My toddler keeps getting bad knees

[violetskies56]

I'm not sure what to do about this. But my dd (4) has been having difficulties with her right knee. They started small where she'd complain about little aches, but this previous Tuesday she couldn't walk without pain, she couldn't extend it out so we went to the GP who examined her and said to give her pain killers and if it doesn't improve, go to urgent care. We ended up going to urgent care not long after and got told pretty much the same thing after 5 hours of waiting - quick physical examination " there's nothing wrong". She ended up feeling fine and being able to walk just fine again after some time of small movements, but today it started again after 10 minutes of walking to the shop. She dropped to the floor crying saying that she can't walk again. Since getting home, we've given her compression tube, a pillow, ice pack and contacted 111. We got fobbed off. We're going to contact the GP on Monday so that we can have it on record that this happened again.

Has anyone else had similar struggles with themselves or little ones? I hate seeing my baby in pain

Keep the pressure on your health care providers and keep turning up until they do more tests to get to the bottom of it!

There are many things it could be, including an arthritis or infection. I’d keep pushing for an answer

I was once the 4 year old with extreme knee pain, could hardly walk. Got fobbed off for years as "growing pains". Wasn't diagnosed correctly until I was almost 20.

Put pressure on her knee, something heavy on it when it hurts, The big Yellow pages does the trick if they still exist, if not, something like a pillow over her knee with a load of books on top, let me know if it helps

I really don't want to worry you but a family member has this at the same age and it was a very rare tumour behind the knee. Normally happens in teenage years but 'luckily' they'd had an accident so had a reason to be in a&e and needing an xray.

If it was me I'd take her to a&e and claim accident, just to get them to take it seriously

Can I ask what you were diagnosed with? Her dad is being investigated for fibromyalgia but I don't know if it presents so young.
I'm going to try my best to advocate for her, it took 2 years for someone to take us seriously about her autism, and now she has to wait on a long list for a diagnosis. I don't want her to struggle physically as well as socially 😞

My friends dd was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis at a similar age. Because her knees were so sore and swollen. Please keep pushing for answers if it doesn't settle on its own.

I mean this very gently, but do you think there could be a link with her dad that isn't genetic? As in she is mirroring something she sees re pain, or she is expressing psychological distress as physical pain? Given that is a contributory factor to the root cause of fibromyalgia anyway, is it worth considering? Autism would also make this more likely. Just a thought. Good luck 🍀

My ds suffered with achy legs for a longggg time around this age. He had blood tests and had low iron levels, corrected with daily vitamin now only gets aches if we've missed a few days of vitamins / is in growth spurt/ very occasionally

My dd had knee and shin pain for a couple of years age about 7-10 and we took her to a podiatrist who diagnosed an issue with her feet being flat. The feet weren’t working functionally and it was having a detrimental effect on the knees and shins. He sold us some awful insoles which she absolutely hated so we read up about kids feet and encouraged bare feet as often as possible to strengthen the foot muscles. Seems to have done the trick as she no longer complains.

I've got fibromyalgia and mine started as " growing pains"
The only thing that ever really helped was cutting sweetners and msg out of my diet. Keep an eye and see if her pains are worse after eating/ drinking things with that stuff in. Unfortunately sugar free is everywhere for kids, and msg is in everything.