How bad were your children's 'growing pains'

[Forgodsakethinkofthekids]

Just that really- my 5 year daughter has me a little worried as she has been complaining of sore legs for months- usually just one. Often requiring painkillers to feel better.
Now she has started to wake in the night quite distressed as her feet are very painful.
Did your children experience these types of pains and were they ok/resolved easily?
Or could there be an underlying cause?
She is tall for her age and very slim. She had recently been needing to go to the toilet a lot and eating like a horse if that backs up the growing pain theory?

polter my whole body aches, like a fluey feeling if I'm tired - bizarrely mostly if I've been out of the house (so maybe a different kind of tired than the tired-but-relaxed feeling from slobbing out on the sofa, iykwim). I still get a vague 'growing pain' type sensation in my legs (and restless legs!) but nowhere near as intense as it was in childhood. I hope I'm not still growing - I'm 5"8 and 32 years old

try vit d supplements and epsom salt baths. its probably vit d deficiency really

I was neither tall nor slim, sadly.

Neither are my DC. But perhaps we are the exception that proves the rule

We used calpol & a bandage when my DD had growing pains. The bandage helped, maybe warmth or support or just in her mind, but it worked. Often just one leg would hurt. She's always been one of the smallest in her school year so not sure there's any link with height.

I'm average now Polter do have hypermobility though. Dd doesn't, she was checked when dc2 was diagnosed with it he's a shorty.

I have another form of ehlers danloss (not tall or slim). I had growing pains and they are horrible. My DS now has them. He is hypermobile too. We've had good paediatric Physio which helps and he uses orthotics too.

Definitely worth pursuing through your gp and ask for a different gp if unsupportive. The HMSA website have a really good section on children. Sorry on phone so can't link.

Professor a friend of a friend has a condition that means he's still growing in his 50's!

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26022378

Vitamin d supplements have research to suggest they reduce growing pains in children.

I'd say definitely worth checking out. I had mine dismissed as growing pains until I was 20 and pointed out I hadn't grown in years turned out to be pain from hyper mobility.

I had them as a child really badly. I can vividly remember the pain. Massage and painkillers helped. I developed arthritis instead in my teens. I do still get growing pain type issues at night, especially if I've done a lot of walking. It's quite different to the arthritic pain but still unpleasant.

DS2 gets growing pains badly now the poor thing. I give him painkillers and need to rub his legs for c. 15 mins before he can go back to sleep. He's getting better at telling if it's going to be a problem before it gets really painful so I can give him painkillers. I'm hoping he hasn't inherited the arthritis (the kind I have has a genetic component).

I can remember having them myself.

The only way I can describe it is like the dull ache you get when a broken limb is healing, (I've broken my arm before) and it was the same pain as the growing pains I got in my shins as a child.

I'm pretty sure I can only really remember it being bad at night but it was a few years ago now.

I was (and still am, obvs!) tall and slim!

not to panic you, but dc sees a specialist for a chronic bone condition that was dismissed by the gp as 'growing pains'.

the consultant says he hates the term, as it's often used by gp's to fob off and not send for referrals. he actually said there is no such thing as growing pains

if a child (anyone really) has pain without obvious reason (strain, sprain, accident, achey after unusual levels of excercise) that is recurrent it needs to be investigated, especially if it affects one leg more than the other.

Wow. Thank you all for your responses. A mixed bag- seems many people and their children have suffered similarly, however I will keep an eye out for it only affecting one side and see the GP if this is the case.

Mine were bloody awful.

Years ago (about 37 years ago) I used to babysit for a little girl who was 8ish and she was tortured by growing pains. The poor little thing would wake up with the pain and just cry and cry. Her mum and dad thought she was putting it on but it was obvious to me that she wasn't.

I told her mum and dad and they started to believe her. She was one of the skinniest kids I had ever set eyes on. She lived to tell the tale and has kids of her own. I often wonder if they suffered that pain.

I use to get them really bad as a child. I would wake up crying in the night because of them, my mum would have to massage them until i feel back asleep. If I remember correctly they got worse when I was about 5/6.

I had them badly and still remember the ache in my legs...especially at night. My younger DD aged 9 has them too....she's tall and skinny like me and she eats like a small man!

its awful how many kids seem to be getting these pains. why we dont routinely give vit d supplements I have no idea.