Growing Pains? - Benicia,CA

I agree about the Motrin/Tylenol advice. Also, if she is getting leg cramps (Charley horses), you may want to feed her a banana once or twice a day. Sometimes a lack of potassium can cause leg cramps, and bananas have postassium in them. Also, and I do realize this sounds insane, I've heard that putting a bar of soap (any brand) under the sheets down near the legs will get rid of most leg cramps. No idea why this works, but I know several people who have tried it and claim it works. (I know, I know, crazy - but it's cheap and if it works, how easy is that?!)

C.,

Make sure she drinks enough water- you can get leg pains from being dehydrated. Also, maybe a relaxing bath before bed would help as well as the motrin other mom's have suggested. Good luck!

Molly

sounds like growing pains for sure. they can be really painful for kids.

Hi C.. As a test, you could try giving her Motrin before she goes to bed. Motrin alleviates swelling and pain. It also lasts 8 hours versus Tylenol's 4 hours. I would do it a few nights to see if there is any change.

Is she a restless sleeper and move her legs alot? The other thing it could be is restless leg syndrome. Motrin or Tylenol wouldn't help with that so it's something to think about.

My five year-old goes through the same thing whenever he has a growth spurt. Motrin before bed time seems to help. Massage helps a bit, too. Sometimes the source of our son's leg pain is actually in his upper leg but refers down to his calf. We need to be sure to massage the area where the pain is originating as well. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that your daughter will be able to tell you this (most adults cannot differentiate between the source of pain and referred pain), but perhaps you can look up pain referral patterns and trigger points on the Internet.

Hi, my 5 year old has been having the same thing going on. I would have been in the dark but my husband said he had the problem a lot as a kid. He will rub her legs until she falls back asleep. Not a big deal but a bother none the less. Good luck.

I had growing pains when i was little and it really sucked. Try motrin. You might want to do a little streching to befor bed. That helped me. It was fun to do yoga with mom in my room before bed to. If niether of those work call your doctor to see what he/she says.
A.