My 4year old ds is limping and says his joints are stiff.

[pepsi]

Have had a thread going today about this already but it hasnt had too many replies so thought I might try again with a different heading. He started a few days ago saying his legs were wonky, yesterday he didnt even want to walk around the supermarket or get out of the car. Tonight he struggled to get out of the bath and said he was stiff around his hips. Its really hard getting to the bottom of things with a 4 year old. He is pigeon toed and has a turn at the hip on one of his legs anyway. We are under the paed for totally separate reasons but am really worried that it might be something serious. The thread earlier gave some good advice, saying it might be a cold in the joints or it might be linked to tiredness. He did start reception last week and this week it has caught up with him. Ive booked to see a doctor on Thursday but tonights its had me in tears worrying.

Has he had his hips examined or xrayed? Get the paed or gp to have a good look . Dd1 started limping when she was in year 6 (she is year 8 now), and the gp's were fantastic. There was no improvement after a week, so they sent her straight up to the paed ward with a letter, worried it may be arthritis. They took her in, fiddled about, gave her a bone scan and found out that at some point she had partially dislocated her knee. She was given crutches, tubigrip, physio etc, and is now fine.

It could be that where he turns his foot in has caused some sort of pain in his hip area, so I would get it looked at as soon as you can. I hope it is ok, and please try not to get upset. Hope everything goes well.

Thanks Lou33, arthiritis is my big worry. I just hate the not knowing, I guess it could just be some sort of sprain, its just you dont hear of that in young children, I keep thinking of innocent things it could be. I stupidly looked up an arthritis website which always makes your more paranoid. One of the symptons was runny eyes, a few times in the last week I have noticed that when he has been watching TV a tear has been running down his cheek. Could this be tiredness or perhaps being run down. Im really glad your daughter was fine and it does give me hope. Thank you.