leg pain

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My son J (9years old) often complains once in bed of leg pain, aching calves, sore ankles etc.
Is this possibly an AS muscle tone thing or is it something else?
Over the past few years I've had him at the doc's for hip soreness, pains in the legs, arms etc, he has ordered tests if the pain doesnt go away, but it always does before I get these tests done.
J also crys when he has to do army crawl (part of OT) .
Does anyone else suffer these problems?

i'm not sure but i also have leg pain and i have aspergers, artheritis, lumbar lordosism ptsd, anxiety disorder, not really sure what the leg pain is from, i wake up in major leg pain, where hamstrings are. have to walk around for like 30 seconds for it to stop. if anyone knows what it is from please let us know. good question aurea

VERY good question. I have had this life-long, and no one can explain to me why I have so much pain.

My middle son has had that happen to him since he was very small. At night he would wake up screaming in pain and there was very little I could do but massage his legs with mentholatum rub, which works the same as the rubs for adults but is safer for children.

I have found that making sure he has a glass of milk (in his case soya milk with calcium) and eating a banana or banana muffin before bed also helps. The banana contains magnesium and potassium. Both of these nutrients promote muscle relaxation and help to keep the cramping at bay.
He says that he doesn't get the pains as much now that he is a teenager but he still does have them. He has also added chamomile tea to his bedtime routine and uses essential oil of lavendar (a drop on his pillow) to relax if he is tense at bedtime. All of these things help.

It may also be worth your time to find out if he may need arch supports for his shoes. One of my dayhome children had leg pain and when they gave him the supports for in his shoes it made a 100% difference. He walked without tripping and after a month no longer complained about the pain.

Good luck with your son and I hope maybe you'll find some of these ideas useful.



Lauri

I have tons of leg pain, but i have arthritis as well, but my calves, and thighs hurt a ton, my physician said i need to drink more water which will help, but not totally eliminate the pain, because he doesn't know what it is either. Other then that i don't know what i can be, if somebody finds out let me know as well.

_________________
Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Wow, well yes my ankles get inflamed if I walk too much. I just think its cause I sit on my butt at a computer 25/24 hrs a day.

I've always had unexplained leg pain since I was young too. Mostly at bedtime, I would feel horroble sharp aches run through the centre of my leg (always one or the other never both at once), almost as if it were in my bones . Sometimes it would be bad enough to keep me awake, writhing on the bed. The most I ever did for it was take tylenol and bare it. My mom always said my legs were "growing".

I still have it to this day, though not as often and it's now more common at other times of the day (I just went through an episode early today). It normally lasts between 15mins to 40, sometimes waning in and out. I've never seen a doctor about it beause I always either forgot or my mom thought it wasn't serious enough....

Very strange.

Why is the OT making him do the "army crawl" if it's making him cry? This sounds barbaric.

Honestly, I never trusted the OT people. I witnessed some strange things they made kids do--kids were always reluctant about it. Seemed sort of quackish to me.

It's probably best to just sign your child up for basketball or swimming or some sport so he/she can work out in a natural environment at his/her own pace.

I think I'd cry too at nine-years of age if someone was making me do an army crawl. It seems humiliating. It's one thing if you're in a race or choose to do this, but to have an adult make you do this?

One time the doctor told me to run in place so he could check my heart rate. I was utterly humiliated! It was unnatural and he stared at me the whole time. I'll never forget it. Private kids want privacy and feel awkward skipping, hopping, bopping about for another adult.

equinn

does he receive PT services ?....You could ask about muscle tone.

Wow! sounds like maybe the leg pain is an AS thing.
The army crawl is "homework" given by the OT.
I'm not real good at getting him to do it tho, he doesnt like it. He does do swimming.

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Get his feet checked out. I had extreme leg / ankle / feet pain when in 6th grade and we found out it was all being caused by a severe case of flat feet. I've now had custom orthotics for 4 years plus and they've almost completely eradicated all the problems I had. I occasionally sprain my ankle (since my flat feet had gone unnoticed for so long my ankles are very weak now) and that hurts like %&(@#$%, but other than that I'm great.

Are they like severe cramps? I used to get severe cramps in my legs in my sleep when I was little. I was told that it was because of a calcium deficiency, just like blessedmom was saying. Then I got them again when I was pregnant, so I started taking more calcium and they went away. It helps to flex the foot up and stretch the muscle out and also to lower the leg so they get more circulation.

Hi aurea,

my son gets leg pains too, specifically in one leg and in his knee. I give him neruofen and that helps a lot. I went to the paed about it and he said that J has a hypermobile knee, which I think means is too flexible.

See ya,
Eva

I get that. I was diagnosed with and treated for high muscle tone when I was little.

Sometimes I wake up and feel like my foot is on backwards. I think it's just leg cramps, but I'm not positive.

The rest of the time, it's either because of spine problems (lower back problems) or something to do with my sensory weirdness, where it feels like I have ants crawling IN my skin.