New Parent Complaints : Biceps Tendinitis

The other day I was lifting my chubby cheeked son and I felt a sharp pain in the front of my shoulder. This was the start of something that I feared. Biceps tendinitis! Like I discussed before, tendinitis is just inflammation of a tendon because of repetitive stress. How did this happen? Your bicep tendon is a very long tendon that can be felt at the front of the shoulder. This tendon attaches to your biceps whose main purpose is to bend the elbow. Because this tendon is so long and is attached to a very strong muscle it is very susceptible to injury. The common signs of biceps tendinitis is pain when touching the front of your shoulder, pain when lifting your arm, pain when stretching your arm back behind you. When lifting and carrying children, heavy car seats and diaper bags; its very common to place too much strain through the shoulder rather than through elbow. Obviously, it is impossible to avoid these activities so what can we do to decrease our risk of injury?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biceps#mediaviewer/File:Gray411.png

How do we avoid this?

1. Try to use a baby carrier when hold your child for extended periods >10mins.

2. Pay attention to posture when lifting your child. Keeping your shoulders back keeps your shoulder in a better mechanical positions and decreases the amount of strain on your biceps tendon.

3. Keep your child close. As stated in our last post, keeping your child as close to you body as possible will also benefit your low back.

4. Do not lift with your shoulder but from the elbow.

How do we treat this?

1. ICE ICE BABY. Applying ice to the front of your shoulder before bed for 20mins will help to decrease inflammation and decrease overall pain.

2. Continue to avoid painful activities.

3. Strengthen your shoulder. This should be directed by a PT.

Common New-Parent Complaint: Low Back Pain

As a father of two small children—a 26-month-old daughter and a 6-month-old son—I’ve had my share of new-parent body pain (minus the actual giving birth part). Sometimes you get so used to being in pain from holding your kids all day that you’re actually surprised when your body isn’t lingering from soreness. One of the most common complaints I hear about (particularly from my wife) is low back pain.

Now, there are many different types and causes of low pack pain, and all of them have a specific mechanism in which they need to be treated. But overall, low back pain is usually an issue of two things: posture and repetitive stress.

When lifting your cute little heavy potato sack of a baby, it’s important to be mindful of your posture and to have your hips, knees and legs do most of the lifting (kind of like when you’re doing a squat or lunge). This means keeping your back aligned above your pelvis and not having it so rounded—and always engaging the “core”.

What’s this word “core” that I’m throwing out here? I tell my wife all the time to contract her core. Contrary to what she may think, your core is not just your belly or your abs. The core is actually a group of muscles that stabilize the spine and pelvis. These muscles contract together to prevent unnecessary movement of the spine during simple activities like picking up your child.

So how does one correctly contract the core? Most people end up just holding their breath or contracting their abs—wrong! This kind of contraction doesn’t really engage the entire core and won’t protect your spine the way it needs to. The proper way to assess whether you’re doing it the right way is to feel it with your fingers. Place your fingers just outside of your ab muscles—yes, we all have them, even though some people's may be hidden—and dig your fingers in around belly button level (see below for a visual reference). Keeping your fingers there, I tell my patients to pull their belly button in and up (kind of like when you're sucking in your stomach, but without holding your breath). 

If you are able to feel hardening or your fingers pushing back out a little bit, then you are contracting your core the right way.

Another way to prevent low back pain is to always keep your child as close to your body when picking him or her up. Unless your child’s just pooped himself up the back (in which case you may want to hold him away from your body), pick your child up in close body contact to reduce the amount of force on your back. Think about picking up a big sack of rice. You probably wouldn’t try picking it up with your arms held out, right? In similar fashion, when picking up your child, it’s important to be in proper position: shoulder kept back, core engaged, legs and shoulders aligned with your hips. And also make sure that your shoulders aren’t extended out too much in front of your body.

These basic steps—along with some nightly massages from the loving husband—can help in reducing your risk of injury and could even decrease the amount of pain you’re currently in. But of course we recommend that low back pain sufferers always consult with a physical therapist to discuss the best plan of care for your specific condition and needs.