Growing pains ?

[logic32]

Hope I've managed to place this post in the 'everything else' section. ( if not please could someone, far more intelligent than me , move it to the right section )

I was just wondering if anybody out there has any experience of 'growing pains' in their children. I know some doctors don't subscribe to them but my son is really suffering at the moment.

He's tall for his age , 5ft 3.5 and is 10 years old ( he will be 11 in february ) and has size 8 feet. It's traditionally always been his legs and feet that have given him pain but only sporadically. It's been manageable, and to be fair, unlike his dad, he's not one to complain too much. But currently his feet and in particular his heels are really hurting him. To the extent that he's limping all the time. After a football match at the weekend he couldn't walk and I had to carry him back to the car. He's much better, but still limping now. I have always bought him Clarks shoes and regularly have the sizing checked.

I have mentioned it to our doctor when we visited for a different illness, and she was quite dismissive of 'growing pains'. Which is fair enough, as I haven't a clue whether they are real or imagined. She examined his feet and couldn't find a problem.

I'm assuming he's about to have another growth spurt ( not more trousers !) but was hoping someone on here might have experienced a similar thing and might have some hints on soothing the discomfort. Vitamins, insoles, chopping his feet off etc.......

[tiredmum]

both my dd's - now 15 and 12 - have suffered from these growing pains. dd2 still does, complains of ankle pain now and then among others.

dd1 suffered from knee pain - doctor said growing pains - took her to osteopath who also roughly said the same same but gave me better explanations he gave her some exersises to do which helped somewhat.

I think perhaps you should mention it to the doctors once more as its not right for you to need to carry him. So personally i would like the doctor to have a closer examination. If they still insist its growing pains perhaps seek out an osteopath

[hermanmunster]

Growing pains thought to be imbalance between the growth of tendons/ muscles and the bones holding the whole thing together.

As a comparison have a look on patient.co.uk at "Plantar Fasciitis" ...a condition adults get when the fascia +/- the achilles are just a touch tight ... bit like kids bones growing quickly... v painful

[doodles]

DS has leg pains occasionally, usually at night, aching legs that really hurt - I've always put it down to growing pains as I seem to remember them as a child. Seem to remember that there's not a lot you can do about it but I wouldn't want to have to carry my DS - actually don't think I could!

[andyb]

DS1 has suffered occasionally too over the past 2 or 3 years (he's 12), most often at night. He usually asks for his shins to be rubbed really hard - so hard that I'm worried that I will hurt him more than the growing pains . I have found that a dose of Calpol helps reduce the worst of it.

[Chelmsford mum]

I remember getting "growing pains" as a child.I don't know what the specific reason for them is, but they are real and I can remember lying awake uncomfortable with them.
My eldest went through a phase of complaining of them and I just gave calopl before bed.They do seem to come in phases and happily go away too.

[Rob Clark]

logic

, if your doctor doesn’t believe in growing pains, you need to change your doctor (no offence hermann).

I work in sport and can assure you that all professional football and rugby clubs are well aware of this problem, it’s exactly why the rules about rest periods and not over-training are so strict while the DCs are still growing. Furthermore Mrs C is a physio, and she wouldn’t dream of being dismissive of growing pains.

Your doctor seems to fall into the school of ‘if it isn’t a specific injury, it isn’t anything to worry about’. I’m sorry, but this is arrant nonsense.

[Just1-2go]

The son of a friend had severe pain in his heels and was diagnosed as having Severs disease - I think that that is an imbalance of the growth plates in the foot , he had treatment (both feet in plaster at one point) and is now fine. My own son had pain in his heels and the doctor diagnosed an impact injury caused by trainers that weren't quite upto the amount of sport he was doing, and recommended better trainers (not trendy ones!) and sports gel insoles - that soon did the trick!

[Freya]

Our DS (now 13) has complained of exactly the same at various times during the last 3 years but far less now. In particular, like your DS Logic32, he has suffered with painful feet, especially the heels. We put the leg pain down to growing pains and occasionally administered Nurafen but neither of us had ever encountered the feet / heel pain (the pain didn't seem to be around the tendons - more the heel itself) so we asked a sports physio to have a look. He said that it was reasonably common in young boys and that he would grow out of it. The pain always seemed to come after a match and DS would also hobble off the field. We found that sport played on a hard surface (astro particularly) caused the greatest problem.

We kept an eye on how much sport DS was playing (sometimes putting our foot down) and made sure he had good quality astro boots and really good rugby boots with 'technical' insoles. We also discovered that wearing those 'happy socks' made a really huge difference for him. It's rare he feels any pain now - these things may have helped or he may have just grown out of it.

Hope this helps!

[hermanmunster]

yes the insoles, trainers and no bear feet regime can help.