4 1/2 Year Old Suffering with Legs at Night

Please have her iron levels checked. I have RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) and tried Benadryl, Requip, and just about everything you could think of until my doctor ran a blood test and discovered my iron levels were low. Now that I am taking iron, vitamin b, and vitamin c, and magneisium, in the appropriate doses it is AMAZING what a difference it has made. A good multi-vitamin, like Flintstones (which is what I take as an adult) might help. Also, there is very new research that indicates that RLS maybe linked to Celiac-Spru diease, which is the diease you have when you are allergic to glutten (the product found in wheat). If they are doing the blood test for iron levels, they can run it for Celiac-Spru. I am a mother of four kids myself, so I would not suggest putting your child through lab work unless I had a better solution to get te same answers. RLS can be painful and strange; it impacts every part of your life because you do not sleep well, as I am sure you are well aware. Best of luck to you and your daughter and I hope this helps!!

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Has anyone tried giving her a banana?
Did your docotr suggest bananas?

Try giving her a few tums tonight before she goes to bed.
Let me know what happens.

My co-worker had the same cramps in his foot. I usually get them really bad, but this tells me that my calcium is low.
Did they check her calcium levels or para-thyroid?

I have Hyper-parathyroidism. This is where the calcium is leaving my bones and going into my blood stream.

This is one of the symptoms of low calcium.

She could be just sensitive and going through growth sperts. Try the bananas & the Tums first and promise to let me know what happens tomorrow.

I take a about 5 Tums. So I would try 2 or 3 with your little one. Try 2 the first night and 3 the second.

J.

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C.,
I feel for you... my daughter was tormented with "growing pains". Thats what we call them. The pain seemed to be in the back of the legs behind the knee and in the calf area. My sons have them occasionally too, but it felt like it was constant with her. I understand that it is hard at night when you are so tired, but just remember to thinks about how they are feeling...oww. My daughter quit having them so often when she was 5 or so. like i said my twins get them every now and then. Their father and I got would take turns as to who got up with them. We would give them tylenol first and a couple sips of milk(which we told them was the secret to getting rid of growing pains) and rub their little legs until they felt better and fell back to sleep. I don't really have a super good secret to fixing them, but I hope I helped a little bit. good luck

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My brother used to have something similar when he was young. (Which was waaay back before RLS even had a name.) My mom used to take a towel, either a bath towel or hand towel depending on the size of your child, fold it in half and wrap it around his leg. She then secured it with masking tape. Repeat with the other leg. I guess this work by keeping a small amount of pressure on the legs and retaining heat. Hopefully this can help your little one.

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I had growing pains when I was little....very painful and not much you can do for them since doctors don't really know what causes them. I also had major leg cramps when I was pregnant.

Some things I did to help avoid them:
Drink plenty of water: dehydration can cause muscle cramps
Take a multiple vitamin: in case she is low on potassium or calcium.
Try not to eat salty foods, especially close to bedtime.

I hope this helps.

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Hi C..
My name is B.- a former sufferer of restless leg since I was a kid.
Email me at ____@____.com
I'll tell you- I was up - up to 5 times a night - poor sleep- went on some nutritional products for weight mgmt- and my restless leg sypmtoms subsided after 3 days much to everyone's surprise including mine.
I called my mentors- they didn't know I had it.
There are 3 types of restless leg- a nutritional def. type, a genetic type and a nerve system disorder type.
If your daughter happens to be one of the lucky ones that can be helped by nutrition, I might be able to help her too. It's worth a try.
I can't say too much more on this- considered advertising, but you can email me your number and I'll you back.
Or you can just email and I can email you more info if you don't want to talk yet.
I'm a 47 yo med prof who sleeps like a baby now, wellness coach now because of my great belief from this and no more migraines, and a mom of almost 7yo twin girls.

B. jarmoluk
verizon cell ###-###-####
____@____.com

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I haven't seen this in my children, but I have it myself. It is like a Chinese water torture. It drove me to extreme lengths trying to solve it without success for years. I developed depression because of sleep deprivation and the feeling of being out of control all the time. In a word, it was HORRIBLE.

I have a lot chronic pain issues so I take pain medications and interestingly enough, they take care of the RLS as well. I don't know what is safe for kids, but I would strongly encourage you to keep trying to find an answer. There is nothing worse than this problem in my experience. Keep looking for an answer for her.

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I would try all of the following:

Rule out nerve stress by seeing a Chiropractor. It could just be pressure on the nerves to her legs from the small of her back. Very common.

Rule out nervous system stress by eliminating all toxic things she may be eating: artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, corn sweeteners, and trans-fats (hydrogenated oils and fats).

Rule out vitamin overdoes or deficiency: Eliminate any mulit-vitamin she may be on and add in a calcium/magnesium supplement instead.

Once you have exhausted all of these possibilities, then consider looking into RLS.

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I don't have any experience with this, but I've read that putting bar soap in the foot of the bed actually helps restless leg syndrome! They don't know why or how, but there are testimonials that it works.

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