What Are Growing Pains?

[Guest guest]

What Are Growing Pains?

 

Growing pains aren't a disease. You probably won't have to go to the doctor for

them. But they can hurt. Usually they happen when kids are between the ages of 3

and 5 or 8 and 12. Doctors don't believe that growing actually causes pain, but

growing pains stop when kids stop growing. By the teen years, most kids don't

get growing pains anymore.

 

Kids get growing pains in their legs. Most of the time they hurt in the front of

the thighs (the upper part of your legs), in the calves (the part of your legs

below your knees), or behind the knees. Usually, both legs hurt.

 

Growing pains often start to ache right before bedtime. Sometimes you go to bed

without any pain, but you might wake up in the middle of the night with your

legs hurting. The best news about growing pains is that they go away by morning.

 

What Causes Growing Pains?

Growing pains don't hurt around the bones or joints (the flexible parts that

connect bones and let them move) - only in the muscles. For this reason, some

doctors believe that kids might get growing pains because they've tired out

their muscles. When you run, climb, or jump a lot during the day, you might have

aches and pains in your legs at night.

 

What Causes Them?

No firm evidence exists to show that the growth of bones causes pain. The most

likely causes are the aches and discomforts resulting from the jumping,

climbing, and running that active children do during the day. The pains can

occur after a child has had a particularly athletic day.

 

What Are the Signs and Symptoms?

Growing pains always concentrate in the muscles, rather than the joints. Most

children report pains in the front of their thighs, in the calves, or behind the

knees. Whereas joints affected by more serious diseases are swollen, red,

tender, or warm, the joints of children experiencing growing pains appear

normal.

 

Although growing pains often strike in late afternoon or early evening before

bed, there are occasions when pain can wake a slumbering child. The intensity of

the pain varies from child to child, and most kids don't experience the pains

every day.

 

How Are Growing Pains Diagnosed?

One symptom that doctors find most helpful in making a diagnosis of growing

pains is how the child responds to touch while in pain. Children who have pain

for a serious medical disease don't like to be handled because movement tends to

increase the pain. But children with growing pains respond differently - they

feel better when they're held, massaged, and cuddled.

 

Growing pains are what doctors call a diagnosis of exclusion. This means that

other conditions should be ruled out before a diagnosis of growing pains is

made. A thorough history and physical examination by your child's doctor can

usually accomplish this. In rare instances, blood and X-ray studies may be

required before a final diagnosis of growing pains is made.

 

How Can You Help Your Child?

Some things that may help alleviate the pain include:

massaging the area

stretching

placing a heating pad on the area

(Never give aspirin to a child under 12 due to its association with Reye

syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease.)

When Should I Call My Child's Doctor?

 

Alert your child's doctor if any of the following symptoms occur with your

child's pain:

persistent pain, pain in the morning, or swelling or redness in one particular

area or joint

pain associated with a particular injury

fever

limping

unusual rashes

loss of appetite

weakness

tiredness

uncharacteristic behavior

 

These signs are not due to growing pains and should be evaluated by a child's

doctor.

 

Although growing pains often point to no serious illness, they can be upsetting

to a child - or a parent. Because a child seems completely cured of the aches in

the morning, parents sometimes suspect that the child faked the pains. However,

this usually is not the case. Support and reassurance that growing pains will

pass as children grow up can help them relax.

[Guest guest]

I certainly appreciated the article regarding growing pains and found it quite

interesting.

 

Recently, I found out through our chiropractor that growing pains are also a

result of a magnesium deficiency.

 

I also found out that magnesium is " eaten " by refined sugar. Some of the

symptoms described also indicate a magnesium deficiency. Major

elimination/reduction of refined sugar ensued.

 

Upon being treated with additional magnesium, the growing pains were gone.

 

A saliva test and/or kinesiologist should be able to determine vitamin and

mineral deficiencies.

 

Enjoy!