My little girl, shes five, has been suffering terrific pains in her shins in recent weeks. It got so bad that it kept us all awake last night and even Calpol wouldnt shift it.

Now, one of the little lads who lives across the road had this a few years ago and his mum took him to the doctor who told her that it was simply "Growing pains"...

I remember having this as a kid and it was very painful, its like someone is kicking you in the shins repeatedly, and the ache is horrible.

We`re assuming that my monster has the same thing but we`re still taking her to the quacks on Monday just to make sure, but I thought that growing pains was an old wives tale.

Is it though?

Did you have them when you were growing? Do any of your bambinos have it?
How do you stop it from making the little mites life a misery?

I wonder if there's some logic in there with lactic acid pains? I used to get them in my legs and still do after an especially busy day.
It would explain an old wives tale.
And since kids are generally busy in the holidays it could fit.

Hi - Growing Pains is a diagnosable thing - there's a booklet on it written by the Arthritis Research Campaign aimed at 5-10 year olds which you can download from this link:

http://www.arc.org.uk/arthinfo/patpubs/6053/6053.asp

but don't worry - it's not the same as arthritis! The good news is it normally goes away in time but it can be pretty painful in the short term!

Yeah, I had extended periods of growing pains, but now know that ti could have been aching joints as I have the rheumatological condition Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. My parents always believed in growing pains, I believe my Dad (whom I inherited EDS from, except he's not diagnosed or very affected) had them a lot too, I forget how my sister did with them.

Like Zebra said, I still get growing pain like aching at the end of a busy day, but as I said, it's probably aching joints and fibromyalgia for me.

My little boy has been having these for the last 5-6 years. We find giving him 5ml calpol and 5ml nurofen helps but we massage his legs til the pain starts to subside.

My daughter suffered terribly with so called growing pains, we were convinced it was something more than that simply due to the fact that she was screaming every single night. Numerous trips to the doctors later we finally managed to have her referred to hospital just to check it out. Thankfully nothing serious was found and it put our minds at rest, but it was heartbreaking hearing her screaming every night.

I used to get growing pains when I was a nipper, and all 3 of my kids have had them or still get them. Some night we can be up all night with my youngest (who is 9) with the pains in her legs.
We give her paracetamol and more recently have been using one of those wheat bags that you heat in the microwave, which thankfully seems to help.

I had terrible growing pain when I was growing up, right behind my knees. I came up with a remedy that seemed to relieve the pain though. I'd get some kitchen roll, soak it with cold water and placed it at the back of my knee. The pain always went away pretty quickly after that.

I guess it was something to do with the cold water numbing the nerve.