Something not right with 3yr old

[BethMck]

I need some help please, my 3 year old son has had a pain in his right knee for over a month (first day 17th dec) it has been going on every day since, intermittent pain and inability to bear weight on his right leg, some days he will just have a slight limp now and again and say his knee hurts, sometimes he will ask me to pick him up because his leg hurts, gps and a&e doctors aren't concerned as he otherwise looks totally fine. Over the past 2 weeks he's complained of pain in his left leg as well as the right and twice hes said his right arm hurts too.. other symptoms diarrhoea, looking off colour and saying he's tired and needs to lie down on the sofa to rest, these symptoms come and go every couple of days, he has had a blood test that came back normal apart from low in vitamin D. I have read alot of stories from parents who said their child was completely healthy and initial blood tests were normal before other tests were done and turned out to be cancer. Obviously this is my concern and I've expressed this to doctors who dismiss me by saying he looks very healthy so I wouldn't worry about it being anything serious, he has been referred to Pediatrics 2 weeks ago but I still haven't received anything from them with regards to an appointment. Went back to the gp today to discuss the new pain in his left leg and right arm, he wasn't concerned and said to just wait for the pediatrics to get in touch he did mention juvenile arthritis as a possibilty. Everyone around me is telling me I'm just worrying about nothing and the doctors are making me feel like I'm being stupid. I really want all the tests possible to rule out cancer. But I'm being told if doctors were concerned they would be rushing him through for tests. My issue is I had a cousin who was told her symptoms were likely nothing serious and for months she was denied tests, when she finally had tests done she was diagnosed with cancer, due to the delay in diagnosis she sadly lost her battle a year later and passed away at just 22 years old. AIBU in thinking I am being fobbed off and do you think my anxiety is taking over? Should I trust the doctors and wait for the pediatrician to contact me or should I keep pushing for tests? I feel like I'm going crazy, is this an actual parental gut feeling or am I looking into this too much and getting paranoid??
So sorry for the long post. Please help a mama out xx

God OP you seem to be taking two steps forward and one step back. Fingers crossed you get somewhere with the other blood test and/or Paediatrics 🤞

I misread, apologies. There is a pathway but very very few children are referred via it as they generally present to different services

Low vitamin D and low Iron are both prevalent in people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, as are joint injuries and stomach upsets. It took me until my late 30s to get diagnosed so can be easier to miss in people without more obvious joint hyper mobility. My DD has it and really struggled at that age with tiredness.

Nobody can diagnose over the Internet but Leukaemia has a very definite profile that is almost always obviously from standard bloods tests such as FBC and U and E s . The GP should be able to rule this out quickly and the path lab processing the tests would have called GP if they had seen this . Solid tumours are unlikely to hurt in different places without any red flags in the blood profile . I would assume GP asked for standard inflammatory makers .CRP and ESR are likely to be raised in juvenile arthritis, this may be the case , hence GP mentioning this . Any renal problem that has systemic symptoms would almost certainly show up in the blood tests . Having said all that your son us clearly unwell and it is reasonable to push for an urgent paediatric review . If symptoms get worse attend A and E and he will be seen by a paediatrician.

Thank you all, it's been a long month!! I have put all his symptoms together and thought right this is serious.. it could be that he's got some kind of allergy or just having a bad winter with bugs and coincidentally injured his knee, or it could be something but not necessarily cancer! I think with there just being that slight chance I won't be settled until I know for sure it's not that.. I think Leukemia would have shown up in the cbc so I feel reassured about that, the doctor said in some rare cases there are some tumors that may not necessarily show any indication through a blood test but would show on a scan. He said if this blood test comes back normal he would be reassured and I should too, and then just wait for the scan to see if that reveals anything, if peads review his notes on friday I'm hoping they will just book him straight for a scan quite quickly. My issue is the doctors don't want to refer on the 2 week pathway because they aren't thinking all the other symptoms are connected to the leg issue but the other symptoms have only been happening since the leg started.. I just have to tell myself that surely if it was bad the bloods would have been off in some way so that's a good sign! I'm sure it will turn out to be fine, it's crazy what our heads do to us when it comes to our babies isn't it! Going off the replies on here there are a whole range of things it could be, but I'm taking comfort in the fact the important things in the cbc were normal. It's just so bizarre I've never experienced anything like this with my other 3 children! These kiddies know how to keep us on our toes don't they 😂

Apologies , I haven't read every reply but coeliac disease would also be worth a mention to GP/ paediatrician . This can cause tiredness , joint pain, loose stools and low Vit D, due to poor absorption of nutrients and the autoimmune response.

This is included in the bloods he has requested, testing for coeliac and other autoimmune diseases, so hopefully everything will be ruled out with this test, he'll be having the iron and vitD and hopefully that will help with the symptoms, then see if the scan shows anything

Definitely do not remove gluten from his diet ahead of the tests as you csn get a false negative .

It all seems to be moving in the right direction now, OP. How are you? How is your son doing?

Are you already giving your son D supplements? It can affect people very differently.

It definitely is, i think things just took much longer than necessary when they sent me to minor injuries during the 2nd visit to peads a&e.. I'm doing ok thanks, I've really stressed myself out with it all to the point I'm absolutely exhausted, not sleeping properly and all I could think about was getting him sorted asap but I've done all I can and I'm probably worrying about nothing, I'm trying to relax abit about it and think actually it's probably just something daft that is easily fixed, it's the waiting that drives you insane! My son is doing ok he's still full of a cold that just doesn't seem to be shifting, still gets the rashes and still has the pain and limp which is worse with exercise but he's still bouncing around and acting his usual wild self so just have to wait to hear from the pediatrician

I gave him some but he hated them it was hard work getting him to have them, then the a&e doctor told me all his levels were totally normal so I didn't give him any more. GP said Iron and vitD just about on the low end and has prescribed him something that includes iron and vitD

Well OP, as you say, you’ve done all you can do for now. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be a combination of different minor things that just coincidentally happened at the same time.

Have you tried the gummy vitamin D or iron for kids, he may be more inclined to eat them if they taste nice?

This is what I'm thinking, it has obviously worried me with everything happening together but there is every possibility it is just a coincidence the symptoms are happening at the same time! I was giving him some that were Strawberry milkshake flavour, he liked them until he chewed it up then he would spit them out 🙄 I went to the chemist to pick up the ones the doctor prescribed yesterday and they said there's nothing showing on their system of a prescription for my son, my goodness, so have to chase that up tomorrow now.. I'm hoping I will hear from peads next week and just get everything over and done with and ruled out!

A little update...

The pediatrician reviewed my sons notes on Friday and I received a phone call at 8 this morning asking me to bring him in tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed we will get sorted quickly now! What a farce it was to get him that urgent referral, I'm just grateful the pediatrician has agreed to bring him in straight away! Fingers crossed we have some answers soon 🙏

That's great news, @BethMck I hope all goes well tomorrow 🤞🏼

Good luck for tomorrow.

Good luck, hope you can finally get some answers 🤞

Really pleased you've finally got a paediatrician appointment tomorrow. Hope it goes well. Good luck to your son. Sounds like he's been amazing having all the blood tests so far, not easy at that age.

He has been a little trooper the past 2 months bless him, absolutely whizzing round the park on his scooter the other day and ended up with a limp but he still didn't want to leave the park! Unsure what their next steps are but at least we'll know by tomorrow afternoon!

Wishing you all the best this morning xx

I really hope it all went well this morning.

Hoping for good news OP. And some peace of mind for you.

Thought I best update as I've been keeping this post updated! He had a LOT of blood taken today and an xray of hips and right knee! Was told I would get a letter with results but I got home to a phone call asking to call her office to discuss his results which gave me a massive fright! Xray was all fine but she said there were 2 lots of results in his blood that were raised quite high and indicate "a long standing" infection in his body, so we are unsure what but she suspects Strep, she's prescribed antibiotics for 2 weeks which will hopefully make him better and he's due an ultrasound of his knee in the next couple of weeks! So I think we can relax now and hopefully simple antibiotics will have him back right as rain and sort all these dodgy symptoms out once and for all! Thank you all for your well wishes, you really have all been great on here! Much appreciated

Oh excellent news @BethMck. Hopefully the antibiotics will sort him out and finally an ultrasound on his knee. You can breathe a sigh of relief now x