4yr old DS can't walk this morning ????

[BigusBumus]

Hello, My son will be 4 on Christmas Eve. He has had a bad cold for the last 3 days with a spiking temperature which goes down with Nurofen / Calpol. But he's OK when dosed up - still eating, playing etc.

This morning however, he got up and can't walk and is crying with pain when he tries. Says his legs hurt a lot. I sat him in a warm bath and gave him some Nurofen (Ibuprofen) but his pain hasn't gone away. He is playing on the floor right now, has eaten 2 bits of toast and seems cheerful enough, (not poorly as such, just coldy) but still will not attempt to walk, only shuffle on his bottom.

I'm sure its just cold-virus related, but I would have thought it would have gone away with the Nurofen?? Its been 3 hours now.

(I stupidly Googled it - Meningitis. But he would be be really poorly then right? Not building a lego farm and chuckling at CBeebees?)

I immediately though menigitis. The problem could be if he is having regular medication, that is masking other symptoms.

I would get him to the doctors asap.

there's something children can get in their hips when they have had a virus - for the life of me, I can't remember the name - but it affects their ability to walk. But I would definitely take him to be checked out.

Doctor/A&E now.

Jings, take him to A + E straight away

I would get to the docs, but don't worry too much - my 7 year old DS had very painful legs in the night a couple of weeks ago and could hardly walk. There are some seriously horrid viruses going around at the moment.

My DS1 used to get this with a fluey cold/fever. He would absolutely insist he couldn't walk - and he would have been the same sort of age. It was just the effect of the virus - so don't panic, but maybe ring the GP/practice nurse.

This was the cause when my DS was 4 and had the same symptoms.

I would take mine to hosp, asap.

I immediately thought meningitis.

Not all symptoms have to be present. Even if it isn't - which it probably isn't - it must be quite painful for him. :(

Hope he is better soon.

'Safe than sorry' springs to mind

I would call and get him checked out to be on the safe side.

That said, ds2 (6) went to the GP with the same symptoms yesterday.

He's been spiking a temp up to just under 41 degrees over the weekend and had awful leg pain, so bad he was crying.

GP checked him over and said she thought its was flu - as in proper flu, not a heavy/bad cold.

She said the surgery was inundated with similar cases with almost identical symptoms and the out of hours service couldn't cope with their caseload over the weekend and had to call in reinforcements. She also said that her gut feeling is it could be swine flu and that most people that thought they had it last year probably didn't.

With reference to the leg pain, she said that its common to get leg pain with fevers of over 40 degrees. Not heard that before, but ds certainly had similar leg pain when he had pneumonia, which is why we took him straight to the doctors to get checked out.

She advised a few days of rest and keeping up with the calpol, ibuprofen alternation, but to call straight away if he seems to be getting worse rather than better.

Sounds strange and no harm in getting him checked out but from all the doctors I have spoken to,a meningitis sufferer presents himself as a seriously sick child. They do not eat, play and laugh, however much painkiller they have been given.

omg i would be down to a&e immediately"!!

it may well be just a virus, but why take the risk? not being able to walk is a fairly extreme symtom of whatever it is he has.

they would much, much rather see a healthy child than miss a very sick one

please take him

probably too late to be of any use but my dd was diagnosed with transient synovitis when she was about 1. It is the same as irritable hip though I think

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_synovitis

would be best to take your DS to hospital as they may want to do blood tests and check his white cell count as he may have picked up a bacterial infection which could become serious.

My DD was back to normal within a few days

My DD had the same thing when she was 2. Caught a virus from someone at a party, raging temperature and would not put any weight on her right leg. Rang Doc, took her to A&E by which time she had a rash on her stomach. Turned out to be a virus which had settled in her hip. Thought it was bizarre at the time, but since then have heard of loads of people who have viruses settling in strange and very dangerous places, like brains and hearts. So actually quite glad it was her hip. Hope your son is OK.

Dd2 had a virus a few days ago (very high temp and vomiting), she couldn't walk for 2 days and i struggled to sit her up, she slept for almost 3 days and is now fine. I now have it and i have pains in my arms and legs and have been in bed for 2 days, there seems to be some nasty viruses doing the rounds. Hope he's ok, if you are worried get him hecked out (we did with dd2).

Hope he's OK. :)

DD's just had this. Temp, unable to bear weight, crying that her legs and hips hurt.

She's absolutely fine now. Doc said it's all over the place and a nasty virus that's affecting a lot of people but definitely right to get it checked out.