Patient's question:
These past few days, the baby has been complaining of leg pain every night. I noticed the baby's legs are red but not swollen, so I suspect it might be due to growing pains causing the leg pain. However, this morning the baby told me his stomach also hurts. But the baby has been eating very regularly lately and hasn't been eating anything unusual. My mother-in-law says it might also be caused by growing pains.What kind of help is needed: Do growing pains cause stomach pain?
Doctor's answer:
In medicine, there is a type of pain called "growing pain." In fact, there is also a type of stomach pain called "gastrointestinal growing pain." It is not a disease but a normal physiological phenomenon, commonly seen in children aged 3-12 who are in the growth and development period. It causes pain due to spasmodic contractions., gastrointestinal growing pain may also be caused by dysfunction of the vegetative nervous system, which leads to an imbalance between the excitation and inhibition of nerves in the intestinal wall. This results in strong contractions of the smooth muscles in the intestines, causing pain. Therefore, in medicine, it is also known as "childhood intestinal spasm."