4 year old with pains in his legs in morning - Growing pains ???

[Kayleigh]

My 4.5 year old is complaining about pains in his legs in the mornings when he wakes up. These seem to be around his calf and shin areas.
I assumed they were growing pains but on checking some archived threads there was one link that seemed to say that if the pains occured in the morning it possibly wasn't growing pains.
So can I just ask those parents whose children have had growing pains, did they have any symptoms in the mornings ?

My dd is 4.5 and has what my GP says are growing pains in her legs and at the back of her knees. She complains more at the end of the day about them, but she does get them in the mornings as well.

Hmmm, hard to say. Dd does get pains in her calf and shin too, but usually during the night. However it could be that he's had them during the night but only feels them when he wakes in the morning?

Hi Kayleigh - I think I might have been responsible for putting that link on - I recognise it, anyway. I didn't spot the thing about the morning pain!

Ds has definitely had pain in the mornings sometimes (and I am totally sure it was all growing pains), but maybe the important thing was that the pain wasn't just in the morning. Our doctor said the real thing to worry about is if the pain seems to be focussing on the hip joint area.

Does he walk on tip toes a lot? Because my ds did, and what I had always put down to growing pains eventually turned out to be due to this having made him hamstrung, and therefore once he was doing sport at school, this led to a lot of muscle ache.

No, he doesn't walk on tiptoes Turquoise, or not that I've noticed.
Bink (are you Binkie ?!)no pain in hips, definitely all below knee.
He has been a bit restless during the night lately, but not enough to wake.
I feel a bit better that people have said yes to pain in the mornimg. I'll keep an eye on him for the time being. Maybe give him a poke in the middle of the night when he moans in his sleep and ask "do your legs hurt now ?"

hi Kayleigh, dd1 gets this, but hers too are normally just at night time..strangely enough just when I want her to go to bed
calpol, hot water bottle and vigorous rub usually do the trick

yep, it's me!! How are you?
Agree with Calpol and a hot water bottle. Nice cosy things.

One other thing - each of ds's bouts of growing pains lasts for only a few days, and they happen only about two or three times a year. I wonder if that's the usual sort of pattern? - the fact that the bouts are brief and not frequent is one of the reasons I'm not at all worried by them. If he was getting them more often, and for longer, I think I'd check again with doctor.

was he particularly active yesterday??
or could he have been kneeling a lot (this happens to me a lot at the start of term at pre-school and I always wonder why my legs hurt... )

rummum, your post made me laugh. He never stops moving. Even if he's sitting still (supposedly) there is some bit of him still jiggling around. So no he wasn't any more active than any other day - but I don't think it's physically possible for him to be any more active .

Sorry Bink, meant to say hello back. I'm fine - must sort out a lunch date. Did you chop your name at the same time as your hair ?

Ds has this periodically, usually in the late evening. It hurts him so much he just lies there sobbing, poor little bunny. As well as Calpol and hot water bottle, Deep Heat is good if he's okay with the heating effect. Otherwise Tranxam (or something) is a paracetamol-based gel you can rub into the legs. Actually, rubbing any kind of cream into the legs seems to work, presumably by placebo effect.

Hmm. Reminds me I should chop my hair again. And after all, I would probably best like to be known as Ink.

Wanted to add: bananas. Even my doctor said that they'd helped his son despite him (the dr) thinking they were a bit of an old wives' tale.

Ds (4) also complains of pains in his legs usually walking to school. Says they only hurt when hes going along, not standing still and sometimes says they hurt when hes running at playtime. This has begun to worry me and I was thinking of starting a thread to ask for anyone whos had similar. Does this sound similar to ds Kayleigh? or anyone else?

(Sorry for hijack)

Sorry art, not been on in a while so didn't see your post. Your ds's problem doesn't sound similar to my ds, sorry. My ds has pains mostly in morning on waking. He is fine most of the day running around.
Maybe a trip to your doctor just to check it out ?

Bink, bananas is good - it's the ONLY fruit ds2 will eat !

Hi, did you ever find out what was causing the morning pain? We have this every other month. A chiro helps but he also had a bout of BACM and has never returned to consistently being pain free.