Some children often visit the doctor because of lower limb joint pain, intermittent attacks, mostly obvious at night, this kind of children have a fast growth period, some children do not like to eat vegetables, like to eat sweets, in the clinic this child is not a lot of children, some parents ask why children will appear this situation? This is a normal physiological phenomenon, called “pediatric growing pains”, and is usually seen in children aged 4-12 years old. The cause is not known.
At present, it is generally believed to be related to the following factors: 1. The bones of the lower limbs grow rapidly during the developmental period of children, while the growth of joint capsules, tendons, ligaments and surrounding nerve fiber tissues cannot keep up at once, resulting in pain as the bones pull on the surrounding tissues.
2, most children are active, making the metabolism of tissue cells in the body more vigorous, easily causing certain metabolic products (lactic acid, etc.) to gather in the tissues, and when the nerve endings are stimulated, muscle pain will occur.
Clinical manifestations: Pain mostly occurs in the knee, thigh, calf and groin, often with intermittent episodes that last about 10 minutes to an hour, but are not accompanied by systemic symptoms, such as fever and chills.
The pain usually comes on in the afternoon or evening, especially in the evening after the child has had too much activity during the day. Therefore, it is common to hear children complaining of leg pain and discomfort when they first go to bed, and asking their parents to pound their legs before they can fall asleep. After a good night’s sleep, when they wake up the next morning, the pain is completely gone and the child is back to normal.
Differential Diagnosis: Growing pains in children will disappear on their own as they get older, so parents should not worry too much. However, when leg pain occurs in children, parents should not always assume that it is growing pains. Some serious diseases can also appear in the early stage of the onset of lower limb pain, which should be paid great attention to avoid delaying treatment and causing irreparable consequences.
Special attention should be paid to distinguish the following diseases: 1. Septic arthritis Children can also have pain at the knee joint, but the pain is severe, and the joint is often red and swollen, with increased local skin temperature and restricted joint movement. The onset of the disease is usually rapid, and the child may have a high fever, chills, and other symptoms of systemic infection.
2.Acute hematogenous osteomyelitis Children usually have a rapid onset, with obvious symptoms of systemic toxicity, such as headache, high fever, and chills, etc.; the joints are in continuous pain, and joint movement is impaired.
3.Rheumatoid arthritis Most of the joint pain is wandering, mainly in large joints such as knee and ankle, with localized redness, swelling, heat and pain, generalized fever, fatigue and weakness, and loss of appetite. The pain does not subside on its own and requires anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and anti-rheumatic treatment for about a week before the joint pain disappears.
Treatment: The most important thing in the treatment of pediatric growing pains is to give adequate rest. Parents should pay attention to not forcing their children to participate in too many sports; every night before going to bed, they can use hot water to give their children bubble feet, do appropriate leg massage, and also take appropriate amounts of vitamin C. After appropriate rest, massage and other symptomatic treatment, pediatric growing pains will not recur and will not affect the normal growth and development of children. During the growth period, children are often deficient in calcium and zinc. Although this is not the main cause of growing pains, it often aggravates the pain. Therefore, in the daily diet, children should pay attention to calcium and zinc supplementation, and can eat more foods that contain more calcium and zinc, such as: shrimp, shellfish, green vegetables, etc.