My three year old has suddenly stopped walking, and is crawling every where, has any one got any experience of this?

[Overrun]

I have booked in to the drs surgery this afternoon in case it needs medical attention. I find myself swinging from feeling worried that there is something terribly wrong, to being convinced that he is really putting it on for attention.
Brief history: He has said off and on for a few weeks that his feet hurt, but they look fine and he certainly doesn't seem in a lot of pain.
Today he got up, was very grisly, said his feet hurt but walked normally. Then I drove them to soft play, and when I got him out of the car he collapsed into a puddle and hasn't worked since.

He says both feet hurt, but is quite cheerful, he is doing this strange crawling motion dragging one leg behind. The right seems to be most problematic, but the he has said the left hurts as well.

I would have thought that he would have been tempted to walk at soft play, as he loves it, if he was faking it.

Any ideas?

It this that unusual then?

No useful advice I'm afraid, overrun.

Good idea to get him checked out.

never heard of it before
I would definitely take him to drs but dont underestimate the power of little minds
he may just be messing but doing a very good job if it
Hope he is ok

Hmm would defo get him checked out at docs. I agree that soft play would have shown him up to be a faker if he were one!

Try not to worry, may be something simple like a sprain or trapped nerve.

thanks Trinity and Jalopy, hopefully the Dr will say that its all okay. I guess he may just enjoy the attention, although I have tried to downplay it, in case that was the case

A friend's DS did this when he was about 3. They were in bed and he was up early one morning and had a bad fall. Said he couldn't walk and crawled everywhere. They took him to be checked out and everything was fine but he still refused to walk for a few days. My friend said she would have really panicked except for the fact that she knew someone else whose DS had done it too. Again after a fall.

Thanks Buda, I can't think of a recent fall, but maybe as you say, his feet hurt a bit, so he has just decided not to work.
Funnily enough I have just remembered a friend of mine, whose daughter did something, it was years ago, so I had forgotten. She was fine as well

In case any one is interested, the gp thinks like me, that he is putting it on. God is he that desperate for attention

My sis did this at 2. all sorts of fussing and various bit of her affected. Mum took the hard line for a couple of weeks then she couldn't lift her cup. Took many gp visits and three hospital trips before a diagnosis of fleeting arthritis related to a salmonella infection.

It cleared up quite quickly though with no further issues.

Very tricky to diagnose due to various jopints being affected at diff times and fluctuating pain. Some times she was fine.

is he your only child? i know f one that stared doing this when a new baby arrived. also our middle one used to refuse to walk in the street as the ground was hard. we just abandoned him and he soon came running