Patient's question:
My 5-year-old child has recently been complaining of some leg pain. Is it possible it's growing pains? What should we do?Doctor's answer:
Growing pains often occur in children during the spring when they are rapidly growing, typically around school age. They are primarily associated with increased activity levels in children, rapid growth of long bones, and poor coordination of local muscles and tendons during development. Since growing pains are a physiological phenomenon in childhood growth and development, some parents often misinterpret leg pain caused by other diseases as growing pains, delaying the treatment of such conditions. Pain caused by diseases, unlike the characteristics of growing pains, tends to worsen or even become limited during activity but should be approached differently during rest. If parents cannot identify the cause of their child's unknown pain, they should take them to the hospital for an early diagnosis.