Twelve-year-old Tong Tong is lively and cute, usually loves sports, and has excellent academic performance. But just three months ago, Tong Tong inexplicably developed calf pain. At first, the parents thought it was growing pains and didn’t care. However, as time went on, the pain became more and more obvious and seriously affected her daily life and studies, and her sleep at night. The parents had to take Tong Tong to the hospital for examination, and found that Tong Tong had a bone tumor in the proximal tibia, and the pathology of the puncture was osteosarcoma. Fortunately, it was found early and no lung metastasis was detected, and the condition was controlled after comprehensive treatment including chemotherapy and surgery. Osteosarcoma is one of the most prevalent primary malignant tumors in orthopedics and is most commonly seen in adolescents between the ages of 10 and 25. However, this age is the period of rapid bone growth, and it is easy to mistake the pain caused by osteosarcoma as a normal physiological phenomenon – growing pains – and miss the best time for treatment. I. What are the diseases similar to growing pains? 1. Fracture: Due to the high activity of children and immature bone development, it is easy to cause fracture. And babies around 3 years old are not quite able to express their feelings, so fracture is the most easily misdiagnosed item. 2.Malignant osteoma: Malignant osteoma, also known as bone cancer, may occur due to factors such as genetics, radiation exposure, bone overgrowth, chronic inflammatory stimulation, special viral infection and poor blood return in the bone. 3.Children’s leukemia: The incidence of childhood malignant tumors is led by leukemia. It is misjudged as growing pains because the bone marrow expands and the periosteum is stretched, causing bone pain, especially below the knee, which is most obvious and is often misjudged as arthritis. Juvenile arthritis: Juvenile arthritis is easily misdiagnosed as growing pains because the patient feels pain when the joint is pressed; although muscle pain is the typical symptom of growing pains, young children cannot tell the difference between muscle pain and joint pain. 5. Late onset rickets: For leg pain in children between the ages of 5 and 15, as children of this age are growing, the need for vitamin D and calcium increases, and if there is a lack of vitamin D and calcium, the disease can develop. Children suffering from this disease should pay attention to calcium supplementation. How to distinguish disease pain or growing pains? 1. Lower limb pain: Growing pains most commonly occur in the lower limbs, in the legs above and below the knee and ankle joints. Occasionally it is in the groin area, and the pain is usually outside the joints. Typically, the pain is bilateral, but there is also pain on one side, soreness or tingling that lasts for a few minutes and rarely more than an hour. 2. Muscular pain: Growing pains are mainly muscle pains, not joint or bone pains. There is also no redness, swelling or heat in the painful area, and it does not affect walking. 3.Night pain: Growing pains almost always occur at night. In fact, it is not that the pain does not occur during the day, but it is not easily noticeable because the child is more active during the day. When sleeping at night, the blood flow slows down and “stagnates”, and the pain will seem very obvious. 4.After rest, the symptoms of growing pains are usually relieved, but disease pains are difficult to improve through rest. 5.With the development, growing pains will gradually reduce to disappear, but patients with disease pains will show a gradual increase in pain, accompanied by movement disorders of limbs and joints. Growing pain is a normal physiological phenomenon and belongs to muscular pain, growing pain phenomenon is generally does not need special treatment. The most effective way to deal with painful episodes is to provide local massage and hot compresses for the child to help reduce the pain level and make the child feel psychologically cared for and secure. If you find that your child has unexplained leg pain, you should promptly take your child to a regular hospital for examination in order to prevent it as much as possible.