hi there,
My 4 year old periodically wakes at night crying due to pains in her lower front legs. I thought this was shin splints, but as she is not in any sort of organised sport etc, and just runs around with her younger brother i am now thinking it might not be. The days she gets it, are not unsimilar to the days she does not. Does anyone know what this might be? To treat it i have just been sitting up with her at night and rubbing her legs with a bit of Eucalyptus oil and then massaging them for a while. This seems to help, but now i am getting worried, as the pains are quite locallised and if it was something like growing pains i would think she would get the pains in all her limbs. Hope someone can help

My DD has the same and now my DS1 is getting them.

Initially I thought the worst and took her to the GP as she would be in a lot of pain the GP said to look out for the following in case it was something sinister, before doing a barrage of blood tests,

It soon settled down within 6mths, I measured her and she grew a massive 13cms that year so figured it was due to growing.

She still has them now, mainly on the days she is at kindy where she is busy all day.

HTH - if your worried take her to the GP.

I used to get this quite badly as a child and my mum told me they were 'growing pains'. I only ever got them in the front of my shins.

We used deep heat and heat packs and this seemed to take my mind off the pain and felt nice too

Unfortunately they hung around until I was about 10 years old...hope your little one can get some relief and grows out of them quickly!

My first response is that if you are worried there's no harm in seeing your GP. But that's not to worry you it's just always best to get an expert opinion and be on the safe side.

Having said that my DD1 has a similar thing. Fortunately she's not getting woken by it but most days will complain her leg is sore, sometimes it's the left one sometimes it's the right one. She has a little friend who gets sore legs through the night also. DH said he suffered awful growing pains as a child. So I think it's pretty common. A heat pack like PP suggested sounds nice & soothing and my friend said if she massages her DD's legs before she goes to bed she doesn't wake so maybe give that a try.

our almost 4 gets 'growing pains' too. Both my husband and I did as children (and I did as a teenager too). They wake DS at night. They are very bad after a day on his feet (bushwalking, kinder, a big play date etc...) we use panadol when he wakes, a warm bath before bed (if we've had a big day), massage etc... but make sure you see a doctor too if you're concerned. GRowing pains are extremely painful and reoccur for years.. but you don't want to miss anything else..

My eldest and youngest have also experienced this. The eldest seems to have grown out of it now (at nearly 9). The youngest still gets them quite regularly. TBH, when he wakes with them now I give him a dose of panadol. Experience has tuaght me that massaging will ease the pain enough to let him go back to sleep, but 1/2 hour to an hour later and he'll be awake crying again - and it means that both he and I have an unsettled night.

I agree with pp that they tend to be worse if they've had a big day.

DD gets these and after visiting a podiatrist and physio it appears it is related to lack of zinc and Magnesium (she can't drink cow's milk and has gone off all substitutes.) A multi vitamin as helped.

She was also given orthotics due to slightly flat feet.

Worth a visit to the Dr if you are concerned. Also I agree with the PP regarding panadol. Give panadol and a heat pack.

This for me too. I still get them now from time to time. As do my two older children. And my sisters. And their children. Seems quite common in our family. Panadol for the bad nights, or just hot water bottles and deep heat as mentioned above.

Please seek medical advice to rule out anything that could require treatement.

Thanks so much ladies, it helps to know that it is quite common. I will see the GP also i think, it can take up to 2 weeks to get in (we live in the bush) so i will also try the panadol, as the massages do help, but then we get a recurrance a couple of hours later. She had a play date yesterday, so that could have been a contributing factor. When i looked it up on the web it was saying things like lukemia etc so i was getting worried. It helps to know there are mums to chat to here