Growing Pains

I remember nights when I was a kid, when I would toss and turn and cry because my shins hurt. My mom always told me it was growing pains. According to KidsHealth.org, growing pains occur in 25 to 40 percent of children and usually between 3 to 5 year-olds and 8 to 12 year-olds. Apparently, both my boys, my husband and I are in this small percentage (the hubs remembers it all too well).

Last night, Dillon woke up crying that his foot hurt. He did slip and fall in the garage yesterday, but he said it was both feet. Humm. Call the doctor? Did he hurt himself when he slipped?

Because it was both feet, I decided it was growing pains, which Parker gets all the time (he's five now, so does that mean it will stop soon?). I gave Dillon some Motrin and within ten minutes he was asleep again. That's some good stuff. Right?

This got me thinking - What causes growing pains anyway? Apparently, 'growing pains' is sort of a misnomer. There is no evidence that they are caused by actually growing. According to KidsHealth, "the most likely causes are the aches and discomforts resulting from the jumping, climbing, and running that active kids do during the day. The pains can occur after a child has had a particularly athletic day."

If your kids are as active as mine, that could be everyday; however, yesterday was a busy one. The first nice day in weeks (well second). They played outside for a couple hours with the neighbor kids after school. Dillon never even made it inside to put his backpack away. Instead, he went straight out to play.

Here's to hoping that Parker will outgrow it soon and Dillon, who's four, will have an easy go of it.