Growing Pains?

Loretta - posted on 01/30/2013

My 5 year old has done this for the last nights in a row. Not sure what it is but we are putting down to growing pains.

V - posted on 10/26/2012

also when doing your own research, if you're on the net you need to look for reputable sites like the NIH.gov and mayoclinic...etc.. not yahoo

V - posted on 10/26/2012

I know this is an old post and I can only hope and pray that you got help for your little one.



"Growing pains" don't usually start until a child is around the age of 3 years.



http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/growing...



Growing pains have been linked to fibromyalgia in adulthood so you need to do some research. Asking your doctor is a great idea but you need to keep in mind that not all doctors keep up with the latest research.



I had severe "growing pains" as a child (still have leg pains) and now I have all sorts of problems which have just branched out from my legs it seems.



My daughter also had what they said was "growing pains" and she still has problems (she's 15 now) and was recently diagnosed with joint hypermobility syndrome. It's possible she has other problems as well.



My 2 year old son has had leg pains since he started walking before 1 and now he hurts all day every day. He has an appointment to see a rheumatologist so we will see what they say.



I wish I had done more research earlier.

Melissa - posted on 10/05/2012

One of my sons had such bad aching in his legs that I was worried that he might have inherited Muscular Dystrophy, which runs in my family. He does seem to have gotten through that phase. It's scary though.

Marcy - posted on 10/05/2012

Glad to hear I am not alone but sad so many children seem to get these growing pains! Lots of helpful info coming through, thank you!

Heidi - posted on 10/05/2012

yes my son has had growing pains since he was 2. He usually experiences pain with the inability to walk. Very scary. We have had lots of tests done with no evidence of anything but growing pains. He is now 11 and still has them, just less frequently.

April - posted on 10/05/2012

I am so happy and relieved to find out about growing pains. My 4yr old girl has has woke up crying for a few nights lately complaining with her arms being painful but its only been happening at night on not consisitant and I had been starting to get worried. This article takes a lot off my mind just still hard to see her hurting :(

Patricia - posted on 10/03/2012

My Daughter has suffered from growing pains off and on since she was 2 yrs old and still going at 10 1/2 yrs old. I had the same thing growing up. My Mom would come in my room in the middle of the night and rub down my legs with warm oil. It helped a lot. I have spent so much money on Tylenol over the years-ha.

Mel - posted on 10/02/2012

Thanks for that! My daughter has been doing that on and off for a few months now. I thought we was getting Charlie Horse's or had some circulation issue! This helped ease my mind alot. Thanks!

Katherine - posted on 09/29/2012

Thanks for all of the answers!

Shawn - posted on 09/29/2012

Usually it is just growing pains, but if she says it's in specific areas like the joints or such I would take her to see a doctor to be sure. My sons all had them and I didn't really worry about it, but this year my five year old nephew was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, and he was complaining about his legs hurting in the knees and ankles.

Marcy - posted on 09/27/2012

That is so scary! We have never had the chest pains just the legs but now that my daughter is 8 she doesn't seem to have as many but still once in awhile will complain about her legs hurting.

Sandra - posted on 09/27/2012

Thanks ladies for your answers . This also has helps me out a lot to :)

Brandy - posted on 05/03/2012

Mine had leg and chest pains. She was growing so fast it hurt in her sternum. Ibuprofen kind of helped. We took her to the er because it was in her chest. Scared us to death

Kimberly - posted on 05/01/2012

My son just had one, scared me, I don't like seeing him hurt. I have ask the doc because he has had this since he was two and they only happen every once in awhile. The doc called it growing pains and rubbing them seems to help a lot,Thanks for the pointers on here:) I just wish there was something I could do besides be there for him and rub.

Marcy - posted on 08/23/2010

I will try Gatorade next time! That makes sense so thanks for the tip!

Holly - posted on 08/23/2010

My oldest daughter gets pains in her legs when she has an active day, and it brings her to tears. but since starting cheerleading with a normal routine she hasnt had the pains in a while!

Krystal - posted on 08/22/2010

giver her gatoraide it helps trust me my youngest has growing pains all the time and it will wake her up at 2-3 am screaming she hurts. As long as she drinks an 8 oz glass with dinner every night there are no problems. The gatoraide replenishes the electrolytes she loses during the day and this helps keep the pain away. She has had pains for as long as two weeks as a time before I found out about gatoraide.

Marcy - posted on 08/20/2010

After reading some of the posts my daughter was up twice last night with them. She did walk alot yesterday and today she had her 6 year check-up at her doctor and she said it can come from alot of activity such as walking, running.

Dara - posted on 08/19/2010

My daughter regularly goes through bouts of this as well, and we give her a little tylenol and a hot compress on the place where it hurts. It is so hard to watch your kids experience this, and mine has yet to grow out of it, but she takes a lot of comfort from the heat.

Marcy - posted on 08/19/2010

Yes, my daughter got leg pains between ages 4-6 in the middle of the night. she would wake up screaming and I gave her motrin sometimes plus rub them and she usually fell asleep soon after.

Adhrua - posted on 08/05/2010

my son who is soon going to be 4 has it sometimes ..the doc advised to give him calcium

Rebecca - posted on 08/04/2010

I see some really good answers here. Even one simular to my last one about potassium. I just wanted to add that hard rubbing helps & walking around on it (which does hurt for a few) will help work it out. Tylenol will help but it will take at least 30 minutes to start working. after you get the pain rubbed out you can use a good lotion or oil to massage the area even further & help her get back to sleep. A multivitamin is also a good idea to add to her diet. It IS real & it DOES hurt! The added potassium has stopped my daughters pains, even on an active day. And when she feels the pains coming on she will grab a potato & eat it raw. She is 17 now.

Rebecca - posted on 08/04/2010

My daughter has been going through this since she was VERY young & I too went through it as a teen. After seeing many doctors for my daughter one very bright Dr suggested uping her intake of POTASSIUM & it has been working ever since. A list of foods containing potassium is very easy to find online:
http://nutrition.about.com/od/foodfun/p/...
Some of these foods can be pureed & added to other foods like spaghetti & casserols so the child doesn't even know they have eaten something they normally do not like. Good luck. I hope this will help you as much as it helped us!

Flo - posted on 08/04/2010

My son now 7 has been getting growing pains off and on for 2 yrs. He is really lean and tall I talked to my friend who is a diatician who said to switch our milk to organic so he can get more calcium out of his milk.. She said regular milk doesn't have nearly enough calcium... I have found this to help.

Jami - posted on 08/04/2010

My son (age 6) has had leg pain for the last couple of years. When he started Kindergarten he wasn't sleeping well, because of the pain. We spoke with the dr and tried a few different things. After a couple of months, the dr told us that he had RLS (Restless Leg Syn.) He now takes medicine when his legs are in pain and it calms it down. They say that it runs in families and come to find out, my mother, father and grandfather all have RLS.

Kristin - posted on 08/04/2010

Yes I'm going through this myself right now w/my 4 year old daughter. It doesn't happen every night, but I can be guaranteed she will wake up at least once a week or so crying about pain in her legs or arms or both. She might be low on potassium and getting cramps, make her eat a banana or two or a potato or two at least couple times a week to help her boost that vitamin and see if it helps. If it still happens, I'd say growing pains. A dose of Motrin usually helps the pain subside. If you want to avoid being waked up, give it to her right before bedtime. HTH!

Marsha - posted on 08/04/2010

I had this problem in my teen years (more with the knees). My daughter and oldest niece both complained most of last summer. Both also had HUGE growth spurts, each growing 6 inches in less than 4 months. And YES, I'm sure of those amounts. My daughter's kindergarten teacher suggested rubbing alcohol. By the time I got that suggestion, we weren't having any more problems. I did give her tylenol. I also used Biofreeze too. It gets warm at first and then cool to soothe. Hopefully it doesn't last too long for both of you.

Deanna - posted on 08/04/2010

I had the "growing pains" as a child and now my children sometimes get them. What I have done that seems to have helped is this. Everyday each of my kids get a multivitamin. After or even before karate if they are starting to hurt I massage the extremity or area that hurts. Sometimes it will go away rather easy and sometimes I have to work on it for a while. Either way I always carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer and lotion in my purse. We have also had sudden bouts of cramping when out hiking and such so these bottles come in handy. Normally it is caused by a vitamin deficiency and these are simple ways to help your kids when they hurt. At home I bought some apricot oil and I massage my kids with that when they need massages while at home.
Not sure if this will help but it is an all natural approach that works.

good luck and god bless.

Belinda - posted on 08/04/2010

my daughter is now 17 but every now an again when she was younger she would get these pains, it seem like when she was going thru a growth spurt she would get them. pamol helped

Jennifer - posted on 08/03/2010

Try having her take a nice warm bath with epsons salt in it. Its what I have to do with both of my kids when they are going through them too. It helps. Right before bed to ease the pain and normally they dont wake up in the night with the pains.

Karen - posted on 08/02/2010

Yes, my son is currently going throug the same thing. He is 4 years old. He will go 2-4 weeks with no pain and then all of a sudden wake up screaming and crying and grabbing his legs. I do not see any redness or any other signs and he likes it when I rub his legs so I assume it's growing pains. Sometimes I have worried because it'll go several nights in a row and his sleep is very much affected.

I think the article you found is well-worded and makes sense to me.

What makes it hard as well is that my son is already a night-owl...a bit high anxiety so we all lose sleep when he's going through the pains at night.

Lee - posted on 07/30/2010

My daughter complained constantly from about 2 years until she was 8 years. I had asked doctors many times as I was getting frustrated and kept telling her just to deal with it as I also remembered having bad pains when I was growing up but I know I also was born without a muscle in my leg which doctors told my parents without I would never walk, yet I did but had great pain while growing up due to my body growing other muscles to compensate. So I figured she could not have been in as much as I was and I learnt not to complain and live with it. But after years of her crying even in her sleep I demanded doctors to have another look and test for every thing. It turns out she has arthritis in her legs. She was in real pain (not that growing pains are not real pain) she now swims every day and this helps her greatly. My friend also had her son complaining all the time for years so she demanded everything to be looked at as well, her son had a tumour in his thigh bone. If you think the pain seems to much make the doctors have a real look and not right it off, it most likely is growing pains but then it just may not be growing pains at all.

Crissy - posted on 07/30/2010

Hi Katherine. My younger sister used to complain of the same thing. My mother took her to doctor after doctor and everyone came to same conclusion.."growing pains". Come to find out, here she is 30 yrs old now and is getting ready for heart surgery..they say she has been having mild strokes her WHOLE life due to a significant hole in her heart. I know it sounds outrageous, but PLEASE, have her heart checked! If my mom would have done that for my sister all those years ago, the hole could have been repaired when she was little. She complained of leg pains from the time she was 3 until now..doesn't hurt to have it looked into.

Tina - posted on 07/30/2010

My mom used to get us a glass of milk in the middle of the night. Probably was a placebo effect, but helped my brother and I. I do remember that!

Jessica - posted on 07/30/2010

Just give her something for the pain and hold her till she can relax. I feel so bad when they go through this because there really isn't much you can do.

Kylie - posted on 07/30/2010

My son (6 at the time) also experienced pain down his legs but it was also during the day, so on advice from a friend I took him to a Chiropractor and he actually had an irritable hip. Which apparently is common in children around that age, but because it is also a common age for growing pains it can be left untreated. After 2 adjustments and a week of rest he was as good as new!

Riki - posted on 07/25/2010

my daughter deals with that as well but usually during the day. it went on at one point for almost 2 wks straight. i was getting worried and so i called the dr. AGAIN. it just didn't seem normal to hurt that bad. but it was and she did. nothing much u can do about it.

Candy - posted on 07/24/2010

My 6 year has been having these pain latly. I found placing a warm rice pack on the joints clams the aching down fast.The rice pack is easy to make. Take an old reciving blanket and cut it into a sock shape. sew it up all but a small hole. Fillit with uncooked rice. Sew close. You can put it in the microwave for a minute or less. It will stay warm longer the a wet towle and safer then a heating pad on young ones.

Varda - posted on 07/23/2010

Yes, I had this with my oldest now 21 when she was 12-13 and the same happened with my middle now he is 17.
Checked with doctors and those are growing pain, the boons just grow fast - there is time when all of a sudden the kids jut grow fast in 1-2 month, that's the time they'll have the pains.
Some of my best friends had it too with their kids.
So I would say pay attention to make sure this is the case for your child but I am almost certain this is, good luck and be brave it hurts the pain is there.

Fozia - posted on 07/22/2010

Yes, my 4 year old daughter has been suffering from them for almost a year now, almost always happens before bedtime, so I suspected she is faking to escape bed time, but they actually do go away after some pain gels, massage, cuddles. They are getting better now.

Sherri - posted on 07/22/2010

This happens to me still to this day it is poor circulation in my legs. I sadly passed this on to my boys as well. Rub there legs and give them some tylenol as soon as the tylenol kicks in the pain goes away.

Gena - posted on 07/22/2010

My son too gets these..so unfair!! If he is having a really bad time with it I will give a little Tylenol before bed to help him sleep. Isn't it ironic it wakes them up when because they are growing is when they need their sleep the most!!!

Katherine - posted on 07/22/2010

remembergetting them as a child too. Thanks for your responses!

Steph - posted on 07/22/2010

As long as she is fine in the morning, then it probably is just growing pains. Some massage should help or try advil if needed to help her get back to sleep.

If the pain continnues for a long time or during the day it may be something else.

Lisa - posted on 07/22/2010

I got 'growing pains' as a child, and my mum did too apparently. I've read things that say there's no such thing but I disagree LOL It was very real to me, and my children have had it too and I've used massage for them. A bit of lavender oil in a massage oil base or carrier oil (almond is good) is helpful, plus since they always happen at night it will help them sleep ;)

Katherine - posted on 07/21/2010

It's horrible!!!! I can't comfort her.

Monica - posted on 07/21/2010

Yes. My daughters have experienced this before. It won't last long.