My daughter is 5 years old and she wakes up 4 nights a week around 3 am screaming that her legs hurt. She has been to the Dr. for this and she told us that kids go through growing spurts wich cause growing pains, some kids have more pain then others. She sugested that I give her some Tylenol before bed and it should ease the pain, but I have had it with giving her medicine! I feel she is too young to be taking medicine every night. We rub her shins as she cries herself to sleep and I just wake up exhausted for work! It breaks my heart seeing her in pain and there isn't much I can do. Do any of you have any ideas on what to do???
Thank you for your answers!
My daughter used to have growing pains really bad, we were up massaging every night. Someone told me to give her more bananas, so one night when she woke up i gave her a banana and she fell back to sleep, then i started giving her one every night before bed, worked as good if not better then tylenol.
this is interesting: http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/50/59...
I don't have much for suggestions on how to prevent it. During the spell though, I've always found massage and a warm bath to be soothing.
As for the tylenol, I understand you don't want to drug your 5 year old constantly but it's just a temporary thing to get her past this. I would totally do it, especially since the doc has OK'ed it. It's very short term in the grand scheme of things. Good luck.
My grandchildren have suffered from this as well. It is heartbreaking! I recall my grandson telling me one night after midnight that he was tired, but his legs "won't take a rest." I believe it's restless leg syndrome. I have had him get up in the night and take a hot bath - that seems to help. Also, one of those little vibrator/massagers work. My granddaughter would take one to bed with her and if her legs started bothering her at night, she would use the massager. She said it helped. Doctors don't seem to take this seriously because they're not the ones up at all hours massaging legs. I've also found that the more active the kids were during the day, the more of a chance of leg problems that night. Try the massager.
Both of my kids periodically go through this... and I remember going through it as well. It's incredibly painful. When we are going through it, we give them heating pads on their legs. It helps the legs relax and the warmth is soothing... they love it and fall right back to sleep. If it's really bad, we do give motrin... but that's only if we've been up twice reheating the heating pads... usually once will do it and they sleep soundly. We don't use traditional plug in heating pads (they scare me). Use the kind that you microwave for 1-2 minutes... they are long and cover most of the leg. I originally bought these for my neck... they smell nice and have a soft fabric cover. Whole foods and New Leaf (or stores like that) stock them regularly and they last forever. So it will cost you $20-30 initially, but then you are set. Seriously, these have saved us... and our sleep! Good luck!
I was child with this exact same problem. My mother and grandmother both told me to sit with my butt to a wall and put my feet way up in the air when my legs felt bad. This seemed to relieve the pain and take my mind off of the situation.I would do this until I felt better sometimes for almost an hour. I also would recommend warming towels in the dryer and wrapping her legs in them just make sure they are not too hot. Massaging the legs is a great idea but I understand the time issue with that. Good Luck!
Try giving her Tylenol before her evening bath and then let her sit in really warm water while it takes effect. The warm water on her legs will cause her circulation to increase there and that will bring the Tylenol directly to her legs where the pain is. You might want to try children's motrin. It is made specifically for muscle and joint pain and lasts longer.
Also, make sure that she eats plenty of bananas. They have lots of potassium in them and insufficient levels of this mineral cause leg cramps. When my dh was working building railroad tankers in Texas, he had to take potassium supplements every day to replenish what he would lose when he was working and sweating. If he didn't, he would wake up in the middle of the night screaming in pain (this is a 6'1", 200+ lb man) because of the leg cramps.
R., this is so hard to watch as a parent and harder on the child. We have a daughter that we put into dance to help her with this as she leaned to relax her muscels and to stretch them out-- it made all the differance. Our son grew 5 inches in a short time(well over 6 ft by 16) and went thru so many pains that we learned to have heat pads that we did in the microwave in his bed at night, we also used the type that many wear on thier backs or joints for pain that really made a differance a bit expensive but ever so worth it. But just the comfort of us rubbing the pain out really is what he said made all the differance to him mentally , often we did it before bedtime and that seemed to have relaxed the muscels enough to not have a problem the rest of the night. Massage is a great thing! I know we must have given some medication but none of s remember taking to much. Good Luck to you both.
i had the worse growing pains and remember my dad putting heating pads on my shins and rubbing them while signing until i fell asleep. very painful. good luck.
I give my daughter ibuprofen whenever she tells me she has growing pains. It's not all day every day, so I see no harm in it, and DH has done his research on it. Our family believes there's no reason to be in pain and if the medicine helps, then it helps. It's horrible to see our kids in pain, so I'm willing do to whatever is safe. My daughter has never needed more than one dose when it starts up.
I hope your daughter is through this spurt soon so she can get some good rest - and you too!
