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Our little Willie (five years old) has been complaining of leg pain off and on for two months. It's becoming more on than off lately. The pediatrician says it's probably not growing pains. What else could it be?

Growing pains in children are nothing new. Physicians back in the 1800s made note of them. But are they real? And if so, what are they really? If you ask the children affected by this condition, you'll know the pain is very real. The more accurate question might be: what is causing these pains? Is it fatigue? Psychological? Or something in the joint, bone, or surrounding soft tissues? Believe it or not, even with all our current technology, we still don't really know much about the underlying pathologic or biologic cause of what we refer to as "growing pains." Children under the age of eight aren't as likely to be having leg pain as a result of rapid growth. So what else could these pains be caused by? The physician must sort through several different possible diagnoses including rheumatoid arthritis, muscle cramping, bone tumors, or some other bone disease. Blood tests are often used to look for inflammatory or infectious causes of leg pain. Imbalances of body chemistry such as calcium, vitamin D, or magnesium are possibilities though not likely in a child this age. X-rays may reveal any bone abnormalities, tumors, or cysts. Most leg pain in children is considered benign. In other words, it hurts at the moment but over time, the painful symptoms will go away as mysteriously as they arrived. There may never be a known cause of the problem.

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