Leg pain - talk me down

[Dinkydonut1]

Does anyone else's toddler complain of leg pain? My little one has been complaining on and off for the last couple of weeks. Not severe enough that it interferes with his activities but enough to make him mention it and his bottom lip quiver. I am going out of my mind with worry. Doctors said growing pains, obviously, but you read horror stories. I'm freaking out!!

Bump

My DC regularly gets leg pains at night time, it wakes her up and I always put it down to growing pains. A dose of calpol and a cuddle and it goes away and she goes back to sleep. I’ve never worried too much about it, maybe I should be more concerned. She is fine though most of the time. I read once that as well as growing pains leg pains can be linked to not drinking enough so I try and make sure she drinks enough in the day.

Toddler DD had it and because she’s pale (ginger) and had a low grade fever on and off, GP wanted to investigate to rule out anything sinister. She did say it would likely be nothing to worry about and usually is just growing pains. Cue blood tests and trauma for dd, but she was perfectly fine.

She’s now 6 and still gets leg pain occasionally. She has hypermobile joints and some weakness in her muscles, so it currently having physio, which I hope will stop it all.

I totally get why you’re worried OP, I was a wreck waiting for the blood test results. Unless there are other symptoms, though, it’s unlikely to be anything to worry about.

Thank you! I'm a natural worrier anyway so whenever I notice anything abnormal my mind goes to all kinds of sinister scenarios. My friend was telling me one day her little boy limped and complained of leg pain and she didn't even think anything of it, meanwhile I'm an absolute wreck over here 😭 the pain seems to be very intermittent, with some days not complaining at all. It doesn't wake him up in the night either. It's a total mystery!

Both my kids have suffered with what the doctor describes as growing pains since they were around 2, intermittently as you describe. Often complaining of sore legs mainly at night but sometimes in the day also, sometimes screaming in pain. For us Calpol usually resolves it fairly quickly, if this is not the case for you I would insist on further investigation. Otherwise I would try not to worry to much, if it was anything sinister it would be more consistent I think.

The oldest now seems to have grown out of them or sleeps though then at least.

They are often associated with hypermobile joints so that may be something to keep an eye on as they get older. The pains do seem to correlate with more active days, sessions at the trampoline park are a frequent trigger for example so I make sure the Calpol is in easy reach on those nights.

Thank you! Thankfully I haven't even needed to give calpol for DS's pain as it goes away as quick as it comes. It lasts less than a minute which makes me think it's a sort of quick sharp shooting pain that he gets.

Does he walk on tip toes a lot? My DS2 is doing it a lot at 3 years old and DH did it when he was younger. I was reading up on it as DH remembers having physio about it all and it can cause a tightness in the muscles. Nothing to worry about but stretches from a physio can help apparently. I've noticed DS2 complaining of leg pain so going to get that looked into.

@Bakingwithmyboys yes he does now that you mention it! He is autistic and walks on his tiptoes a lot. That makes perfect sense!