2 1/2 Year Old with Growing Pains

Hi N., I know what you are going through!!!!

I have had leg pains my whole life. My 4 1/2 year old son also has them. My main suggestion is to keep the WARM. That is the key. I still have to do this. Massaging and medicine helps but keeping them warm is more relief until the medicine kicks in. In the summer when he wakes up we put socks on his and wrap his legs up in a blanket to keep them warm, then massage them through there. Usually with that and medicine I can get him back to sleep in about 5 mins and he usually wont wake back up with them. He has had these since he was one. He gets them usually at least once a week. You do feel helpless and it is hard. I also give him medicine and socks before he goes to bed if he has had a long day. The longer of a day and the harder he plays the more likely he will have these pains. He is also starting to be able to tell me when they are coming on, which helps to prevent them before the middle of the night! Many hgus to you but try keeping them warm it should really help a lot. Oh on mine I have also used a heating pad, if you have that and they are bad I would try that. It is almost instant relief and feels so good.

Hi N..
"Growing pains" are usually nothing more than mineral deficiencies. I'd be happy to help you learn how to overcome them. I actually had terrible leg cramps when I was pregnant with my last baby, but I didn't know what would help them then.

Hi N.. I understand your helplessness...feeling. My son (5yrs)has had horrible leg aches since he was 18 months or so. I have tried various things over the years for my son, hopefully will help you. I have found that when G drinks an extra cup of milk (for the calcium)before bed it make them less frequent. The structure of his shoes may paly a role, also. Gel insoles take the stress off their legs, knees etc. If you don't like giving your son pain med every night for a preventative, like me - try rubbing a small amount of aspercream on his legs instead. Check with you doc first, but I have found putting it on at bedtime, after a big day of walking or playing at the park reaaly helps. Good luck!

I could be wrong, but this sounds more like a night-terror problem than a growing pains problem (I hate the name, but that is what they are called). When my (now) 4 year old started experiencing night-terrors (probably around age 2) he would shake his legs and twitch during the episode - we were very confused for a while until his pediatrician suggested the sleep disorder. Research the topic a little and see if it sounds like your son's experience. It is possible that the tylenol helped, but if it was truly a night-terror then the time frame of about 30 minutes is what caused him to settle back down. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with this problem - he had one just last night, but they are not as frequent as they used to be. Good luck. Hope this fyi helps.

I have had 5 children, and two of them had the same thing, I have them pretty bad, I finally went to the doctors, and they told me it was lack of potasium, try getting him to eat a bananna a day, a luke warm bath before bed with help to. Ask your doctor about lack of vitamins, and to maybe check his blood for lack of some kind of vitamin, sometimes that is the case not just growing pains.. Hope all goes well let me know I would be interested in finding out. L.

N.,
Good luck with this one, as my son is now 13 & still suffers from the infamous growing pains in the legs. I give him Ibprophen, massage & also purchased a rice pack that you heat in the microwave. Not too hot, depending on your microwave, I heat the pack up for 3 1/2 minutes. You can get these at some massage/healing centers. My massage therapist actually makes them & sells them, but she's in the Clinton Township area. The heat helps the pain & warms them up so they sleep better.
K.

Hi N.... my 7 year old gets growing pains every so often... I asked his pediatrician- she also recommened that he wear his tennis shoes at least 3-4 times a week, vs his sandals becasue they have better arch support and my son is flat footed... as for treatment of the pain... try a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel at bed time- I swear by it- in fact ours is a dog water bottle and his nick name is boo boo dog... so out he comes to the rescue when ever needed... hey whatever works :)

Hi N.. I wanted to mention to you that when my son was young he would wake up at night screaming and thrashing and we found out he was having night terrors. He would cry and thrash around and we were unable to wake him up. It made it worse when we tried to wake him. Do you think your son could be having night terrors? We moved our sons bedtime back a little and it made a big difference, he was overtired.
I hope this helps. I know that it can be very hard when your child has trouble at night.
God bless,
T.

Hi there. I can offer empathy as we went through the same thing with our son who is now 6.5 (from around your child's age through now). We talked to our pediatrician who explained it was normal considering our son is so tall for his age. This was a relief but didn't make it any better for him! Some things that we do include make sure he gets a multivitamin daily to compensate for extra usage due to the growing and we have a heating pad in the bedroom that we plug in for some 'therapy'. He really responds well to the heating pad. Good luck.

N., I know how scary it must be to have your child wake in pain like that and my heart goes out to you! For as long as I can remember until well into my adulthood, I too experienced leg cramps like that. I'd wake in the middle of the night and be in horrible pain. There was little I could do to make it stop except massage it. Finally, in a kind of strange series of events, I learned that it was a lack of calcium causing my pain. Drinking a tall glass of milk every day cured me of the leg cramps completely. If your son doesn't like milk by itself, see if he will drink it over ice. Infinite Blessings! Kristy

N.-
My nephew started off with a similar situation. He began crying saying that his legs hurt, then his knees, and after a couple of days he could not walk. It turned out that he had arthritis, which was overlooked due to his age. After numerous vials of blood taken, he was finally diagnosed. He has been on medication and has not had any problems. Just wanted to let you know in case it continued or seemed to worsen.
K.

Hi there, I totally emphathize with you, my son has always experienced horrible leg aches. Even prior to him being able to properly communication, he would wake up screaming and rubbing his legs together...it wasn't until later we realized how far back his 'growing pains' actually went.

One thing we've found helpful is to test out various shoes over the years...we've found that ones with a certain arch in them help better than the ones without, for him anyways. Also, leg cramps can be a sign of his body requiring more potassium. He can obtain more simply by eating bananas. :o) I would recommend that he be getting a daily vitamin...and perhaps you could try a warm relaxing bath prior to bed, might help to relax his muscles some.

Also, discuss this with his pediatrician. It is more likely nothing, just growing pains that unfortunately he'll have to deal with for years...but it's always best that you and your pediatrician are on the same page information wise. Good luck, I know it's so hard to see your baby in pain.

N.,
I had as a child terrible leg pain. It's not a "cramp" where the muscle contracts & eventually relaxes. It's an ache that penetrates to the bone & often continues for hours. I was a very tall girl. I grew very fast.
The only thing that helped me was heat. No amount of pain med, massage or other treatments worked.
When I was a tot it was layers of clothes, a water space heater & blankets. When I was a bit older my mom switched to an electric blanket & Bengay (I don't recommend electric blankets for tots)
There were nights when I was up all night crying & would miss school the next day. I sure hope my kids don't go through it & I hope your little guy will be ok too.

Becky R

N.:

I know what you are going through. We have a 3 1/2 year old who has the growing pains too. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming that her legs and knees are hurting, it also took us a while to realize that it was growing pains. Me and my husband both had them bad when we were young. We have given her Motrin at night when she wakes up with it and massage her legs and just lay with her till she calms down. Other than calling your pediatrian, I am not sure that there is anything else besides the medicine and a little TLC. Good Luck, I know its tough.

Hi N.
First of all I would take your child to the doctors to make sure that is what it is. I realy urge you to take him because of medical conditions that it could be. It is usual for a 21/2yr to have growing pains. If you have then there isn't a whole lot you can do. My little girl has experienced growing pains since she was about 5 yrs old, and she is now 8. She still has them. All I can do is give ibuprofen to her when they come on. It seems to help alot faster than tylenol. It is something they will eventually out grow.
D.

My 4 yr old has this issue for some time now. We found a joint pain relieving lotion without aspirin that we rub on her legs. That helps pretty quick and she settles down to sleep. We also have a magnetic thing called a mag boy from Nikken. We rub that over their legs and it also helps with the pain rather quickly.

Blessings.
M.

okay, this may sound strange but does your child eat a lot of bananas? My family has issues with leg cramps at night if they eat bananas. I know that is weird but those that have the problem all started in their toddler years. Just an idea. Other than that I'm sorry I can't help!

I had horrible growing pains in my legs as a child. I still had them occasionally in college. I finally started seeing a chiro and the adjustments stopped the pain. I am sure there are lots of different answers out there. This is what worked for me. My children only get them once in a great while so massage works fine for them.