2 week course of Ibuprofen - but has not made a difference - in fact the pain is now worsening.  She frequently has bouts of tonisilitis so we recenty had her swabbed for Strep throat (as this can often be accompanied by muscular pain) but this also showed up negative.  Can anyone offer any advice please as I'm at the end of my tether!  Lucy.
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351246 tn?1379682132
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
I am sorry to hear about your little one suffering chest pains. Even though she is so young, get an ECHO of heart to rule out any heart pathology. Other than that it can be costochondritis, severe anemia and Vit D deficiency. Do discuss this with her doctors.
Hope this helps. Take care!
Helpful - 0
875426 tn?1325528416
Is your daughter doing any kind of activity that might be aggravating her musculoskeletal system on an ongoing basis, thus not giving the ibuprofen opportunity to work?  (Speaking from experience for example- such as leaning on her arm regularly for extended periods which could aggravate the chest wall).  

I'm assuming the ultrasound they did was of your daughter's heart.  Did they do an abdominal ultrasound, which includes a look at the pancreas (behind the stomach left hand side), the gallbladder (toward the middle upper abdomen), liver (upper right abdomen) and kidneys (flanks)?  

Regarding the tonsilitis- is it because she is getting frequent colds that she is getting this?  Has anyone suggested a tonsilectomy to you?  I had this done when I was five years old myself, though part of at least one tonsil grew back, though they did it with mirrors.

Have they run an ANA blood test on her to check for autoimmune issues?

RE: acid reflux- this can cause sore throat with laryngopharyngeal reflux.  Ibuprofen if your daughter had esophagitis or gastritis would tend to make symptoms worsen.  Have they done an upper endoscopy to look at the esophagus and stomach?  Esophageal spasms can feel like heart pain.
Helpful - 0
1513542 tn?1290438955
As a child I experinced this as well. I did this to get attention. Please, dont get upset about this answer. When all test come back showing all is well then you need to consider the enviroment. Recent move, new school, lack of freinds. You'd be surprised at some of the reasons kids use.
I hope I am right in one hand meaning she will grow uo having a good life. In the other hand if I am wrong then I hope you can discover the problem soon.
As an adult I had these pains in my chest too. After all that testing and expense I went through they found nothing. I was told that the body tends to have empty areas in the chest. Anotherwords air bubbles here and there. And when I turned a certain way I would aggreviate the area giving a pain sensation. I adapted to this and learned to live with it. That was 30 years ago and still here and there I experience this.
Helpful - 0
1512609 tn?1290269611
Dear Lucy,
Could you please explain how and why you are dismissing acid reflux? Its fairly common. Although costochondritis plausible, i still wonder as the symptoms were not relieved with an anti-inflammatory agent.
Helpful - 0
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