"Growing Pains" in a 3 Year Old

My two daughters have suffered from this and the only thing that seemed to help was massaging their little legs and wrapping them with a warm towel. They slept the whole night after that little treatment. I hope this helps!

I had growing pains in my legs as a child, but was between 10 and 12 years old. My daughter had lots of growing pains in the legs aroud when she was about 4. I bet that's what it is.

Really severe growing pain run in my husband's family (even though my family grows faster and bigger... Dh's family tops out at 5'10 for boys, and most girls are 5'5... my family tops out at 6'6 and 6'1.

We started massaging kiddo's legs when he was 2 (and 3'2" on his bday, so he'll probably have my family's height). ALWAYS make sure you are using an upwards motion on legs, so that you don't break/weaken the vascular gates (the number one cause of varicose veins later in life).

Other things to do are to give them a banana shortly before bed (the K in bananas help to relax the muscles), and children's tylenol in addition to the bananas and massage if the pain is severe enough to keep him from sleeping.

My friends' daughter had this. She would spend nights crying it hurt so bad. The only thing the doctor did was told her to give her tylenol.

NOW, I would HIGHLY recomend trying the chiroprcator! They can help with a multitude of aches, pains, sickness. Give it a shot!

My 3.5 yo daughter gets these, and we can prevent them entirely by giving her a liquid calcium magnesium supplement daily. It seems to be related to growth spurts for us, and so if I forget two days in a row, and she is growing, she has leg pain at night, often waking up crying. For us, it also seems to be related to physical activity. If she does a lot of walking or running that day, she is more likely to get leg aches as well. So, I would think that a calcium supplement might be worth trying for you guys. When our DD has them, we give motrin and rub her legs. I also have her point and flex her feet to help stretch the muscles. We have a rice bag that we heat up as well to put on her legs. That combo of meds, massage and heat usually has her feeling better in 20-30 minutes. I also sometimes use Rescue Remedy to help her calm down and get back to sleep.

Good luck. It is so hard when our little ones are hurting.

My 4 year old grandboy has had bouts of this, usually at night in his legs during growth spurts. HIs dad remembers having had some pretty severe growing pains when he was young. Acetaminophen might help.

It's also possible that he's got muscle pain from overexertion if he had a very active day.

My son has complained of the same kind of thing since he could talk. When I notice he is eating more, and sleeping more, I know it is a growth spurt. He complains when he goes to bed too that his knees hurt. It isn't every night so I just give him a little dose of motrin or tylenol. That helps to relax him a little and get rid of the aching so he can sleep. Hope that helps

My three year old also has pains in his legs around the knees. We weren't sure what to make of his pain, so we took him to the doctor this past September, because I read somewhere that it was uncommon for children under 4 to have growing pains. The doctor did a blood test to rule out arthritis in children, which it did. So, they deternined especially since my son is in the 100% for height and weight that he was having growning pains. My doctor also advised to bring him back in if his pain didn't go away with children's motrin or ibprofin or with massage before morning. Also growning pains do strick more at night time than during the day. I also found that wrapping up a bag of ice and placing the ice on my son's legs and elevating his legs slightly seem to do the trick. Good luck on helping your son with leg pains.

My son started complaining of growing pains around age three. We put a sock on the foot/leg that is hurting and he is able to go back to sleep. Obviously the sock isn't doing much...just psychological, but it helps him go back to sleep. If that didn't work I would probably try some tylenol.

My son who is 4 tells me everyone once in a while that his legs hurt too. Its usually at night when he tells me. I just tell him that they are growing. He seems to forget it after I tell him that.

I would do a search on "are growing pains real" on this board. I remember reading a bunch of posts responding to that question just a few weeks ago. Yes, they are real, and most people said what you are describing is growing pains, but there were a couple posters who talked about something else their children were diagnosed with after the same symptoms. I don't remember exactly what they were talking about though, so you should really just search it and read them for yourself so that I don't tell you something wrong.

Hello V.. As I know, it is hard to not rush to the doctor for everything and not worry endlessly I fell like this is just a case of growing pains. I had them as a child and I feel like they do these intense growth spurts so of course it would hurt. Up and out, up and out . Just thinking about that hurts.

So what I do with my two and a half year old is I give her a massage at night while we are laying down for stories. I tell her a story and I rub her muscles. They completely relax and I feel that it is a way to keep the closeness with my child as they grow. Touch is healing and shows so much love. I rub my daughter 2-3 times a week but I think once a week may be enough. I have found that I like this time with her just as much as she likes it and they fall asleep with you sharing that love and touch.

This might help with the "attention" issue as well. Can you do this with his sister in a different room?

Well good luck, hope this helps!

B.

It sounds like growing pains to me... my first daughter (now almost 7) had them and my second daughter (almost 4) gets them as well. I give my kids a dose of Children's Tylenol and also rub their legs with Tiger Balm.

Very common, kids grow at alarming rates. Make sure that they are getting enough calcium to support bone growth and vitamin C will help with muscle as well. Any time I go for a physical therapy visit and they manipulate muscles they tell me to take extra vitamin c because it will help with muscle swelling and bruising later, which also happens in rapid growth. A good multivitamin is helpful and my kids love to take them because they taste so good. Just make sure they have adequate calcium, vit. D, and Vit C. Hope that helps.

I remember my legs hurting when I was little. It was frustrating to be told that it was just growing pains because the pain was real. But the truth was the adults didn't know the cause so there wasn't much they could do for me. I think maybe it would have helped if someone had taught me sooner to stretch my legs, so that is what I do when my 4 yr old says his legs hurt. I help him to stretch, especially his hamstrings. Good luck!

My son gets these aches and I have had them all my life. They can be very painful. Mine get to the point where I can't even walk. It could be a combination of charley horses or leg aches. The best thing to do ahead of time is make sure that he is getting enough natural potassium and calcium. Bananas are a great source of that. Also when he starts to complain give him a dose of ibuprofen (ibuprofen deals with inflammation which works better than tylenol).

My parents took me to the doctor and they did a bunch of tests on me, including a spinal tap... imagine what my parents must have gone through to hear me screaming...Anyway, the doctor may do a bunch of unnecessary tests and come to the conclusion that he is just growing up, or they might just say he's growing up and give him medicine when he starts to complain about it. I guess what I am saying is it is a waste of money to go to the doctor.