Have you heard about Growing Pain in Children?

Posted On February 7, 2018

Has your child ever woke up at night crying in severe leg pain? If yes, then can it be a growing pain? Growing pains are quite common in toddlers and kids between 8-12 years of age as shown in the studies.

I have never heard about these pains in children until my toddler had one. She would cry in pain at the end of the day, usually at the night time which would last until midnight.

It would happen quite often whenever she’s more energetic, up and running all day and skips her naptime most of the time. So, as a parent, we thought, the reason behind the pain could be because of her extra mobility than any other days.

So, whenever she has a pain, we would give her oil massage and offer her extra nutritious food than regular days. She acts normal the other day as if nothing has happened.

According to our relatives, it’s because she might have calcium deficiency or lack of enough nutritious meals. I doubted myself for being careless too soon to be true. I guess all the Mothers blame themselves when anything goes wrong with their child.

So, I took her to GP where she was examined and checked for any inflammation on her leg muscle, any deformation and any temperature. Everything was fine and there was no sign of any abnormalities. So, what was the problem?

There were some questions that the doctor raised regarding her leg pain, such as:

whether she wakes up in the middle of the night crying for the leg pain?
does the pain occur only on her active days?
does the pain disappear in the morning?

As these symptoms were familiar to us, we agreed to it. The doctor said it happens to the children on their active days when they use their leg muscle more than any other days. It is called “Growing Pain”.

However, there is still no facts why does it happen. But, Doctors strongly believe that it is normal for toddlers and kids to have growing pain. It is, however, not linked to the pain when the children grow.

The doctors have suggested giving her ibuprofen, heat pad, stretching and massaging the legs whenever there is a pain. They assure us that it’ll pass away with the time.

As per the nutrition deficiency, there have been some studies done where the growing pain has been linked to the lack of healthy fats like omega 3 and omega 6. Likewise, the toxic from trans fats and high sugar diet has also been associated with it.

Nevertheless, with my daughter, I have always included healthy fats in her diet rather than pre-packaged trans fats. Even with her sugar and salt content, I have restricted them quite often in her diet until she was 2 years old.

However, I have increased her milk intakes and also included more fruits and vegetables in her diet than before. I hope it might help her to outgrow them.

However, as a parent, I’d suggest every parent to watch out for the signs such as red or swollen leg, limping while walking, high temperature and the pain that didn’t stop even in the day then go and see a Doctor immediately.

Otherwise, you don’t have to worry about it anyways. Kids tend to be active and playful all day; don’t limit their playtime because of the growing pain. Simply take care of them by massaging and stretching their leg, give ibuprofen if necessary, offer them extra nutritious foods and also I’ll add an extra point here; to put them in a comfortable shoe.

Thanks for reading.