Symptoms
Children who have growing pains usually do not have any other symptoms, such as weight loss, limping, fever, or joint swelling, and the pain shouldn’t limit his activity.
Treatment
If you are able to treat the pain when it occurs and your child is then fine for some time until the pain begins again, then that can be normal, depending on how often it is happening.
In both boys and girlsIn both legsIn the front of the thigh, in the calf muscle (the back of the lower leg), in the muscles in the back of the knee, and in the heel of the footIn children between the ages of three and five and between the ages of eight and 12 In more than 30 percent of children
Here are some treatments that might help:
If growing pains are causing leg pain in your child, then massaging the area tends to help, whereas if there was an injury or another medical condition causing the pain, touching or massaging the area would likely make the pain worse. It may help to give him ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil) in the evening whenever he has had a very active day (like after soccer practice) to see if that keeps the pain from starting that night. You shouldn’t do that every night or even on most nights, though, without talking to your pediatrician first.You could try icing the areas that are painful.If his pain seems to be more intense on days when he exercises, you might consider limiting the duration or the intensity of his physical activity a little bit and encouraging him to rest more to see if that helps.
When to Take Your Child to See a Doctor
If your treatments help reduce the pain temporarily, but the pain always comes back at some point, then that is to be expected when it comes to growing pains. But if treatments don’t help even slightly, then you likely need to see your kid’s pediatrician for an evaluation. You and the doctor may want to rule out other possible causes, including infections, stress fractures, tumors, and osteochondritis dissecans (OCD)—a condition that causes loose cartilage and its supporting bone, most often in the knee joint (but it can also occur in the elbow or ankle).
