Many children, especially those aged 6-16 years, complain about pains for no apparent reasons.
If it's a pain in the leg - especially in the ankle or knee, — and it appears suddenly in the evening or at night time yet is not associated with injuries, it is likely that the reason behind it - the rapid growth of the child.
«Growing pains». This term is used to define pain in the limbs, which starts and stops for no apparent reason. When a child is experiencing a period of rapid growth, its bones often lengthen faster than muscles and ligaments. As a result, the muscles and ligaments stretch and are in constant tension. In this state they fit snugly to the bones and compress the joints, causing discomfort. This kind of pains may in some cases bother even a three-year-old child, but they are most common in the period from 6 to 16 years.
Children with weak, very loose joints are especially vulnerable to them. If your child can bend the wrist back at a right angle, and bend the fingers so that they are almost parallel to the forearm, it means its joints are too loose.
The discomfort, often felt as pain, appears mostly in the evening or at night, usually after a hectic day. A typical scenario: two hours after going to sleep, the child wakes up crying or complaining of pain in one or both legs. Its intensity and localization may be different: most often it is the front of the thigh, lower leg or calf. One knee may be sore today, while tomorrow it’ll be both ankles.
Growing pains may disturb the child from time to time during a certain period of its life — sometimes it lasts a year or even two, but may be limited to a single episode. To check whether the cause of the pain is something other than fast growth, doctors recommend the following test. Slowly bend and unbend the child’s leg at the knee and watch whether there is a significant limitation of mobility. If the leg does not bend properly and freely, if the pain interferes with the usual daily activities of the child, if a noticeable swelling is present, if it hurts every time in a same well-known place — consult a doctor.
How can we ease this aching pain? Perform a massage on all the "painful" parts of the body. The child should rest for several hours in a horizontal position; herewith, it’s important that the legs are slightly above the head.
Heat the sore spots. Warmth: bath, shower, hot compress have a calming influence, especially if the child’s source of pain is muscular pain.
Under no circumstances should you heat and massage, if you notice the following symptoms:
• swollen muscles; the child slowly begins to limp
• the child loses appetite and lowers its weight
• the pains are also common for the morning time
Consult a doctor immediately!