Answer
Growing pains are leg pains that occur in preschool and young school age children. A better name may be benign idiopathic limb pain of childhood. Classically the child complains of pain in the thigh, calves, and or behind the knee. The pain comes and goes, most days are pain free.
The onset is in the evening and at night. There is no swelling, redness, and the joints are normal. The child continues to be active during the day without any restriction of play. There is no limp. The pain responds to massage, gentle stretching and mild analgesic medications such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
The pain is clearly real. We do not know what causes it, but it goes away with time and doesn't seem to cause any ongoing problems. Pain that is persistent, increases in intensity, occurs in the morning, is associated with limp or limits physical play, involves the joints, or is consistently in only one leg requires medical evaluation.
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