7 year old complaining of aching pain in one thigh

[theyoniwayisnorthwards]

7 year old DS has been complaining of an aching pain in one thigh that hurts when he bends his leg, he is limping and dragging his leg up the stairs . This is the 3rd day he has had it. He has been diagnosed with flat feet and wears insoles, he also had a very mild infection last week (slight temp and a cold). He says he doesn’t remember hurting his leg and the pain is not getting worse or better, just the same as yesterday.

I have managed to thoroughly freak myself out on google and now I want to take him to the local paediatric urgent care after school for an X-ray but DH thinks I'm overreacting. Can't get a same day GP appointment and our GP is well meaning but distracted and not very thorough. Has anyone else had a child with symptoms like this. What would you do? Would I be justified in bringing him in?

Caveat- I have no medical training!
After a mild infection a child can get irritable hip, this is minor and self limiting. What is google giving you- septic arthritis? If so that is unlikely and would be a lot worse already. The thing I'd watch is the thing I know most about and that's perthes disease. It often presents with referred leg pain.

I would give calpol for a few days and make him rest and see how he is by Friday ish.

Thanks, I called 111 but they won't give advice until he's with me and they can go through his symptoms. He's in school now but will call them again when I pick him up and see what they say. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid. Bloody google!

get him seen. after infection, could be irritable hip, or another kind of bone/joint inflammation.
he hasn't had a fall or other injury?

DS7 had this & we asked physio father of his friend the same age. He diagnosed (off record) growing pains. Bones grow & the muscles take time to catch up.

sudden onset without obvious reasons (fall, bump, unusual exercise), especially if one sided, should always be looked at.

I'm with brownelephant. It took 7 months to get a diagnosis when my son had perthes diease, it's easily misdiagnosed as growing pains or irritable hip but it's much more serious.

Thanks all, I took him into a and e, 3 hour wait and now he’s been seen and they seem to be planning to X-ray. Doctor mentioned irritable hip so hopefully that’s it.

L

How did the Xrays go?

hope all is ok

He’s fine, thank goodness. It’s a mild case of irritable hip. He’s off PE for a few weeks but otherwise he can go to school as normal and we’re to give him nurofen for the pain. My head was racing with awful thoughts of what could be wrong so feeling very relieved. I’m not normally paranoid about stuff like that but very glad we had it checked now. Thank you to all of you for your advice

He’s fine, thank goodness. It’s a mild case of irritable hip. He’s off PE for a few weeks but otherwise he can go to school as normal and we’re to give him nurofen for the pain. My head was racing with awful thoughts of what could be wrong so feeling very relieved. I’m not normally paranoid about stuff like that but very glad we had it checked now. Thank you to all of you for your advice

good to hear.
just keep an eye on it.
if he goes through a lot of ibuprofen, you can give meltlets. look up the mg dose for a child of his weight or ask a pharmacist (or here) to convert.

That’s good news. If it doesn’t improve please go back. We were told that my son had irritable hip at first so we didn’t follow it up straight away when it didn’t improve. His wasn’t irritable hip in the end, it was perthes disease. He’s ok now but it is something to be aware of.

I agree with sirius if not better soon, go back.
in my dc's case the 'growing pains' turned out to be osteolyelitis that has become chronic due to fobbing off by gp delay of treatment.