As your children grow up, they’ll naturally experience different changes to their bodies. They’ll tend to be stronger, more agile, and even more intuitive with their hand-eye coordination. However, children won’t always have a pleasant time getting older and stronger.
Growing pains are common in children between ages 2 and 12 and usually manifests as throbbing pain in their arms or legs. This can be unpleasant for them if they suddenly wake up due to this pain. If you want to help your children with this naturally occurring phenomenon, you need to expand your understanding of growing pains.
Why Does Growing Pains Occur?
Most of us grew up without questioning the occurrence of growing pains. Our parents probably just accepted it as fatigue or a form of injury from playing too much. While growing pains are harmless in the long term, there could be a deeper cause for these conditions.
The source of growing pain is still unknown, and the link with bone growth isn’t the source as many suspect. The more common result of growing pains is due to overuse during the day. This can then lead to overwork for your child’s young muscles.
A recent study in 2015 revealed that children with severe vitamin D deficiency are more prone to growing pains, showing a potential correlation between the two. These participants naturally got better and received fewer instances of it after receiving vitamin D supplements. Although this won’t permanently prevent growing pains, it’s a step to ease your child’s stress when dealing with it.
How Do You Treat Growing Pains?
Since growing pains are technically harmless, they tend to go away on their own. However, the pain may be too stressful for your child to bear. If you want to ease their pain, you can massage and stretch their legs until it subsides. You can also give them ibuprofen if they have a low pain tolerance. However, keep in mind that giving your child medicine, especially aspirin, at a young age may not be advisable.
Where Do Growing Pains Occur
Growing pains can occur in different parts of your child’s body, depending on which ones were most active during their physical activities. Pain in the legs, knees, and arms are most common as these allow movement from running to jumping. However, keep in mind that pain in your child’s back is an uncommon symptom of growing pains. If this progressively gets worse, it may be a more dangerous illness that needs a professional diagnosis.
When are Growing Paints Not What They Seem?
Although growing pains are natural for children, these instances also share similarities to other more dangerous conditions. For example, the pain your child experiences can be a sign of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. It’s a condition that causes joint swelling, fever, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and sleep issues, to name a few.
Another potential illness similar to growing pains is fibromyalgia. It’s a chronic disorder that causes widespread pain throughout a person’s muscles and bones. It causes general fatigue, concentration issues, headaches, and even depression.
If your child experiences more than the usual symptoms of growing pains, it’s best to consult a pediatrician to identify the cause of their illness.
Conclusion
Your job as a parent is full of many obstacles you should learn to handle by yourself. This is why knowing your way with simple fevers and bruises can help keep your child from harm. However, more serious medical conditions require a professional’s treatment. For this reason, you should know when to bring your child to the right specialists when they urgently require medical attention.
Your child is considerably more vulnerable to different illnesses than adults, which is why they need immediate medical attention. Unless you’re sure about their condition, you should go to a walk-in clinic for emergencies. If you’re looking for an urgent care center in Secaucus, New Jersey, visit our branches today.
