{"id":2584,"date":"2019-09-19T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2023-08-09T04:12:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T11:12:29","slug":"help-for-growing-pains-in-your-childs-legs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/help-for-growing-pains-in-your-childs-legs\/","title":{"rendered":"Help for Growing Pains in Your Child\u2019s Legs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What are growing pains? When I was a resident training for a couple of months at a famous orthopedic hospital, I also had a 4-year-old son who complained some nights that his legs hurt.<\/p>\n<p>So one day I asked the chief of staff that very question. She told me that as a child she too had mysterious leg pains in the evening, and \u2013 unlike many of her colleagues \u2013 she knew they were real. Her words gave me a great deal of relief. Most pediatricians I asked seemed to think these \u201cgrowing pains\u201d were created by my son to avoid going to bed because he missed his mom!<\/p>\n<p>What doctors call benign nocturnal limb pains of childhood can cause achy or throbbing pains in the calves, or behind the knees or the thighs. The pain tends to affect both legs, and occurs in the afternoons, evenings before bed, or after sleeping an hour or two.<\/p>\n<p>The affected limb appears completely normal \u2013 it\u2019s not red, bruised, or swollen \u2013 but the muscles may be tender when touched at the time of pain. The pains are gone in the morning and throughout the day. Affected children aren\u2019t otherwise sick.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a bit of a mystery what causes about 10 to 20% of kids ages 2 to 12 to have these leg pains. Since growth \u2013 even at its most rapid phase \u2013 occurs super slowly, it\u2019s unlikely to cause pain. Also, these pains occur when kids are actually in one of their slower phases of growth (they don\u2019t occur during the faster growth of puberty and they\u2019re most common in 4- to 6-year olds).<\/p>\n<p>However, we do know these pains aren\u2019t just a behavioral trick to get out of bed! Instead, the pain is thought to be caused by muscle fatigue. Growing pains tend to occur after busy, active days.<\/p>\n<p>What helps?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stretching.<\/strong> This can really make a difference! Try to get your kid started on a stretching program, both before any sports activities and before bed. You can have fun doing this together as part of your bedtime routine.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Massage.<\/strong> Even when the muscles feel tender, some gentle rubbing helps most kids.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Heat or cold.<\/strong> Try a heating pad or a cool pack. Some kids feel less pain with one or the other. A warm bath can help the pain and calm a child down before bed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Medicine.<\/strong> Sometimes a child may need some acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) to calm the pain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When to see your doctor? It\u2019s okay to email, call, or come in anytime you\u2019re worried about your child! Be sure to see your pediatrician if the pains occur:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After an injury.<\/li>\n<li>On one side or in one specific place.<\/li>\n<li>In a joint.<\/li>\n<li>During the day and affect your child\u2019s activity.<\/li>\n<li>With a limp.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also contact the doctor if the pains are associated with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Visible changes like redness or swelling.<\/li>\n<li>Signs of illness such as fever, rash, weakness, decreased energy or appetite, or weight loss.<\/li>\n<li>Dark, brownish urine especially after an active day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Growing pains go away as mysteriously as they start. There\u2019s unfortunately no treatment to make them go away faster. But they cause no long-lasting problems.<\/p>\n<p>And be assured they\u2019re also not caused by a child wanting to stay up later because his mother is working long hours!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are growing pains? When I was a resident training for a couple of months at a famous orthopedic hospital, I also had a 4-year-old son who complained some nights that his legs hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[444,315,314,122,446,445,102],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-issues","tag-benign-nocturnal-limb-pains-of-childhood","tag-childrens-feet","tag-feet","tag-keep-kids-healthy","tag-leg-pain-in-children","tag-non-specific-limb-pains-of-childhood","tag-sleep","ages-grade-school","ages-preschool","ages-toddler"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1691579549:8"],"_edit_last":["8"],"slide_template":[""],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_custom_body_class":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["60"],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["default"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["106"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["289"],"_thumbnail_id":["2587"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw_text_input":["growing pains"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":["growing pains"],"_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":["78"],"qode_seo_title":["Growing Pains in Children"],"qode_seo_keywords":["growing pains, leg pain in children, limb pain in children"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.760000000000002;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.379999999999995;}"],"wpfp_favorites":["17"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1691579549"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2591,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions\/2591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}