All-Star I'm At A Loss...pain In The Butt

[Gemma]

Literally! My 8 year old daughter has been complaining the last few months of like a muscle pain across the middle of both butt cheeks when in cheer. I took her to a children's chiro and he did a little adjustment on her and she said she hurt worse. I took her to a physical therapist who said her hamstrings are realllly tight and showed us some great stretches. We have been doing the stretches every morning and night and she is better, now the pain only comes when she is doing back walkovers or front walkovers---no pain when she does BHS or round off BHS though, which has led me to the conclusion that maybe it has something to do with the motion of kicking one leg over at a time? Her form with back walkovers is beautiful---front walkovers could use some work, it looks like she struggles to get upright most of the time. Anyone ever heard of a literal pain in the butt like this before? I'm not sure what to do next and hoping it's just a matter of needing to stretch more or maybe she is growing---maybe some of you have had or heard of this before. Thanks in advance!!

 

[THEJOEL]

Literally! My 8 year old daughter has been complaining the last few months of like a muscle pain across the middle of both butt cheeks when in cheer. I took her to a children's chiro and he did a little adjustment on her and she said she hurt worse. I took her to a physical therapist who said her hamstrings are realllly tight and showed us some great stretches. We have been doing the stretches every morning and night and she is better, now the pain only comes when she is doing back walkovers or front walkovers---no pain when she does BHS or round off BHS though, which has led me to the conclusion that maybe it has something to do with the motion of kicking one leg over at a time? Her form with back walkovers is beautiful---front walkovers could use some work, it looks like she struggles to get upright most of the time. Anyone ever heard of a literal pain in the butt like this before? I'm not sure what to do next and hoping it's just a matter of needing to stretch more or maybe she is growing---maybe some of you have had or heard of this before. Thanks in advance!!

Have you taken her to an orthopedist?
Only reason I ask is because a girl on my CP's team was having similar pain in a similar area and it turned out she had stress fractures on her spine and SI joint area. We thought it was a muscle imbalance but it was her body compensating for the injury.

 

[Mamarazzi]

I can tell you this - even though chiro hurt worse the first adjustment, it may not be totally off.

It also sounds suspiciously muscular.

If you visualize the back, and its components (bones, nerves, muscles) everything is connected. The nerves that supply the entire body come from the spinal cord. Because of that, there can be compression of a nerve in the spine, but it's felt as pain or numbness/tingling elsewhere in the body. Also, back muscles extend way down into the gluteal region, and inflammation in the large group of muscles can irritate the nerves down there, causing a pain in the butt. Seeing as the stretches have worked, I'd say this is a likely culprit.
She might try gluteal massage - yes, it sounds funky. And it's not legal in some states, but if Mom looks up how to do it, it's ok. It just helps the lower back/gluteal muscles relax, flushes out some of the inflammation, and can break up any adhesions she might have. Ice, also.

 

[Mamarazzi]

Have you taken her to an orthopedist?
Only reason I ask is because a girl on my CP's team was having similar pain in a similar area and it turned out she had stress fractures on her spine and SI joint area. We thought it was a muscle imbalance but it was her body compensating for the injury.

Chiro and whatever physician referred to PT should have done X-rays prior to treatment.

 

[Gemma]

Have you taken her to an orthopedist?
Only reason I ask is because a girl on my CP's team was having similar pain in a similar area and it turned out she had stress fractures on her spine and SI joint area. We thought it was a muscle imbalance but it was her body compensating for the injury.

That scares me---no, we have not been referred to an ortho. They did not take x rays because all of the other "tests" seemed to point to out of place with the chiro and muscular with the PT...the PT was also able to pop her hip back into place, it was a little out. I brought up stress fracture with the PT and she said nothing pointed to that at all. I will see about getting x rays to rule anything else out though, don't want to mess around with her health that's for sure.

 

[Gemma]

I can tell you this - even though chiro hurt worse the first adjustment, it may not be totally off.

It also sounds suspiciously muscular.

If you visualize the back, and its components (bones, nerves, muscles) everything is connected. The nerves that supply the entire body come from the spinal cord. Because of that, there can be compression of a nerve in the spine, but it's felt as pain or numbness/tingling elsewhere in the body. Also, back muscles extend way down into the gluteal region, and inflammation in the large group of muscles can irritate the nerves down there, causing a pain in the butt. Seeing as the stretches have worked, I'd say this is a likely culprit.
She might try gluteal massage - yes, it sounds funky. And it's not legal in some states, but if Mom looks up how to do it, it's ok. It just helps the lower back/gluteal muscles relax, flushes out some of the inflammation, and can break up any adhesions she might have. Ice, also.

I'll look up the gluteal massage---it would be a lot less "awkward", as she would say, for me to do it! Thanks for the great info!!

 

[SmileyRyleigh]

I had something similar but I was also having lots of lower back pain above the butt. The dr thought it was stress fracture in my lower back but X-rays didn't show anything. Then I had an MRI and I have herniated discs. I can't do bwo/fwo because it hurts too bad and I've been through physical therapy three times. I also had steroid injections which worked for a little while. Could be herniated discs though because that's what mine was and the discs press against your spinal cord and cause pain in your butt/sometimes through your legs. I had pain for a long time before we finally got an MRI. Also it's better to catch it earlier because it could just be a bulging disc.


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[THEJOEL]

That scares me---no, we have not been referred to an ortho. They did not take x rays because all of the other "tests" seemed to point to out of place with the chiro and muscular with the PT...the PT was also able to pop her hip back into place, it was a little out. I brought up stress fracture with the PT and she said nothing pointed to that at all. I will see about getting x rays to rule anything else out though, don't want to mess around with her health that's for sure.

Wasn't trying to scare you just passing on our experience. Better to rule it out than risk further injury. My CP's teammate's ortho said that type of injury was common in cheer and gymnastics because of the impact and improper form.
Part of her problem was she had a huge growth spurt on top of gaining a lot of new tumbling.

 

[Abcdefg]

In the summer i hurt my back doing whip doubles but i couldn't quit get a grasp on what was hurting. I had shocks of pain going down my leg and near my butt lol turns out my one of my lumbars if thats what you call it was pinching a nerve cause the lumbar was curved. i would consider taking her to get an x ray and or a cat scan.

 

[arispurplecheerkitty]

I know what you mean. I can't do front walkovers because I was dropped on my tail bone in a basket. It still hurts to this day


No fear in fierce

 

[Tinkerbella]

In the summer i hurt my back doing whip doubles but i couldn't quit get a grasp on what was hurting. I had shocks of pain going down my leg and near my butt lol turns out my one of my lumbars if thats what you call it was pinching a nerve cause the lumbar was curved. i would consider taking her to get an x ray and or a cat scan.

This is actually my issue right now. What did you do to relieve the pain? I go to PT once a week but the relief doesn't last long. I can barely do jumps to tuck because it's painful. It also hurts to walk, sit down and get up from the bed.

 

[Gemma]

Thanks all for your input and advice, I greatly appreciate it. I am going to call for an ortho referral tomorrow, I would rather be safe than sorry---although I can't help but wonder if she should already retire at age 8... ...the hubby already complains about the cost of cheer without injuries but that's a whole other topic! I will try not to get too far ahead of myself yet. Hope all of you that are having pains in the butts also feel better soon!!

 

[Abcdefg]

This is actually my issue right now. What did you do to relieve the pain? I go to PT once a week but the relief doesn't last long. I can barely do jumps to tuck because it's painful. It also hurts to walk, sit down and get up from the bed.

i really had to just stop for a while the only way to fix it is surgery so i just waited for the muscles around it to stop swelling but now i have to tumble very carefully

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

Going to add one more weird thing but because you mentioned the hamstrings being awful tight. Not sure how long this is going on but because she is 8.... could be a growth spurt going on as well? I know my oldest has shot up like an inch and then gone through terrible pain for close to a month and we had her do lots of stretching because her legs and tush everything just got tight.

 

[cheermomof4]

A few years ago I had a lot of the same style pain and mine was caused by a broken tailbone. it took well over a year to heal and even now to this day I have issues from time to time..... but I always got a laugh from the dr when I would say " I have a pain in my butt and it's not my husband" LOL