TIP - Growing Pains in Children
Last night, my 7 year old woke up three times in the middle of the night sobbing because he had a pain in the back of his right knee.
He has had it before. It is growing pains. The pain is always at the back of one of his knees. The pain is quite bad - he cries huge tears from it. The pain occurs one to five nights in a row and then it disappears for months at a time. It rarely happens during the day. In the morning, the pain is always gone. One time when he was 4 years old, it was so severe for 5 nights straight that we took him to see his doctor. The doctor took x-rays and did all sorts of test, only to conclude that it was growing pains.
There really isn't that much we can do for the growing pain. We massage the back of his knee - that helps a little. Sometimes we rub a little Ben-gay ointment(a tip I got from a co-worker who said he used to get really bad growing pains growing up and that his mother used to apply a little Ben-gay and it helped him) - sometimes it works, sometimes not. We put a hot water bottle or a hot compress behind his knee - this works most of the time but it cools off and falls off as he tosses around while he is sleeping. Last night, the pain lasted all night and he woke up every 2 hours from it. I still avoid heating pads because I don't like electrical cords in his bed.
According to Revolution Health website (http://www.revolutionhealth.com/healthy-living/parenting/teens-preteens/puberty-development/growing-pains), doctors like to rule out other causes first before deciding that the pain is caused by growing pains. Although it is called "growing pains", it seems to have more to do with children jumping and running around and being active and less to do with bones growing. It is quite common: 25% to 40% of children experience it. The pain is usually in the leg joint areas. It usually happens between the ages of 3-5 and 8-12. My son is 7 years old so it does not seem to always skip ages 6 and 7! That is many years of growing pains. I have a 2 yr old son as well – I hope he does not get it when he turns 3!
12 comments:
Funny, my kids never had growing pains. Sounds like I am lucky.
Poor kid. My brother had them pretty bad. And one of my daughters had a mild case every now & then. You just can't predict it.
Here via blogexplosion. I had bad growing pains growing up and found that Ace wraps helped relieve the symptomatic pain. But you aren't supposed to sleep with those on due to circulation issues.
Cube, thanks for visiting and commenting! Growing pains are certainly unpredictable. I am glad that your daughter only has a mild case of it.
Chris, welcome and thanks for commenting! Ace wraps - I will have to try it.
Poor boy :( My girls (twins - who are also 7) have had growing pains too, but not as bad as your son, it sounds. It's usually at night time with them too, and sometimes it may keep them from falling to sleep straight away, it never wakes them up at night. I hope they don't last much longer for your son!
By the way.. I'm here through BlogExplosion :)
Thanks, Nadia, for visiting and commenting! I hope they don't last too long either!
ML, YOU ARE LUCKY!!!
I'm so sorry for him.
It can hurt so bad.
From my 6 kids 2 experienced growing pains.
My doc said the matress should be a bit higher at the feet.
Well, I doubt if it made a difference.
I hope it goes away soon.
Laane,
Thanks for visiting and commenting! It is so hard to see your child in pain. Thanks for the well wishes.
My daughter gets them in her shoulders. It isn't as severe as your poor little guy though. Big hugs to him.
Mommy the maid, thanks for visiting and commenting! In the last few days, he had gotten it in his left arm joint as well. Ugh.
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