Preteen bruising easily, quite weak, what to do?

[GlitterFairy01]

Hi,

I need some advice on my 12 year old son and how to build up strength.He’s not strong at all, his younger sister often opens things for him as he just cannot do it.

What sports are fun but also good for building up strength?

I’ve also noticed that recently he seems to bruise really easily (tonight he fell on a box and within 5 second a 15cm bruise came up), so I’m wondering if he’s lacking in some vitamins, he loves fruit and eats loads but not so much veg.

Any advice would be great, thank you.

You need a GP appointment for blood tests. He could be anaemic.

Thank you for replying- yes, I’ve just been googling (bad idea!) and now I’m quite worried as he’s been complaining of pain in his legs too.

I’ll phone the GP tomorrow.

Pain in legs would be consistent with Iron deficiency too. Folic acid anaemia a possibility too.

It's most likely to be something common eg. low iron rather than something rare and scary.

Ask for thyroid blood tests and also vitamin D and B12

As you have already googled, you will know the ‘nasty’ that needs excluding ASAP is leukaemia.

For that you need a full blood count

Stop googling!! The symptoms of leukaemia are also common to many other conditions, so try not to go to panic stations (difficult, I know)

Might be worth having him checked for hypermobility syndrome if he has pain in legs and weak muscles, myself and both my kids have it and also have easy bruising. Also worth having a full blood count checking things like iron levels, vitamin b12 and vitamin d