What are growing pains?
Occasional aches and sharp, throbbing pains are very common in children between the ages of 3 and 5 and then again between 8 and 12.
Kids most often feel growing pains in the legs, especially in the front of the thighs, behind the knees, and in the calves. They tend to strike in the late afternoon and evening and during the first hours of sleep at night. By morning, the pains are gone.
They can be mild or strong enough to wake your child up. Some kids also have abdominal pain or headaches when they're having a bout.
The term "growing pains" is misleading: There's no evidence that the pain is caused by growing bones. Experts don't know for sure what causes the pain, but it does seem to occur more often after a child has had an especially active day.
Growing pains are not a sign that your child is doing anything wrong or needs to slow down, however. Perfectly healthy children experience them. In fact, 25 to 40 percent of children have growing pains at some point, and they're slightly more common in girls than in boys.
How can I tell if it's growing pains or something else?
It can be tricky to tell. Children are sometimes thought to have growing pains when something more serious is going on, so be sure to talk with the doctor if your child has unexplained pain.
Growing pains generally last only about ten to 15 minutes, and they usually affect both sides of the body similarly (although not necessarily at the same time). The pain is usually felt deep in the muscles, not in the joints. Growing pains do not cause fever, chills, redness, swelling, limping, or joint pain.
Doctors make a diagnosis largely by making sure that nothing else is causing the pain. The following symptoms may indicate that something more serious is going on, such as an infection, a fracture, a tumor, leukemia,juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, or other joint problems:
- Pain is coming from one particular spot. (The doctor may want to do a bone scan to rule out a bone infection or tumor.)
- Your child has a fever along with leg pain, and there's no obvious source for his fever, such as flu symptoms. (A blood test can determine whether there's an infection.)
- He has a lot of pain in one hip, thigh, or knee—or has trouble putting weight on one leg or seems to be limping. (The doctor may order an X-ray to make sure there's nothing amiss with his bones.)
- His pain persists during the day.
- He doesn't want you to touch or massage the area that hurts. (If the pain is muscular, it'll feel good to be massaged. If something else is going on, though, it may hurt more if you touch it.)
What's the treatment for growing pains?
You can't prevent growing pains, but you can help relieve your child's discomfort with a heating pad or hot water bottle, massage, and the correct dose of acetaminophen or ibuprofen. (Don't give aspirin to your child. It can lead to Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal illness.)
It may help to do some gentle stretching exercises with your child each day. It may also help to encourage her to stretch while she's complaining of pain.
And if the pain is severe, it's a good idea to see her doctor to make sure there's nothing serious going on.