Possible growing pains in 4 year old DS

[MadameGazelle]

DS1 has woken up a few times over the last 3 or 4 weeks complaining of aching legs, tonight he said his legs were aching so much it was making him want to cry. I have just given him a spoonful of ibuprofen as I thought this help relax hi leg muscles and ease the pain, but I also wondered if this could be growing pains? If anyone can offer any advice or ideas on what else it could be they would be gratefully received. TIA

If it is Growing Pains (and it sounds like it, very much like my dd1) then ibuprofen is the right thing to do anyway.

Hope he feels better soon.

Which bits of his legs are painful?

I give my DS ibuprofen as well. Growing pains often have him in tears too.

Oh for a magic wand that would make it all go away for them.

vit d deficiency is v common in children (and prob adults) and can cause these kind of pains. you can buy vit d + calcium supplements or give cod liver oil capsules. I think magnesium deficiency can also cause these kinds of pains. we never bother blood testing in the uk but up to 80% of kids (those with dark skin particularly at risk) can be vit d deficient and the symptoms cease when high dose vit d taken (these are prescribed by gp after blood test so if seriously worried you could always ask gp)

Funnily enough my 4 year old DS has recently started complaining of similar pains. I had wondered about growing pains but wasn't sure whether they were old wives tales or not

thanks everyone - Neenook, I thought growing pains were old wives tales too but my FIL says he can remember growing pains when he was little. He seems to have settled after the ibiprofen. sanfairyann he takes multivitamin every day which has vitamin a, c, d and fish oils in so unsure if it could be down to vitamin deficiency, thanks though.

*BelleDeChocolate" - he was complaining of pain in his calves and was drawing his legs up to his tummy, then stretching them right out again. The ibuprofen seems to have done the trick.

Ds gets this sometimes, leg rubs are good and ibuprofen.

great about multi vits so maybe not vit d altho a child dose to 'ward off' deficiency is apparently 280-400 units (7-10 micrograms) daily of vitamin D (so patient.co reckons anyhow)so it's worth checking the supplement - some are a bit rubbish tbh

My dd 3.8 gets them too, they are definitely not an old wives tale, I had them when I was young & a my friends ds's dr confirmed that they do indeed exist.
I give dd leg rubs & give her another pillow in bed to put under her knees.
She seems to get them for a week or two & then she'll not have them for a while.

Agree growing pains are not an old wives tale - our ds's physio told us that the medical profession used to be dismissive of them, but it is now realised that they can actually cause quite a lot of pain.