Growing Pains - Dallas,TX

Calcium with magnesium and D will help a TON to prevent the pains! you can find chewable supplements for children. the other thing that will help in the moment is stretching out the muscle. this will ease the cramp better than rubbing or anything else. I speak from personal experience. I have always had leg cramps and growing pains.

My son did the same thing and both my grandmothers, my mom and a good friend who has 8 children told me to give him a Banana when this happened. It always seemed to work they said the potassium helped the growing pains? May not work for everyone but it has for us with both kids
Good Luck

I had this issue when i was 6 years old..grew 5" in one week. I will NEVER foget that pain!!! I had stretch marks on my hips after that.

What my mom did for me was give me a pain reliever before bed. Would have me soak in a hot tub (as hot as is safe for a child) and then she would rub my legs down with alcohol. Heating pads also helped.

It is a sad part of life and so not looking forward to that with my very tall 3 year old.

I was curious enough about your problem that I researched it a bit on line. The doctor's reports all agreed that the title of growing pains does not really mean that the pain comes from the bones lengthening or growing. And they just do not know. Some recommended over the counter pain pills.

But one of those sites said that a chiropractor solved the problem for their daughter. Here is an excerpt from that:

"...Jacqueline and her parents went to the chiropractor's office. After they had recounted their story of all the tests and evaluation that had been made for Jacqueline's problem, the chiropractor made a careful and thorough evaluation of the young girl's spine. Within a few minutes, the chiropractor announced that Jacqueline had a problem in her sacroiliac joint and that this could possibly be causing referred pain into the young girl's leg and around the area of the knee. After explaining the possible link between the sacroiliac joint and Jacqueline's "growing pains," the chiropractor proceeded to lie her on her side and make a gentle finger-tip adjustment of her sacroiliac joint. The adjustment made an audible "click" and the treatment was over." Slupposedly, it never returned.

I have also read about calcium and potassium supplements, or food containing same, for leg cramps.

I encourage you to get a second opinion. Although it is probably simply "growing pains", it could be a symptom of something more serious. I'd try to figure out, with his help, if the pain is in a muscle or in a joint. He's old enough to show you where it hurts and to describe it to you in his own words.

If it is a muscle cramp, then water, bananas, gatoraid, etc, should help. If it is joint pain, then get the specific joint or joints checked out by a pediatric orthopedic specialist. It is is deep bone pain, that needs to be checked out too. Even small children can suffer from bone and joint problems which respond well to treatment. It's not likely, but still possible, that he could even have a fracture or partial fracture. There are many things that can cause muscle cramps, but if this is persistent than a blood workup to check for various other medical causes is in order.(Things like a thyroid disorder, diabetes, or parathyroid disorder to name a few.)

Finally, if the pain is associated with severe cramping of the calves, if he has very well defined calf muscles, consider have him checked for muscular dystrophy. Although it usually is considered a hereditary disease, my sister's son has MD with no familial history of the disease. Usually MD is diagnosed in while boys are very young, however when there is no family history of MD it can be overlooked. My nephew had problems similar to the very short description you gave from a young age, but was not diagnosed until he had already begun school, which is unusually late for a MD diagnosis.
The cause of your grandson's pain and discomfort is probably benign, but if it persists, I encourage your daughter to have the doctor delve deeper to find the cause. In the meantime, make sure he is eating a well balanced diet, with LOTS of fluids (even mild dehydration can cause a host of symptoms, muscle pain and cramping among them), ibuprophen to combat inflamation, benadryl combats inflamation too, and may help him to sleep. Try alternating a heating pad on a low setting with some cold packs. And have him do some GENTLE streatching exercises followed by massage when he goes to bed.
Hope this all works out for ya'll.
Peace,
S.

Banans, more water, and we give our children magnesium when they have growing pains. We try to eat foods that are good sourses of magnesium, such broccoli, on a regular basis. This seems to help as well. Here is a link with a list of high magnesium foods:

http://www.algaecal.com/magnesium/magnesium-rich-foods.html

Blessings,
H.

We had the same problem and I even took our son to an orthopedist. When everything checked out, our doctor suggested we increase our son's water intake during the day and that seemed to help. When it gets really bad we put an ice pack on his legs. I would say increasing his water intake took care of about 75% of the problem though. Hope this helps.

I grew up with leg pains and so I know first hand that they are real. My dad was very sympathetic because he had them too. When I had my son he too got these wonderful things and the way I handle them was passed to me so here goes. If my son had a very busy day out playing or on his feet all day I would give him one baby Tylenol. If you wait for the pain to come it will take a good 30 mins before it passes with Tylenol. If a leg ache does happen and you are not prepared you can give Tylenol immediately then wrap the leg or legs with ace bandages and prop them on a pillow. You can use a heating pad on them as well and that helps the throbbing to go away. I know this sounds crazy but pressure works. You can have him lay on his belly and you can sit on his legs. If you are to heavy then just sit with bottom beside his legs and put your legs across them. I promise this feels really good the more pressure the better.
Good luck!!
C.

Try giving him some bananas. Maybe there is a lack of potassium.

I am not a doctor but does his legs hurt during the day as well? Does he have any other problems? Do his legs hurt when just sitting there? or playing around?
If he has other problems TAKE HIM to the doctor, there is serios diseases with other things you would not think that are related to legs but cancer is one of them. I do not want to scare at all and there has to be other problems as well, the doctor told me the eys is a clue as well, but just take him and ask the doctor.

My son had normal cramps as well but I had a friend who had the worse.

K.
http://ezbaseballcamp.webs.com/

My pediatrician recommended baby aspirin or baby tylenol at bedtime for my daughter and it really seemed to help her sleep. Good luck.

Hi,
I too had sons that grew up with pain in the legs at bedtime for years and was told "they were growing pains" however, I would apply heated hand cloths to the legs just before they went to bed and the pain would subside and they would go to sleep with no problem.Just a few semi-hot towels to the hurting areas and it was all better. As time went on so did the pain. Currently they're 18 and 20 years of age 5'9 inches tall and 6'2 inches tall. A little TLC goes a longgggggggggggggggggg way trust the plus!

Both my husband and myself remember some severe growing pains and our children take after my husband's tall family and are big boned. They're also taller than most their age and suffer growing pains as well during growth spurts. At present, our just turned 4 yr old is growing so rapidly we literally notice she's changing almost nightly. Her face shape-her height, the way she moves..it's crazy fast growing.

TYLENOL!!! Dose your grandson according to his weight because growing pains are legit and it WILL help. Also-you can use moist heat to sooth as well. I highly recommend you make some rice socks.

Take two tube socks-such as those from your husband, pour in any uncooked rice you have on hand until the sock is filled up to 3/4ths of the way or half full. Tie the end in a knot but leave some room in the sock so that it's like a bean bag and is floppy-NOT hard. Then microwave for a minute. Check by holding it-if uncomfortably hot then wait for it to cool a little before placing on your grandson wherever he hurts most be it knees-shins, thighs or feet. He can also move these where he wants. The rice give off an odd smell but it is moist heat and will not burn or dry out his skin like a heating pad can.

Also-push calcium at your grandson. The growing pains are literally occuring in his bones. Calcium will help his body. When my girls begin experiencing growing pains it is always worst at night and we have found that a large glass of milk at bedtime does seem to help and extra calcium in cheese, yogurt, and the like doesn't harm them at all (as long as we're careful to not 'plug them up' and balance out the extra dairy.

Rubbing helps a little but as soon as you stop the pain is right back and you can not very well rub all night long. Hope these suggestions help! To put a good twist on it-try measuring your grandson against a wall/growth chart and marking where he is. You can check daily or weekly. He'll be surprised when the mark begins to move and realize the pain he's going through really does mean he's growing. :)

Oh, and the whole bananas thing-I never thought of that but then my family adores bananas and we all eat about one a day so maybe that has been a help.

Personally speaking-the medical community is not always the best source to turn to. I myself have been dealing with bone deep pain since I was 20. I have been diagnosed/labeled as having "Fibromyalgia" and the above tricks are helpful to me too for bone pain, joint pain and muscle pains. I have finally discovered my own personal recipe for feeling normal again without the pain or fatigue but it's taken me 11 years to do so. I can share what has helped me but then I'm not actually growing up anymore-just trying to prevent growing wide. LOL

Try having her eat a banana a day. I have always heard that the growing pains or leg pains at night were due to a low potassium level. I don't know if that's true or not but with myself and my kids, the bananas did help...

My son has the same thing. In fact we had an episode last night. I heat up a "bed buddy" (fabric bag with corn) for two minutes and give him Motrin. The warmth helps him relax the leg adn the Motrin takes care of the pain.

My son used to get those pains in his legs. He had them up til he was about 10 (at least, that's about when he started being vocal about it). The doctor told me the same thing - it's just growing pains. We used to say a prayer 'Jesus, take the pain away' and that helped some, but he was a growing boy and that was part of his growing experience. If I remember right, the doctor said I could give him some children's tylenol, but never said anything else. That helped some, too.
If you're still concerned and the doctor hasn't - ask him to do bloodwork to make sure that there is nothing else going on...no underlying cause of the leg pains - my son didn't develop his leg pains until he was around 7 or 8.

M. - Ditto what many others have said...tylonol, massage, and bananas.

What I did want to caution is that rubbing alcolhol on a child or baby's skin is VERY dangerous! My mom once told me to do that when my 1st had her first very high fever; not knowing any better I did. Come to find out from our Pedi once we were able to see her a few hours later that the rubbing alcolhol can be absorbed into the blood stream, causing alcolhol poisening or worse even death! Please don't do this any more!!

I don't have time to read the other responses so you may have already received this advice. He needs potassium. Whether you get him to eat more bananas (this would probably take 1-2 weeks to work at 1 banana a day) or give him a potassium supplement. My daughter (now 7) suffered from that after she stopped eating so many bananas. We started her on the supplement and she has had no more problems with it. We don't even have to give her one a day anymore because her potassium supply isn't depleted. Good luck!

I massage my daughter's legs at night...

Growing pains are very real. All 3 of my girls went through it. Really the only thing you can do is to give him a dose of tylenol or Motrin before bed and at least it will help him sleep. It does pass and shouldn't last very long.

My son is 7 and has been having growing pains since about 3 years old. It seems to just be a part of what they have to go through. I would give him tylenol to help the pain. I know it's hard to see them in pain like that and there is nothing you can really do about it. He still has the pains every now and then, but not quite as severe as they were around age 3-5.

when i was growing up with growing pains, my grandma rubbed me down with vicks vapo rub or icy hot... it really helped.

Try bengay and a heating pad. My mom used to do this for me growing up.

Definitely try some motrin. If that doesnt work some bananas like others have suggested. If the problem still persisits definitely get a second opinion. I hope he feels better! Oh, and definitely dont do the rubbing alcohol on him...That is a definite no no these days! Doctors dont recommend that anymore.

My son did not start growing pains unitl about age 5. But when they happen, we give him Motrin and rub his legs.

My son suffered with growing pains and what worked best for us was putting him into a very warm (as warm as he could stand) and soak for a period and taking tylonel. There were times that we would be up every night soaking and then sleep several nights without problems. His always seemed to attack the most during the late evening or wake him.

It's just a part of growing up. You can rub their legs when they wake up, or just give them some tylonel to hope it doesn't wake them at all, but this too shall pass!

I wonder if your boy is sleeping on them wrong. After we go to sleep, we toss and turn and don't realize if we're straining or compressing a muscle until it hurts. You might want to consider a nuerologist visit, too.

Well, once a dr told me that my daughters leg pains were due to toxins/infections leaving her body after she had been sick, and getting stuck in her hip/leg area. I am not sure that is entirely true, but she was in more pain after having been sick, so it made sense. I am now in the process of researching food allergies/intolerances esp. to gluten and dairy, as I have symptoms that are similar. I have had luck with a warm bath before bed, motrin, heating pads, and massage when it got bad. I will say that as she has gotten older, its gotten better. (Or she is just more used to the pain, cuz I know she still has pains at times.) I would do more research into diet and maybe even try chiropractic care too! It is tough to deal with for sure! ~A.~

My advise to you is to find another doctor. I had a dr. friend tell me once to never ignore leg pain in a child. Not to scare you, but my neighbor's boy complained for years of leg pain and the dr. ignored it. The mother finally took him to a physical therapist who recommended an MRI and it turned out that he had a tumor. If it had not been for the PT he may have lost his leg or even worse. Get several opinions if you have to, but do not stop until you get an answer that satisfies you--follow your gut. You know that this is not typical since you have raised three kids yourself.

- Make sure he is getting plenty of water during the day.
- Tylenol 30 minutes before bed.
- Warm bath and massage with lotion right before bed.
- Upon night waking you may want to walk him around until the charlie horses subside.

Poor baby! GL!

Hi M.,

Growing pains are normal for children; but it may not be growing pains; it may be something simple as a lack of vitamins and minerals. I suggest a simple daily supplement of Incredivites. I have attached a video for your grandson to watch and you can order these at the website below.

video:
Shaklee Kids
http://content.shaklee.com/shaklee/flash/show.php?video=Kids

Website: http://www.shaklee.net/choice-wellness

Hope this helps

My daughter has leg pains periodically and we were told that they were growing pains. I did get a second and thrid opinion and was told the same. When they come about, we give her bananas. Someone had suggested that an increase in potassium would help. She is now almost 10 yrs old and she knows that when she is starting to have growing pains to ask for a banana. I will then increase our stock and she will make sure that she increases her intake. It does help her.

Please take him to a chiro. Lifetime Family Wellness in Hurst specializes in Kiddoes and prenatal chiro.http://www.family-wellness.com/. I have been taking my children 3.5 and 1.5yrs old since birth.

Hope this helps
Mertees

Hi M.. I hope I can offer a little advice that works for my children. I have a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. My daughter has had growing pains off and on for several years and now my 3 year old is starting. They will wake up in the night crying "my leg hurts". What works best for us is a dose of Childrn's Tylenol or Children's Motrin/Ibuprofen. Before the medicine has time to kick-in, I usually rub their muscles to try and get them to relax and within a few minutes, they are back to sleep!

M.,

I would take your grandson's leg complaints seriously. I don't believe that it is due to "growing pains." There is a reason why his leg hurts, and it needs to be addressed. You have some good advice, that it can be low potassium levels, to drink plenty of water, etc. Sometimes when I do not get enough calcium, my legs hurt!! So maybe it is a calcium issue. Does your grandson drink enough milk? Like someone else said, what if it is as serious as a tumor? Please take him to the appropriate doctor to get an MRI or whatever. Kids usually do not fake their complaints (especially 3 year olds - when they are teenagers, that is another story, but a 3 year old is not going to fake complain about something). There is a reason why his leg hurts, and it is your responsibility (I assume you are raising him?) to get to the bottom of it. Don't ignore him, and rubbing his leg or putting alcohol on it is not going to help!

It's an old wives tale, but it has worked for many generations in my family!!! So what the hoot.....it won't hurt to try right!?!?! For generations in my family if any of the kids suffer from growing pains our parents would tie twine (kinda like kite string) around our ankles. You just tie it on loose, kinda like an anklet. Leave it on and honestly, my kids are all parents and they use them on their kids and it works!!! They all had it on when they were younger. Good luck!! You can try the banana, massage, tylenol and all that, but I stand by the string, it has worked in our family for generations!!
I am a grandmother of 10 - +11 will be here in September and all my grandbabies that experienced growing pains have had the strings on. I love this site too!!

a friend of a friends little girls was about 2 and started haveign leg pain and got to were it hurt to walk. She was tested and they found leukemia. I am not trying to scar you and yes, most kids have growing pains, some worse than others and some handle better than others, i just wanted you to know. They thought it was common until she stopped wanting to walk. Good luck!......my mom wrapped my legs in warm towels ans sometimes used deep heat. Deep heat is probably not safe now but then it was ok. The warm towels still feel good (: