Growing Pains

Your child wakes up crying in the night complaining that his legs are throbbing. You rub them and comfort him as much as you can, but he continues to whimper.

Sound familiar? Your child is probably experiencing growing pains

Did you know that up to 25-40% of Children Experience Growing Pains?

Growing pains generally strike during two periods: in early childhood among 3- to 5-year-olds and, later, in 8- to 12-year-olds.

What Causes Them?

No firm evidence shows that the growth of bones causes pain. The most likely causes are the aches and discomforts resulting from the jumping, climbing, and running that active kids do during the day as the pains often occur after a child has had a particularly athletic day.

Signs and Symptoms

Most children report pains in the front of their thighs, in the calves, or behind the knees. Although growing pains often strike in late afternoon or early evening before bed, pain can sometimes wake a sleeping child. The intensity of the pain varies from child to child, and most don't experience pains every day.

Growing Pains always concentrate in the muscles, the joints appear normal whereas in the child suffering a more serious disease, the joints appear swollen, red, tender, or warm.

Diagnosing Growing Pains

One symptom that doctors find most helpful in making a diagnosis of growing pains is how the child responds to touch while in pain. Children who have pain from a serious medical disease do not like to be handled because movement tends to increase the pain. But those with growing pains respond differently - they feel better when they are held, massaged, and cuddled.

Growing pains are what doctors call a diagnosis of exclusion. This means that other conditions should be ruled out before a diagnosis of growing pains is made. A thorough history and physical examination by your podiatrist or doctor can usually accomplish this. In rare instances, blood and X-ray studies may be required before a final diagnosis of growing pains is made.

Helping Your Child

Some things that may help alleviate the pain include:

• massaging the area
• stretching
• placing a heating pad on the area
• giving ibuprofen or acetaminophen (Never give aspirin to a child under 12 due to its association with Reye Syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease)
• studies show that in 90% of cases, treatment with foot orthoses relieves the majority of growing pains

Back to Children's Feet

Health Watch

Alert your podiatrist if any of the following symptoms occur with your child's pain:

• persistent pain, pain in the morning, or swelling or redness in one particular area or joint
• pain associated with a particular injury
• fever
• limping
• unusual rashes
• loss of appetite
• weakness
• tiredness
• uncharacteristic behavior

These signs are not due to growing pains and should be evaluated by the doctor.

Although growing pains often point to no serious illness, they can be upsetting to a child - or a parent. Because a child seems completely cured of the aches in the morning, parents sometimes suspect that the child faked the pains. However, this usually is not the case. Support and reassurance that growing pains will pass as they grow up can help them relax.