Growing pains are recurring aches in a child’s legs that typically show up in the late afternoon or at night and are gone by morning. They affect roughly 10% to 20% of children, usually between ages 3 and 14, and they resolve on their own once a child finishes growing. Despite the name, the pain isn’t actually caused by the process of growing itself.
What Growing Pains Feel Like
Children describe growing pains as an aching or throbbing feeling in the legs, most often in the front of the thighs, the calves, the shins, or behind the knees. The pain centers in muscles rather than joints, and it typically affects both legs. An episode can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
The hallmark timing is late in the day or during the night. A child might fall asleep fine and wake up crying from leg pain, or they might complain after a busy afternoon. By morning, the pain is usually completely gone, and the child walks and plays normally. Episodes come and go unpredictably. A child might have pain several nights in a row, then go weeks or months without it.
What Actually Causes Them
The honest answer is that nobody knows for certain. Despite being one of the most common childhood complaints, growing pains don’t have a proven cause. The name itself is misleading: there’s no evidence that the physical process of bones lengthening produces pain, and episodes don’t line up with growth spurts.
The leading theory points to muscle fatigue. Children who run, climb, and jump heavily during the day tend to report more episodes, which fits the pattern of pain arriving in the evening after an active day. Other researchers have explored whether children with growing pains have lower bone density or a lower pain threshold, but none of these ideas has been confirmed as the definitive explanation.
How Growing Pains Are Diagnosed
There’s no blood test or imaging scan that confirms growing pains. Doctors diagnose them by checking that the pain follows the classic pattern and ruling out other causes. A child with growing pains will have a normal physical exam: no swelling, no tenderness when the legs are pressed, full range of motion, and no limping. If the exam is normal and the history fits, no further testing is needed.
Several features make a doctor confident the pain is growing pains rather than something else:
- Bilateral pain. Both legs hurt, not just one. Pain only on one side occurs in up to 20% of cases but is less typical and warrants closer attention.
- Intermittent pattern. The pain comes and goes. It’s not constant, and it’s not getting steadily worse over time.
- Evening or nighttime onset. Pain that appears mainly in the morning or during physical activity suggests a different cause.
- Normal function between episodes. The child walks, runs, and plays without problems when the pain isn’t present.
How to Help Your Child Feel Better
Gentle massage is often the simplest and most effective relief. Rubbing the sore area in your child’s legs can ease the aching, and many children also feel better just from being held or cuddled during an episode. A warm cloth or heating pad on the legs helps relax the muscles. Stretching the calves, thighs, and hamstrings gently before bed may reduce the frequency of episodes, especially after a physically active day.
Over-the-counter pain relievers appropriate for children can help during a particularly uncomfortable night. Keeping your child active during the day is fine and encouraged. Growing pains are not a sign of injury, and there’s no need to restrict play or sports.
Signs That Something Else Is Going On
Growing pains are harmless, but leg pain in children can occasionally signal a more serious condition. The following features are not consistent with growing pains and deserve medical evaluation:
- Pain in the morning or with activity. This pattern can point to inflammatory arthritis or an overuse injury.
- Joint swelling, stiffness, or redness. Growing pains affect muscles between joints, not the joints themselves.
- Limping or refusal to bear weight. A child with growing pains walks normally between episodes.
- Pain that limits daily activities or sports. True growing pains don’t stop a child from doing what they normally do.
- Pain that is constant or steadily worsening. Growing pains are intermittent by definition.
- Fever, weight loss, fatigue, or loss of appetite. These systemic symptoms can indicate infections or, rarely, conditions like leukemia.
- Pain isolated to one specific spot. Focal tenderness in one area may suggest a bone infection or a bone lesion.
How Long Growing Pains Last
Growing pains can come and go for years, which understandably worries some parents. But they resolve completely once a child reaches skeletal maturity, the point at which the bones stop growing, typically in the mid-to-late teenage years. They don’t cause any lasting damage, don’t affect how bones or muscles develop, and don’t lead to arthritis or other problems later in life. For most children, the episodes become less frequent well before adolescence ends.