Growing pains

What it is

Growing pains are episodes of aching, usually in both legs, in the calves, shins or thighs, occurring in the late afternoon, evening or at night in children roughly aged three to twelve. The child is entirely well by morning, walks normally, and has no swelling or tenderness.

The name is a historical misnomer. Multiple studies have found no relationship between these pains and growth rate or growth spurts. The likeliest explanation is a combination of a lower pain threshold and muscular fatigue from a day's activity, though it remains genuinely poorly understood.

What it feels like

• Aching in both legs - calves, shins or fronts of thighs
• Late afternoon, evening or waking the child at night
• Gone completely by morning, with normal walking and play
• Relieved by rubbing the legs, a hot bath or simple pain relief
• No limp, no swelling, no redness and no tenderness to press

What causes it

Most people have more than one of these at once, and they feed each other. Read the list looking for the two or three that sound like your week rather than for the one true answer — the ones that describe you are the ones worth acting on.

Not growth

Studies find no relationship with growth rate, growth spurts or height velocity. The name is a hundred-year-old assumption that has not survived being tested, and it is worth knowing because parents naturally worry about the growth itself.

A lower pain threshold

Children with growing pains have been shown to have lower pain thresholds than children without. This may be the central mechanism rather than anything happening in the leg.

Activity-related muscular fatigue

Pains typically follow days of high physical activity. Muscular fatigue in a child with a lower pain threshold is the most widely accepted explanation.

Family history

Growing pains cluster in families, and so does a family history of restless legs and of chronic pain conditions - which supports the pain-threshold model.

Vitamin D deficiency

Associated in some studies, and correcting it improves symptoms in some children. It is easily checked and easily corrected.

Hypermobility

Hypermobile children report more leg pains, plausibly because their muscles are doing more stabilising work all day.

Emotional factors

Growing pains are more common in children with anxiety and in periods of family stress. That does not make them imaginary - it reflects how pain thresholds work.

The things it must not be

Not a cause, but the reason the pattern matters. Pain in one leg, pain during the day, limping, swelling, fever, weight loss or night pain that persists into the morning is not growing pains and needs assessment.

Who tends to get it

• Children roughly between three and twelve years old
• Children with a family history of growing pains or restless legs
• Very active children, particularly after busy days
• Hypermobile children
• Children with low vitamin D

What makes it worse, and what settles it

The qFIT routine for this

Ready-made routineGrowing Bodies (Kids & Teens)

qFIT already has this one built. It runs massage first, then stretching, then strength — the order that works on a body that is already sore — and every activity in it carries the reason it is there.

The button below opens your Checklist with this routine already selected, so instead of your whole list you land on just its Categories, Targets and Exercises, each with its checkbox, ready to tick as you work through them.

Have more than one problem? Tick yours under My Problems on My Profile and your Checklist's Routine list gains Recommended for my problems — every routine for the problems you picked, merged into one. Your picks stay private; that filter is the only thing they feed.

Get it checked if…

One-sided pain, limp, joint swelling, fever, or pain still present in the morning is NOT growing pains - refer

And whatever the body part: chest pain or unusual breathlessness on exertion; a fever alongside the pain; unexplained weight loss; pain that is constant and unrelated to how you move; new numbness, weakness or loss of bladder or bowel control; or one calf that is swollen, warm and painful. Any of those, stop and get assessed.

How it usually goes

Growing pains resolve on their own, usually within a couple of years and always by the mid-teens, with no long-term consequences. Stretching before bed reduces frequency in trials. The pattern is what provides the reassurance: both legs, evening or night, completely normal by morning. Anything outside that pattern - one leg, daytime pain, limping, swelling, fever or weight loss - needs a doctor rather than a massage.

Prevalence basis: Pediatric epidemiology

Others the same routine covers

These share the Growing Bodies (Kids & Teens) routine, so the work is the same. If one of them also sounds like you, that is a reason to expect more from it, not less.

This is general information, not a diagnosis, and it cannot examine you. If it matches you, use it to ask better questions of a clinician rather than to replace one.