Growing Pains

On Saturday evening, FireDad and I were enjoying some quiet time after TheBrothers went to bed. He was figuring out his mp3 player and I was bebopping around on blogs. The sun had already set, leaving us in a mostly dark living room. Suddenly, an ear-piercing cry was heard from BigBrother’s bedroom, one heard even over FireDad’s mp3 player earbuds. We ran back to his room to find him crying and writhing in pain.

“What hurts, Bubba?”

“My legs,” he sobbed.

“Which leg?”

“Both of them!”

I nodded my head as I gently rubbed his legs, glancing across the bed at FireDad. “Growing pains.”

FireDad looked at me like I had two heads, claiming he never experienced such a thing. (Turns out, in a discussion with his mother on the topic, he did have growing pains. FireDad frequently employs his selective memory.) But, back to BigBrother: growing pains. Oh, I hated them when I was growing up. I remember my mom coming into my room, responding to my cries, stretching across my bed in the dark to rub my legs. The rubbing didn’t necessarily make the pain go away but her presence, the presence of The One Who Fixes All, often helped me get back to sleep. By morning, the pain disappeared. Only to reappear again the next night. And the next.

After getting BigBrother back to sleep, I immediately Googled the topic (of course) as I didn’t really have any idea of what to do for him. I also tweeted about BigBrother’s growing pains and six different people responded regarding either themselves or their children and the associated experiences with the pain. And despite my husband’s selective memory, it seems as if growing pains are common.

Your child is probably experiencing growing pains, a normal occurrence in about 25% to 40% of children. They generally strike during two periods: in early childhood, among 3- to 5-year-olds, and later on, in 8- to 12-year-olds.

For those not familiar with our family, BigBrother will turn four this fall. So, he’s falling right in that first period of time. Great! So what am I supposed to do? I mean, my biggest Little Dude is in pain, he wants me to fix it and all I can do is massage his poor little legs. In fact, the whole experience made me get as introspective as this mama who wonders what her childrens’ growing pains (legs and other life experiences) will be like in the future. When I landed back in the reality of needing to fix the immediate problem and not to worry about the future (too much), I did find that there are some things to be done.

- The aforementioned massaging.
- Stretching the offending appendage.
- Placing a heating pad or hot water bottle on/near the area.
- Giving the appropriate amount of ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
- There are also some natural remedies: Calcarea Phosphorica as an example.

Note: Never give Aspirin to a child under 12 due to the association with Reye syndrome.

The truth is that your presence, as the parent, is also soothing. I mean, BigBrother thinks that I, the Almighty Mommy, can fix anything. After some massage and some discussion and some mental redirection (we talked about fishing), he felt a bit better. I hated watching him toss and turn and basically not stop moving in order to get away from the pain. I wanted to just magically touch his legs and remove the pain, calm him down. I knew, from experience, it didn’t quite work that way but, oh, how I wanted it to be the truth, to happen for me. To happen for him.

The good news is that he doesn’t have any of the warning signs which would dictate a call to the doctor. No fever, limping, unusual rashes, loss of appetite, weakness, tiredness, characteristics unlike that of BigBrother’s or pain in the morning. In fact, at sedden-zeedoh-zeedoh (seven o’clock for the non-three-year-old clock readers among us), he was ready and raring to go. I wasn’t quite ready yet but such is parenthood.

And so, after I got him calmed down the other night, he informed us that he needed Band-Aids. Band-Aids make everything better, right? FireDad went off and cut a regular (big) Band-Aid into two pieces. We placed one piece on each leg. I have decided to buy a large box of adhesive bandages and keep them on hand for future occurrences of growing pains. BigBrother has requested Thomas the Train. I don’t know, though… I think these are awfully smart looking. (See shins, behind the upside down Woody, who, by the way, also makes things better. Upside down or otherwise.)

As if the bandaged legs aren’t enough for smiles, the conversation we had while FireDad was cutting our very last Band-Aid into to pieces might very well be a heartbreaker. Thinking through ways to get him to calm down before the magical bandages arrived, I thought an explanation as to why this was happening might be appropriate.

“Do you know why your legs hurt?”

“NO!”

“You’re growing too fast!”

“I DON’T WANNA GROW TOO FAST.”

Oh, sweet baby, I don’t want you to grow too fast either. Not at all.