Growing pains in children can be distressing for the parent and child, but there are no long lasting consequences. Classical growing pains in children occur in in the upper part of the calf muscles or back of the knee. Typically it causes night-time foot pain. They do not occur in the knee joint and they do not occur in the bone. They usually wake the child from sleep. The child can normally be got back to sleep with reassurance and gentle rubbing of the area. The reason growing pains in children is important is that the pain on very rare occasions can be due to something very serious, so they do need to be carefully evaluated. Sometimes stretching before bed time can be helpful. If they are keeping the child from sleeping, then anti-inflammatory drugs can help some. The cause of growing pains in children is not known, but is likely to be biochemical and maybe related to muscular fatigue. Despite it being very common not a lot is clearly known about growing pains in children.
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