Growing pains??

[BudaBabe]

DS (4.5) was awake crying in the night. Said his legs were painful. Poor thing was really sobbing. Gave him Nurofen and he went back to sleep. Of course at 3.30am I was imagining all sorts of sinister reasons for the pain. Mentioned it at school and the assistant reckoned it could be growing pains. I thought they were a fallacy myself - am I wrong? Am prepared to be!

The pain was in both legs in his shins mainly.

Anyone??

I used to get this. If it's a fallacy (and I have heard that it is!) it was a bloody painful one!

Definately not a fallacy!!! My ds (4.11) gets them regularly, especially if we have been really busy with alot of walking or during a growth spurt. He goes through phases of having several disrupted nights over a couple of week period and then nothing for age and then it starts all over again. It is definately a pain in his shins, sometimes his feet, or more recently, he says the pain is in his knees.

Leg rubbing helps some, but I tend to use calpol or nurofen when he is distraught.

Oh Hausfrau I do believe him - he was obv in pain and is not one to cry for nothing. I was just worried. If it's growing pains then that's fine - will do what I can to relieve pain. Was just worried that it might be something else - what I have no idea. The mind does funny things at 3.30am. And 4am. And 4.30am. I finally fell back asleep around 6. DH's alarm goes off at 6.30 so I'm shattered!

I thought this was a myth, but if it's not I'd better give DS1 some extra TLC 'cos he's been complaining in exactly the same way (I thought he was being lazy and wanted the pushchair like his baby brother). Oops

This is where I wish the archives were working - I could link you to dozens of people (including us) who've had this. They are absolutely definitely a real thing, have discussed it with our gp - it's where the bone is growing faster than the muscle, so as you can imagine the muscle gets strained and HURTS. It should pass within a few days when the muscle growth catches up - ds's bouts have always sorted themselves within 2-3 days.

When to worry: if the bout lasts longer than a few days; and/or, particularly, if the pain is in/around the hip - because if hip bone growth outstrips muscle it can also be outstripping important blood vessels => bone not getting the blood it needs. The hip problem is called Perthes's disease.

I had these pains as a child, very painful and annoying.
I also had the same pains during my 3 pregnancies from 8 weeks to 42 weeks! In my legs, which were obviously not growing.
I've had them again recently. Always in the middle of the night. I tend to get up and massage my legs with lavender oil or just walk around the house until I feel like I could safely lie down again.
Not much use for a 4 year old though. Makes me pretty tired too !!!
I'm 5 ft 1 so the pains didn't get me anywhere, so goodness knows how they get their name!!!!
Hope your son doesn't suffer too much.

Thanks all.

He is fine today. In the bath just now. Will massage his legs with lavender oil afterwards - that may help.

I suppose this will mean more new trousers!

I had this as a child too and used to wrap my leg/s in my dressing gown and shove them down the side of my matress which sounds mad but the heat helped.

Now my Ds (3.4) seems to be suffering from the same problem. He will wake crying the his feet and legs hurt and he can't keep them still.

We had a quiet night thankfully!

Don't think anything is mad in the middle of the night when you are in pain!