Has your child ever been misdiagnosed with growing pains?

[nemoni]

I've just spent the last year looking after a 9 year old child in daily pain. This started last spring and over the course of the year got progressively worse, and by December he was taking pain relief 3-4 times a day and still sobbing with pain at least once a day and every night. As a parent and a healthcare professional my experience and intuition told me something was wrong, and yet on a number of occasions more than one GP told me it was growing pains. After a series of frustrating GP appointments I ends up taking my son to A&E and finally started to get somewhere - and he has very recently been diagnosed with a benign bone tumour.

Over this time I have spoken to a number of parents whose have experienced - so I wondered how many Mumsnetters have a similar story?

I had 'growing pains' when I was at Primary school. It hurt like hell! Nothing came of it, I'm fine now. I wonder what it was if 'growing pains' doesn't exist?

'growing pains' is just a very undefined term.
as mentioned earlier, it might well be that growing hurts, but it's worthwile to investigate pain that's unexplained (injury, illness, strain, cramps) and doesn't go away on it's own.

Just bumping this, hoping those who commented with regards to jia may have some last minute advice for me. Dd's rheumatology appointment is this afternoon. We went back to the gps several times to see if we could start bloods etc early (especially as she was particularly bad with pain and rash etc) but they point blank wouldn't help . I have no idea what to expect this afternoon other than an allergy test. We are armed with photos, a few videos and a list and timeline of 'events'.

How we have survived till now I don't know, really worried that they will just label her with growing pains and chronic hives

Both myself and Dsis had growing pains as children in our knees and ankles. They continued into adulthood, for me on and off until I was told I had flat feet at 35! Since then they are not as bad as I wear the correct shoes but they still come and go.

However, my sister has suffered much worse with knee and back pain all her life. She has had many scans/examinations and was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis (shes 45 now). The docs just kept fobbing her off and now our DM feel incredibly guilty for listening to the docs who said growing pains.

Yes!! After constantly going to doc with "growing pains" it turns out my son had advanced hodgkins lymphoma and it has spread to his bones. Currently on month 3 of chemo. X

My daughters leg pain was dismissed as growing pains or irritable hip. It turned out to be acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Bone pain should always be investigated.

Lola and lab so sorry to hear that. I hope treatment is going well for both dc.

I don't know how to feel about our appointment on Monday. The consultant seemed really dismissive, wasn't interested in the photos/videos of dd despite the private gp/regular GP we saw saying they were incredibly strong images and supported their thoughts on what was going on with dd. Consultant didn't believe it was JIA, she did note that dd has enlarged liver, but said it was quite common. Consultant has requested bloods to test for 'everything'. They have been done so we'll see what if anything comes back. If they are clear she won't see dd again. Of course I want them to be clear but I'm worried for dd that she'll be in pain and covered in rash with temps for no known reason

Thank you Runwayqueen. My daughter will have been finished treatment 3 years this Septmeber and is very well. Hope they get to the bottom of your daughter's pain.