Growing pains in kids

[Jenn Lynn]

Tonight DD has been grabbing her legs and holding them up. She says her shin and knee hurts on one leg. She has woken up crying, will almost be back asleep, and then start crying again. My Mom said it sounds like growing pains.

I feel so bad for her. The last 3 days she has had diarrhea and her tummy has been hurting because of it. We did go to the Ped. today and she said to let it run it's course. Of course her legs were not hurting then.

I think I am in for a long night with my baby.

 

[Gupsmom]

I used to get growing pains at night....very painful.

Potassium is a big key here. If your DD won't eat bananas or some other natural source of potassium, you can get a supplement. That helped me a lot.

Good luck...
Jess

 

[luvthatduke]

Oh, that is a shame

Brings back memories of several
boys in grade school who really
had bad pains in the same areas
like your DD.
Hopefully it won't last too long,
can you give her Tylenol or Motrin for it?

Blessings...

 

[ripleysmom]

In the meantime, try giving her some Children's Motrin to help with her discomfort.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I was going to give her some Tylenol. Went to find it and DH had gotten her calmed down and back to sleep. She slept through the night and hasn't said anything about her legs this morning.

My Mom said I did the same thing when I was her age. My Nephew gets growing pains also. Hopefully she does better today. I am feeding her bananas.

 

[vald1977]

The same thing happened to my DS last week for a few days. I'll have to try the potassium.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

oh I used to get those so bad. I don't think my Mom really understood how bad it hurt. She's short.

A warm glass of milk, child's motrin and if it is really painful you might try a heating pad.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Jenn Lynn

Have you had DD tested for Lyme Disease? Has she had a fever in the recent past?

My DD complained of pain behind her knee and behind her ear early this summer, but she didn't have pain in her tummy or diarrhea that I remember. I thought it was simply growing pains too and passed it off for a week. I never connected the fever with the pain. Then one evening we noticed the left side of her face beginning to droop. I panicked, wondering where/why she is showing signs of Bells Palsy.

I called the Dr. first thing the next morning and they saw DD right away. The Dr. almost immediately diagnosed Lyme and sent DD for a blood test to be sure. After a month on antibiotics, DD is clean of Lyme and shows no further symptoms.

 

[CEDmom]

DD gets them really badly. Luckily most of the time they hit close to bedtime so I'll give her some tylenol and it does the trick before she goes to sleep. However, they have occasionally hit in the middle of the night and she's just thrashing about in pain and it takes a while for the tylenol to kick in. It's so hard to see them hurting like that.

Since she has other symptoms I'd definitely mention the leg pains to her dr. I hope she's feeling better soon.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

No I have not had her tested for Lyme Disease. She has not had a fever at all. I have been monitoring her closely since she started having diarrhea. It looks like that is clearing up. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[jinxed]

My DD gets them all the time. I feel so bad for her. I didn't know about the potassium and bananas to help. I am going to give it a try. One way to get her to eat more fruit.

 

[snoopy]

I think this may be a sign that is a sign that Avery is going to a tall girl. I had growing pains throughout my childhood, started at about 3 or 4 and didn't stop until I reached my full height of 5'10" at about 13. My mother was constantly running me to the doctor, who could only tell her that I was going to be tall and that its common in girls who grow tall at a young age.

One thing that helped me was a heating pad. Hopefully this might give Avery some relief?

 

[Annette_VA]

I got them so bad as a child. To this day, I remember laying in bed crying to my mom that my feet hurt.

My DS3 gets them, too. He often wakes up in the middle of the night saying his knees & legs hurt. I feel so sorry for him because I know how bad it is.

 

[catsrule]

I used to get this all the time also. I used a heating pad, ben-gay, and back then, asprin.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I was also armed with a heating pad when I went in to give DD Tylenol. She was already alseep though. I am keeping them out for tonight. I should probably pack it with me for WDW.

 

[sha_lyn]

I'm not tall at all (5ft 4in) but boy can I remember the growing pains. The worst were the summer I was 12. I had them more in my left leg than in my right. I too think my mother didn't understand how bad it hurt. I think she just brushed them off as growing pains and gave me nothing. At least I never remember her giving me anything for them.


Sounds like in you DD's case that the stomach bug might have her a bit dehydrated so that is aggravating the growing pains. Make sure she gets plenty of fluids, especially water and something to replace the electrolytes (either a sports type drink or pedialyte etc).

Also, potassium helps, but magnesium is also important in getting the muscles to relax.