For Parents
My child has "growing pains" that won't stop
If your child wakes up crying about leg pain, and a doctor has already ruled out anything urgent and called it growing pains, that diagnosis can feel like an answer and a dead end at the same time. It doesn't explain why it keeps happening, or why it's worse some nights than others.
We're not doctors, and this page isn't meant to replace your pediatrician. It's a summary of published research on one factor that sometimes gets left out of the growing pains conversation, so you can ask a more specific question at your child's next visit.
The Hypermobility Link Behind Childhood Growing Pains
A case-control study comparing children with recurring growing pains to children without found a striking difference in joint flexibility, measured using the Beighton score, a standard nine-point test for joint hypermobility. Children with growing pains had a median Beighton score of 6, compared to 0 in the control group. Among the growing-pains group, 93.3% scored 4 or higher, meeting the threshold used for hypermobility in children, versus just 22.6% of controls. That difference was statistically significant (p<0.0001).
A separate study of 433 schoolchildren in Mumbai, ages 3 to 9, found 40.8% had joint hypermobility and 28.1% had growing pains, and among the children with growing pains, 61.4% were also hypermobile. A related cohort study found that generalized joint hypermobility in childhood predicts whether joint pain persists into the teenage years, rather than resolving on its own.
Read more on the hub page
Joint Instability and Subluxations in Hypermobility · The Beighton Score: Hypermobility Self-Assessment Test
What to bring to the pediatrician
This research doesn't mean every child with growing pains is hypermobile, or that hypermobility needs treatment on its own. It does mean joint flexibility is worth mentioning specifically, rather than assuming growing pains is a closed case. A pediatrician can check your child's joints and decide whether anything further is warranted. Please don't use an at-home flexibility check as a diagnosis; it's a starting point for a conversation, not a substitute for one.
Sources referenced on this page