Toddler age 3 limping 2 weeks

[BethMck]

Hello, sorry for the long post.

Just looking for a bit of advice please.. my ds is 3 in a week and started limping and complaining of pain in his right knee 2 weeks ago, he kept randomly saying ouch and then would refuse to walk or straighten his right leg, I took him to the gp after 4 days of him doing that and a random nose bleed that scared me.

Gp checked him over and said there was no sign of infection or illness etc, ds had no temperature and was walking fine and appeared to be in no pain when being examined, the gp said to take him to a&e to see the pediatrics for tests if he did it again at all, he continued doing it for the next few days, it would come and go and ds seemed absolutely fine other than refusing to walk on and off and saying his knee hurt, so I took him to a&e, the Dr there didn't seem bothered at all, said he is well so doesn't need an xray or blood test at that point and if he is still doing it in a week bring him back and they will run tests.

Fast forward a week and ds is still doing this on and off every day, it has become more often throughout the day, so from first doing it, going from doing it once or twice a day to now where he does it up to 5x in a day.. no other symptoms. I've heard of irritable hip and know this is the likely cause but surely the symptoms he has been having would be getting better rather than worse over the last week?

I am getting quite worried as I know painful limp in one leg can be something more serious! I'm going to take him back to get checked over on Monday and hopefully they will do an xray and blood test.

Has anybody else had their LO have Irritable hip that got worse after 2 weeks but then started to get better? How long did the pain and limping last for?

Anxiety is starting to creep in, I need some answers but when Dr's don't seem concerned it's frustrating 😔 thank you. X

Op I’m a firm believer in tackling kids stuff like this head on. I would be back to A and E asap and demand a full and urgent check.

good luck

This is how my son presented initially. In his case it was perthes disease. That’s something that needs an X-ray to diagnose or rule out.

Same for mine with Perthes. The earlier they know what it is, the better the long term outcomes. I initially took him to the GP with videos of him walking strangely and falling over randomly and him complaining of pain. She suspected Perthes and referred to orthopaedics but it was diagnosed at A&E before the appointment came through in the end. He had intermittent pain and generally a good range of motion throughout, but his hip still disintegrated and was only diagnosed when they x-rayed it on the third A&E visit due to intense pain and non weight bearing.

It took about 6 months and a few X-rays/ doctor visits to diagnose mine too. If it could be perthes you might need to be a bit pushy.

Mine is hypermobile so his range of movement was reasonable despite X-rays suggesting it should be a lot worse!
How is he now?

Thank you all for this, I presumed that because it comes and goes and there is no pain when being examined then there must be no need for an xray of his hips, I will be going through the gp as I don't think it warrants a&e. The a&e we took him to does have peadiatric department but they don't seem interested tbh, I think I'll ask my gp to refer for bloods and xray, I'm just worried that it's going to take so long for appointments, if they had just xrayed and taken bloods when we were in a&e we would have been a bit closer to some answers! Appreciate all your replies and experiences to give me some ideas on what to discuss with the gp! Xx

Thanks for asking, he's doing really well. He was discharged after three and a half years of monitoring and restricted activity and now at 8 is very active, parkrunning and playing football and tennis regularly. They haven't ruled out a hip replacement when he's older, but for now it's all good. It was so hard trying to stop a 3 year old jumping in puddles and going on bouncy castles though. We missed several birthday parties because of it, especially the gymnastics and soft play ones. How is yours doing?

@Duckduckgoose78 mine was diagnosed at 4, discharged after about 3.5 years. He was very active afterwards- football, hockey etc. he’s now 20 and not particularly active! Nothing to do with his hip, he’s just a lazy student. I’m hoping he’ll get a bit more active soon as he’s got quite heavy which isn’t great for his hip. The growth plate did close earlier on that side but that hasn’t caused any issues as yet.

Can you afford a private appointment? If so, this is what I would do.

I can't understand why they are faffing around and having you go back and forth. A simple x-ray would rule in/out some important things and would not break the NHS bank, nor do him harm.

This is exactly how I'm feeling, I was thinking ok he's not in pain when the joints are moved so maybe it's not necessary to xray but then I'm thinking it's such a quick, simple and painless procedure that can rule things out, I thought the second time at a&e they would do an xray and blood test as they told me to go back 'for investigation' if it continued! I'm trying to get him seen by the gp today and hope he will fast track a blood test and xray! It's stressing me out so much because there is no explanation and it's not improving after 2 weeks and taking painkillers! I will stress to my GP how worried I am and that I need these tests to rule out the bad stuff first so I don't want to be waiting weeks for an appointment, the only think making me feel ok is that his health hasn't deteriorated since this has been happening, he seems fine other than the intermittent pain and weight bearing problems!

My GP just told me he needs to be taken to see the peadiatrics at a&e! Both times I've been to a&e they have told me he looks well and is walking fine go to your GP to be referred for a blood test! Why can't the gp print out a letter for me to take to a&e to request blood tests and xray to make life simpler and so we aren't being pushed from pillar to post! My son is fit and healthy so sitting in a&e for 4 hours to be told he's fine is not what I want to be doing every couple of days!! I'm feeling so frustrated now. Every day for 2 weeks he is refusing to weight bear on and off multiple times a day but is otherwise perfectly healthy and because he's fine nobody seems to want to do anything, very strange!!

How frustrating. Is your local hospital a paediatric hospital or a proper paediatric a&e with paediatricians based in a&e? Has the gp referred him to paeds so you know?

In the south west there are no proper childrens a&e staffed by paediatricians you have to first see the a&e doc or gp and then are referred on to see the paediatrician the gp can do this directly.
I posted earlier the link to the mnemonic about children's limping it might be worth going through it and seeing which has been ruled out and ask why they are not concerned about the others.
make a note on paper to show the clinician how often you are giving pain relief and how often the limping is occurring. Is it worse morning/evening etc.
Like others have mentioned take a video of the limping.
You can't just demand an X-Ray and blood tests there has to be a clinical reason. Perthes and malignancy can't really be ruled out without these I would ask how they have ruled these out.
Transient synovitis/irritable hip which is the most common and what we all want it to be is generally improved with pain relief and lasts 7-10days post viral illness.

Thank you, appreciate this. My hospital has a peadiatric department within the a&e department, when I went the first time we saw a pediatrician who advised to bring him back in 7 days if symptoms persisted which we did, the lady that assessed my son sent us to minor injuries instead of pediatrics and he told us to go to gp for blood tests.. my gp told me today to go to a&e and stress that he needs to be seen for urgent testing xray and bloods.. he has me booked in for Thursday where he will send an urgent referral but he can't do that until Thursday.. the gp and peadiatrician guessed at irritable hip as he had been snotty when the leg issue first started, it's been ongoing for 2 weeks now. They haven't offered xray or bloods but as I say the gp is going to send an urgent referral on Thursday, does anybody have an idea how long I'd be waiting for an appointment? I'm starting to get worried and really don't want to wait another 2 -4 weeks for tests!

My nephew had this. Started off with a limp which worsened following very active days. Said the pain was on his knee. He’s a bit older than your son.

A few have mentioned this, I will mention it to the gp on Thursday and ask for this to be ruled out as well. Very frustrating that whenever he has been seen he is able to walk run and jump perfectly fine although I have shown them pictures of how he holds his leg and videos of him refusing to stand on the leg. Hoping we will be referred quickly so we can get some answers

Insist on it being properly checked out - CT, MRI etc. My friend did after her 14yo had persistent back pain and this week he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma. There's a tumour the size of your palm on his spine. It would have been so easy to be fobbed off with he needs rest, physio etc.

I don’t know if this helps but I have refused to leave a and e before with my child until she was seen by a psychiatrist. (She is anorexic and I was desperate). She was seen. The consultant said he agreed (privately!) the NHS is broken, utterly broken and my child’s life was at risk.

Oh how awful, i really hope he is given the all clear asap!! This is what worries me, I would much prefer them to rule out the bad stuff and work down to the simple things than do it the other way around. My gp seems to want the same and is going to refer for urgent tests so I will mention my fears about cancer, 2 of my cousins were fobbed off, told its unlikely to be sinister, one passed away shortly after diagnosis at just 22 and one who is thankfully in remission at just 4 years old, his only symptom was a strange looking bruise at the bottom of his back that wouldn't go away, took them 4 months to do a biopsy and get a diagnosis! They say it's unlikely to be serious but it isn't impossible and needs to be ruled out asap

I thought this but I felt so stupid being there in the first place because my son was perfectly fine, playing in the waiting room, walking absolutely fine and was happy, not poorly at all so I felt that it's not an accident and it's not a life threatening emergency, the nhs is absolutely crushed, I do think my GP is taking it seriously and will make sure he gets the correct tests to rule things out.

I really hope your daughter is doing ok, must be so hard as a mother to go through such a thing! Sending hugs 🫂

Hey guys, I just wanted to update so far, my son had his blood tests at the hospital this afternoon and 4 hours later I recieved text messages to say the results were satisfactory and that he has a vitamin D deficiency and should take supplements.. I am extremely relieved and so happy the results were sent to me so quickly! So I'm hoping this means that the pain in his knee was literally just caused by low Vitamin D and once he starts taking supplements the pain will go away! Very strange how it is only affecting one joint but I'm so glad we have an answer and nothing else showed up on his blood test!

That's great, I hope he improves really soon.

I had awful shin pain when my vitamin d levels were low

His is just in his right knee, he has done it now every day multiple times a day for 3 weeks. Part of me is still worried it might be something else and the vitamin D result is just a coincidence, but I'm still waiting on pediatrics so just have to wait and see if the vitamin D supplements stop him doing it.. also wondering if anybody else's child has had a blood test and then woken up the next day with a raised bumpy rash over their legs, arm, back and stomach?? A reaction maybe?

Hi OP!

I know it’s been a little bit but I just came across your post from a google search after my 3 year old started with the same symptoms yesterday. He randomly just won’t walk and says his right knee hurts but 5 minutes later is charging through the house st a sprint. Did your LOs just end up being the vitamin d deficiency?