My six year old has been having troubles with bilateral knee pain and abdo pain. The pain always comes at rest generally just before or at bedtime. Took him to the doctor, she thinks it is 'growing pains".
The knee pain I can live with, it settles with massage and hot packs, ( being an ortho nurse I also had them xryayed to rule out a bilateral osteosarcoma!!, this is my paranoia showing ), but I haven't come across abdo growing pains before.
I guess I'm asking if any of you have? The pain always settles within half to an hour and he's otherwise well..
All 3 of my kidos had growing pains. The pain would happen every night for a week or 2 than vanish for several months to a year, it actually seemed to get worse with age, peaking right at puberty. The hardest hit was my now 20yo but he was extremely active and into sports. He also developed abdominal migraine and the attacks would coincide with the knee pain.
Limiting activity had NO effect. Ibuprophen an hour before bed (and a snack) helped very much.
I think the pain gets worse at night due to lack of distraction (just like toothaches).
We saw many kids at the Peds office I worked at for "chest pain" that turned out to be growing pains.
I hadn't thought about this in a while but when I was growing up, especially through grades 1-4 I had growing pains in long bones, mostly knees, and stomaches frequently.
I read on the site purplemania attached that it said it usually occurs in children between 9 and 14. But my youngest son is only 4, and this has been going on for about a year and a half now. He is tall for his age and has bigger feet than most kids his age, so I wonder if it's because he is growing faster. His older brother and sister are now 22 and 20, and they never experienced this. But they have a different (and shorter) father, and they were both, and still are, small for their ages. I swear, my 4 year old will probably be bigger than his brother by the time he's 10! He was always known and called at the pediatric office as "Biggin'." :chuckle
I hate to even suggest this, but I attended a pedi cardiology lecture recently that suggested abdominal pain can sometimes be caused by undiagnosed heart defects (the body transiently shunting blood away from the gut to divert it to more important areas such as the heart and brain) in young children.
I don't know if I'd be assuming the two were related- I had growing pains for YEARS and they were always in my legs/joints. It was extremely uncomfortable, but I personally never had abdominal symptoms related to that.
I think I'd start keeping some sort of log describing what's going on with him, what times, etc. Have him describe the pain for you- is it dull, throbbing, sharp, stabbing, etc.? What did he eat and when did he eat it? How long does it last? What makes it go away? That way at least you'll have a record and you can present it to the doctor if this continues. How is he stooling? Has he been constipated lately? Has his diet changed in any significant way? Is he having symptoms of reflux or an ulcer?
I know that even 4 year olds can have stress-related abd pain; has he started a new preschool or kindergarten recently, or had major changes in his life?
Kids can have chronic abdominal pain for years, and it can be a big issue for them. If it's not an acute issue (ie, cardiac or respiratory related- even pneumonia or strep throat can cause abd pain) I'd start looking at exactly how long it's been going on and maybe suggest to his Pedi some of the other possibilities, just to be sure.
Of course, I'm paranoid. I work in the NICU. One of the many reasons I have no children yet.
Hope everything turns out well! I'll cross my fingers that it goes away all quiet-like.
I'm sorry I wasn't clear about my son's pains; so far they have only been in his legs. Didn't mean to cause any unnecessary alarm. Thank you for your input, though, because you never know who else's child may be experiencing abdominal pains like you described. You sound like an excellent nurse! Thank you!
When my daughter was about 7 or 8 she would get terrible abdominal pain that would double her over. We had her checked out and she was diagnosed with chronic constipation. At about 13 1/2 or 14 years old she started again with abdominal pain, this time she was daignosed with a 3cm right ovarian cyst, and now we are told that she has endometriosis at 16. So you just never know what it can be, you did right on having the complaints checked out.
Thanks for posting about this topic. My 5 year old has been having "growing pains" on and off for about 2 years. Being completely neurotic and knowing just enough to be dangerous, when he would cry out with leg pain in the middle of the night I would instantly become paralyzed with fear, of course thinking the worst (osteosarcoma, etc.) Most of the literature suggests this is most common in older school-age children, and I saw little that suggested children as young as four can be affected.
With my son, I notice that it occurs when he has been extremely physically active during the day. I did talk to the pediatrician, making him well aware of my neurotic tendencies, and he said that growing pains are very common but if I had any reason to believe it was something more, I could bring him in to be checked out.
Nicu nurse I did post about abdo pain, ( I think peggy sue got herself and I mixed up) thanks for your reply, of course since I've posted there has been no more pain of any sort!
Does anyone know why it seems to mostly occur at night? Is it because their activity has slowed down so the pains are just more prominent then?
Could it have something to do with the fact that growth hormone is secreted during sleep? You know, the body is winding down and knows it is time for sleep. Of course, lack of distraction could explain it too!
kids
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All 3 of my kidos had growing pains. The pain would happen every night for a week or 2 than vanish for several months to a year, it actually seemed to get worse with age, peaking right at puberty. The hardest hit was my now 20yo but he was extremely active and into sports. He also developed abdominal migraine and the attacks would coincide with the knee pain.
Limiting activity had NO effect. Ibuprophen an hour before bed (and a snack) helped very much.
I think the pain gets worse at night due to lack of distraction (just like toothaches).
We saw many kids at the Peds office I worked at for "chest pain" that turned out to be growing pains.