Growing pain: Is your child feeling pain in the legs without any obvious reason?

On women’s day I was invited to give a lecture on nutrition at

A national level seminar which was organized at

the college of pharmacy, Dharmsinh Desai University at Nadiad.

After my lecture, I was having some discussion with other speakers at the event.

There, one of the speaker asked me-

“Is there any nutrient which can help in

leg pain in growing children? My son is suffering from it a lot.”

I had been asked same question previously by few of my patients  as well.

If your child is feeling pain in the legs without obvious reason,

this type of pain is often called growing pain.

Despite the name “growing pain”, there is no

firm evidence that growing pains are linked to

growth spurts. Even if your child feels lots of pain, in

reality no damage is happening to your child’s bones and muscles.

They usually do not interfere with your child’s routine activities.

Which age gets these pains more frequently?

• 3 to 5 years
• 8 to 11 years
• May continue in early teenage years

Boys or girls?

• Both boys and girls are equally affected

Where is the pain experienced?

• Calf
• Front of thighs
• Behind knees

When is the pain felt the most?

• Afternoon
• Evening or
• Mostly it starts to ache right before bed time, sometime

kids go to bed without any pain, but your kid might wake up

in the middle of night with leg pain. The best part is that

growing pain go away by morning. And

you feel that your child was lying.

What causes growing pain?

The cause is still not known. But,

it is often mistakenly thought that the pain

is caused by growth of bones. Yet

Bones grow slowly, even during growth spurts, and

this slow growth does not cause pain. Some children

have growing pains on and off for many years, but

usually they go by mid-adolescence. However,

during this period of growing pain, you can still

help your child by changing their food habits as there are

some food groups and exercise which can

help to reduce the pain.

Don’t just presume that your child is just having

growing pain. Ask your child for any incidence of

injury and if the pain is very severe,

consult your doctor to rule out any

other cause for the pain. Next week

we will discuss which food may help and

which type of simple exercise can

help your child to reduce the growing pain.

Till then …

Take care…

Providing simple solutions for the complexities of life

Dr. Bhumita Makwana

Your Dietitian & Cosmetic Clinician.