Every once in a while, my eldest son will complain that he can’t sleep because his legs hurt. We will inspect his legs and other parts of his body to make sure that he isn’t ill or injured, and we come up with nothing. There is no redness, swelling, bruising or other outward signs of something wrong. Joints don’t make any noise and skin is in intact. It isn’t even time for school or a hated chore. What then could be wrong?
When I was little, I remember my parents calling these growing pains, a mysterious pain, usually in the legs, when nothing else appears to be wrong. While my parents just shrugged it all off, I’m from a different generation and tend to be more worried about such things.
So do growing pains actually exist? And if they do, how can you treat them?
Most medical opinion out there will admit to the existence of growing pains. Lise Christensen, Emergency Medical Physician at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, states that “Growing pains are what physicians call a ‘diagnosis of exclusion.” (http://www.etch.com/Publications/PR_Growing%20Pains.pdf) In other words, when everything else is ruled out regarding the pain, then the conclusion may be that it is caused by growing pains. Your pediatrician would officially call these growing pains, “non-specific limb pains of childhood.”
Some experts believe that periods of rapid growth can cause these pains, while others do not. Barbara Ostrov, division chief of pediatrics and rheumatology at Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center says, “Actually, over the years nobody has really been able to understand what causes these symptoms and why it hits this age group so specifically. We do know that growth itself does not cause pain.” (http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/growing.html)
So what do you do if your child has growing pains? What tends to work is to gently massage the limbs. This is a big clue that the pain is growing pains and nothing else. For injury and illness, massage will generally aggravate the pain not lessen it. Some studies have shown that getting enough calcium can reduce growing pains, and my personal experience supports this.
Has your child ever had growing pains?
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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