Growing pains question

[RainbowSprinkles]

If you know about growing pains, how long does it usually last? Is this a daily thing for a while and then it goes away?

 

My dd had been complaining about her legs hurting on and off for a couple of months now. I think I should take her to the doc.

 

And I don't know if this could be related, but she also complains of occasional stomach pains.

 

Thoughts please?

[Farrar]

No expert, but ds had them around age 5, I think it was. That's just how it was. Pains, especially in the evening, in his legs. It came and went, sometimes every day, other times not, for a few months. I had them around age 10 myself and that's how I remember it as well.

 

For ds, I used to just rub his legs and commiserate. My understanding is that there's not much you can do if it's growing pains.

[melissad2]

My ds 5 complains about it too. I give him some Motrin or Tylenol and he is fine in 30 min or so. I had them too and it really hurts! In fact, my legs as an adult still hurt like that on occasion.

[JRmommy]

I had growing pains when I was a child. It would come and go, but when I was 10 or 11, it lasted the whole summer mostly everyday. My parents would just rub my legs. It was a miserable time for me.

[J-rap]

Both my sister and I had them for several years when we were growing up. Night after night our patient mother would come into our rooms to rub our legs (in the middle of the night even!).

 

A couple of my children had them, but not sure how long... probably off and on as they went through various growth spurts.

 

One of my daughters had extreme knee pain for about two years, that was also a type of growing pain. It happened at about middle school age. She eventually outgrew it.

[Cinder]

We've experienced growing pains here--I had them when I was young; my ds's did too. Mom used to run a hot bath to warm up my legs which really eased the pain. For my ds's I'd give them tylenol and rub their legs with bengay. Sometimes I could get them in a warm shower but not usually. For your dd, I would apply heat or bengay and give her tylenol. I don't know that stomach pains are related; we didn't experience them with the growing pains. Maybe it's anxiety?

[TheCoffeeChick]

My dd has on and off again bothered by growing pains since she was 2. She'll wake up in the middle of the night just crying. They go in spurts, sometimes it happens a few nights in a row and other times she'll go months between the pains. We have a teddybear with camomile scented stuffing that we warm up in the microwave that she puts on her legs. I also keep a bottle of teething tablets by Hylands on had and give her a handful -- really it has nothing to do with teething (obviously, since she is 6 years old), but the camomile instantly relaxes her. If those two things don't work, I'll give her some motrine. I never had growing pains growing up, but dh did and he says he can still remember lying awake some nights just crying into his mother's arms because of the pain. :(

[zookeeper]

Magnesium works as a muscle relaxer. It helped my ds a lot when he was having those.

[nukeswife]

My kids all had them and I usually just give them a motrin which helps. My dd between the ages of 4 and 5 had them really bad and in addition to the motrin we found that getting her high quality shoes instead of the $5-8 cheapies from walmart or payless helped a lot. We lived in FL at the time and she wore a lot of sandals, the cheap flip flops were the worst. We ended up getting her birkenstocks from the outlet in St. Augustine and it helped a lot. To this day I she will still only wear Birkenstock brand sandals/flip flops. I found a great lady on ebay who gets them direct from the factory in Germany and has awesome shipping deals. I usually pay about $25-30 for a pair of her sandals.

[Alyeska]

Make sure she is getting enough calcium in her diet.

 

My ds has had growing pains since he turned 3. We use heat packs and massage to help ease his discomfort until the motrin kicks in. Poor ds...he grew 14 inches in 11 months once. It was very painful for him.