Growing Pains in Children

True growing pains in children are not really a problem of any great significance. They are generally minor and self limiting. They can be distressing when they occur and wake the child from sleep. gentle rubbing, a bit of stretching and reassurance is all that is generally needed to get them back to sleep.

HOWEVER the symptoms need to be taken very seriously. On rare occasions the symptoms that are typical in the benign growing pains can be the same as some very serious conditions such as bone tumors. That means every case of suspected growing pains needs to be thoroughly checked out and investigated to rule out the more serious causes.

They typically growing pain symptoms happen in the early evening just after bed time (they do not happen during the day). They are typically behind the knee and in the upper calf muscles (they are not in the bone or in the joints. If the growing pains do not match those symptoms, then get them checked out for something else.