talk to me about "growing pains"

[mousymouse]

paed in germany says growing pains dont exist and only calls what ds has "unspecified pain". gp in london says they exist and its common in children during growth spurts.

ds (3) gets achey feet and legs and can*t sleep. a bedwarmer helps most of the times but sometimes we give in and give him half a dose of nurofen.
these "eposodes" are about once a month for about 4 nights.

we make sure that his shoes fit well and that he gets plenty but not excessive excercise. diet is varied.

does your child gets this? how do you deal with it?

I had it as a child, it was achy and a dose of painkiller an hour before bed and again when my parents went to bed most times saw me thru the night.

My sister took her dd to the doc (in USA) at the beginning of the week because she was due a check up and then at the end of the week (Friday) because all day on Thursday dd had been whiny and 'impossible' complaining of achey body. She was measured both times... In the week she had grown a whole inch!
Now...
Imagine what that would be like, your bones and marrow growing that much! I think it very likely it would hurt.

In a ways I think both your paed and your GP are right

the paed in the sense that: "growing pains" can be a bit of a lazy label that covers all sorts of different conditions, some of which should be diagnosed and treated

the GP in the sense that: we do know that some children do suffer from joint pains that we can't diagnose and we might as well have a name for that, as having a name is at least more productive than telling children they are imagining it

Have a look at your child's feet when he's standing on the floor. Are his arches flat?

Riven

that is really sad, riven.
my brother was growing a lot one year and the sinews on one of his legs couldn*t keep up. it basically pushed his kneecap out. he had to wear a cast for a long while.

yes, belle, his arches are quite flat. even though he walks around barefeet a lot.