Growing Pains - Minneapolis,MN

My son is only 3 and he regularly wakes up crying because of the pain in his legs. ( And has been for a year or two now) Tylenol helps and leg massage. It really isn't too young because they are growing. I am hoping as often as my son wakes up he will be 6 feet tall :)

I had growing pains in my legs as a child also. My mom would rub Watkins Linament(sp?) on them and it helped. So, when my daughter got growing pains I did find a watkins rep and bought some. It is what she asks for now when she gets her leg pains. Hope you find something that brings her comfort. I remember the growing pains to this day and they are not fun. Good Luck.

My daughter had this when she was 8. It was in her knees and it would be so bad she could not walk. We went to the doc and they took xrays just to make sure nothing else was going on. It was due to the bone growth. I got her a knee strap, available at Walgreens or CVS or online, and after a few weeks it was much better. She doesn't even know where the strap is now since she didn;t need it again. Also, she has trouble swallowing pills. Mortin makes a childrens chewable and a liquid so this is something else you can offer her.

"Growing Pains" are really common - they are usually caused by muscles but can also be from the epiphyseal plates (growth plates).

There's some good information about it, how normal it is, and when to call your pediatrician at both of the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growing_pains

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/cond...

i have had that issue with my daughter when she was little. sometimes cold pack helps, along with some childrens tylenol or advil. if you are still concerned i would talk to my doctor about other solutions. heat can sometimes help lessen the pain too. my daughter would wake in the morning with the pain in her knees and would sometimes even cry...i would put her in a warm shower or bath after giving her childrens advil. tylenol for her didnt help with the pain as well as the advil did. when the pain wasn't real bad i would sit and rub the area that would ache. but nothing is fool proof,nothing i did always worked every time.

I didn't know so many people had these pains too! They caused me musch distress as a child. When my son complained of similar pain I rubbed geranium essential oil on his knees and the pains stopped right away.

I find that what works best is the same trick that sports players use. The idea is warm up and cool down. Warm compress in the morning and whenever she will be active. Cool compress whenever she will be resting.

When this happens to my daughter, I usually massage her legs (especially right behind her knee) . When she has these pains, she is usually very tense right there. I use both of my thumbs , one after the other, and gently work out the kink. She usually feels better almost instantly.

Hope this helps!

I had bad growing pains when I was in high school (I was growing an inch a month) and for me it felt like the pain was really in the bones, not muscles. The only treatment I was given at the time was ibuprofen, which did help. I'd talk to your doctor since it is so severe and just to rule out any other causes, see if they have any suggestions and also ask about the calcium/magnesium supplements -- that sounds like a good idea.

You may want to consider testing for a gluten intolerance. More and more research is listing that as an early sign. Good luck!

Mother of 6 (1,4,7,8,9,15) Yes, our seven year old has them durring growth spurts and has since he was fairly little. My doctor rccomended a warm bath and ibuphren before bed which helped a lot but we came up with a stretching game for before be and first thing in the morning. This helped some more but there were still nights where he would wake up crying so I would give him another dose and and have him stretch again annd we were usually good. Now they are very few and far between and not even durring every growth spurt so there is light at the end of the tunnel :)

How old is your daughter? I have a 9 and 7 year old. Last Summer my 9 year old had cramping in her legs. Our Doctor said to make sure it was not a potassium defficiency or dehydration problem then said that we could offer a baby asprin to help with the pain.

My two year old daughter also has weird pains in her feet/shin area and sometimes her lower back. She is in the 105th percentile for height at her age, so at her wellness check last week I asked the Dr. if it could be growing pains at her age. He said most definitley, since the pain "moves around" and does not stop her from doing any normal tasks there isn't a big concern, but he said that if it ever got to the point of her stopping normal activity that we would want to bring her back in. I would think, like some of the other ladies said below, that you would want to make sure that it wasn't something else by bringing her in for an x-ray or whatever they would do. Then when you knew it wasn't something worse, you could make her as comfortable as you can with some of the suggestions they gave below.

My 14 year old daughter is now 5'10" and she went through horrible pain. I had never experienced this but my husband, who grew 9 inches over a summer, said it was one of the worst pains he has ever felt. I used a cream called Pain-a-trate that actually was healing as well as anesthetic. I rubbed it in and massaged it for about 10 minutes and she could sleep at night and I didn't have to worry about the cold packs falling off. We don't take a lot of ibuprophen or tylenol so the cream was a good fix for us and she was usually okay until the next bout started the next night....

Hope I helped!

M.

My daughter (10) and son(8) had and still sometimes has the same problems with 'growing pains." What I found what works best is a chewable calcium magnesium tablet (berry flavored). I would have her take a few before bed routinely. That seemed to help. Here is what I used. I even use them when my calves get all knotted up. I think it is related to calcium deficiency.
http://kellyk.myshaklee.com/us/en/products.php?sku=20146
Hope this helps.

i would agree that it really is growing pains...my littlest now 4 1/2 had them at age 3-4yrs...i would massage and use tylenol. if you get concerned, i would check with doctore.

Hi A.
I had those terrible as a child too.
Turns out I have restless leg syndrome-- I'm one of the lucky that its nutritionally based not at the neurological level.
As I aged, I found if I found the missing nutrient that day- I could resolve it.
Trial and error.
Then my friends put me on a program for my shape after twins-- even though I used my own supplements but I wanted to support them after 2 years of me trying to regain my flat tummy at 41 (btw I have that at nearly 50 as a result- yea)
BUT my point is-- the supplement shake they provided in 3 days-- made my restless leg symptoms subside!!! That's why I stuck with it honestly.
And- I found out if I don't drink it within 1.5 days they are back-- so it's a quick fix for me for health and that so I switched over. It has a nutrient in the right balance/form for me to either absorb or just to get.
We have it for kids too-- if you're interested in looking at it more- email me ____@____.com
Write momsource in the subject line.
I"m on call this week and will reply as soon as I'm able.- busy week in OR.

Tell her to hang in there.....

B. J

About me: 49 yo perfusionist, wellness coach now also doing a nationwide online biggest loser for up to $599, wife, mom with 8 yo twin girls.

HI there, my son will be 4 soon and he has had these now and again, he'll say his legs hurt or his arms hurt. It's just something they go through. I've given him milk, bananas, and motrin to help. It's hard to see them hurt and all you can do is comfort them and help them strecth it out or rub the area that hurts. If it gets worse though, I would contact your dr, if it's that often.

we have used cranial sacral therapy and it has worked wonders from growing pains/growth spurts to helping him recover from the croup. in the minneapolis area we have seen angel phillips and maria boda. you can look them up on line. i can't say enough about how effective it has been. i also have some friends who have used it to help with night terrors. good luck!

My daughter had them horrible from 3-4 years. She went to bed nightly with a dose of ibuprofen. and tylenol at other times. We did the massaging and warm baths. And lots of tears! She will occasionally get them now (11), but they are either not as bad or she's just used to them.

I remember getting severe pains in my legs as a child. I would wake up in the middle of the night crying in pain. My dad would rub Bengay on them really fast and it would get nice and warm then the cooling menthol would kick in. It worked for me. Not sure why I got these so bad considering I'm only 5'4"!

I can still hear the shrill screams.... K seemed to go through periods of time, a week or so, and she was in pain every night. We would give her Motrin a few days in a row before bed and it really helped. We might try to let her go without Motrin after a couple of days and then only give it to her if she woke up Once she got through the stage she could go for months and then she would wake up in pain again. It can be so bad that I get worried that maybe she has some bone desease that's eating away at her legs. I know it's silly but the pain is so bad for her. Her pediatrician said there's no such thing as growing pains...I see another doctor in the practice now.

Motrin is an anti-inflamitory drug whereas Tylenol only treats pain. the Motrin reduced the inflamation in the bone where the nerves were irritated so it had better results.

I agree with the idea to test for gluten intolerance; I'd even go so far as having a Naturopathic Doctor test for all food allergies/intolerances, because different food intolerances and allergies have lots of different symptoms.

My daughter had a lot of foot and lower leg pains (still has, actually; she's 10 in April). We know she is going to be very tall, so are expecting that she will have a lot of growth spurts. She did get tested after my husband and I discovered we have casein allergy and soy and gluten intolerance; she has a mild glulten intolerance. If she stays away from eating gluten, her leg pains stay away as well.

You could also try giving your daughter bananas more often--she might have a potassium imbalance, which will make your feet and legs hurt with cramps/pain. Also, when my daughter starts complaining about her feet and ankles hurting we've come to learn to check her shoes. We've found that either they're too small or the support cushioning is out; if we buy her a new pair, the pain goes away.

But I definitely would check for food allergies and intolerances. When she's in her middle age years and knock on wood, not sick, she'll thank you for finding out what foods don't like her and for staying away from them. I didn't discover my food problems until in my 40s; not an easy task, getting my health back in order.