Growing Pains in Children — Medicaid (QUEST) Accepted

Your child wakes up crying with achy legs, but by morning is running around fine — this classic pattern is almost always “growing pains,” a common and harmless part of childhood. Knowing the reassuring signs, and the few red flags that aren’t growing pains, lets you respond with confidence.

What growing pains are

Despite the name, they aren’t caused by growth. Growing pains (benign nocturnal limb pains of childhood) are a common, harmless cause of leg aches, affecting roughly a third of children around ages 4 to 6, though they can occur older. The classic picture: aching in both legs — thighs, shins, or calves — late in the day or at night, with a completely normal, active child by morning.

How we tell them apart from something serious

The reassuring features are that the pain is in both legs, comes and goes, and leaves no lasting problem — there is no limp, no swelling, no redness, and no fever. Family-medicine guidance stresses that pain in one leg, a limp, joint swelling or redness, fever, weight loss, or pain that is there in the daytime and getting worse is not typical growing pains and should be evaluated.

How we approach it at Ohana Care Clinic

For true growing pains, comfort is the treatment: gentle massage, a warm compress, stretching, and occasionally an appropriate dose of acetaminophen or ibuprofen on a rough night. Mostly it is reassurance — for the child and the worried parent. When the pattern doesn’t fit, we look further to rule out other causes, and a telehealth visit is often enough to sort out which is which.

Getting care by telehealth

Most of our care at Ohana Care Clinic happens by secure video across Hawaiʻi. A new pediatric patient is seen in person for the first visit at our Hilo clinic; after that, many follow-ups, feeding and sleep questions, and behavior check-ins work well by video — which makes it easy to loop us in without packing up the whole ʻohana.

When to get help now

Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room for a baby who is limp, unresponsive, has trouble breathing, or a child with severe or one-sided pain, swelling, fever, or a limp that keeps them from walking. When in doubt, call us at (808) 867-8002 or use our symptom checker for after-hours guidance.

Medically reviewed by Donna Leonard, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, pediatric nurse practitioner, and George Mackel, MSN, APRN, NP-C, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, President & Owner of Ohana Care Clinic.
Date published: July 2, 2026 · Last reviewed: July 2026 · Citations verified: July 2026

This article is general health education from Ohana Care Clinic, reviewed by Donna Leonard, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, and George Mackel, MSN, APRN, NP-C, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP. It is not a substitute for a personal evaluation by a qualified clinician who knows your child’s situation, and reading it does not create a provider–patient relationship. If you think your child may have a medical condition, reach out to us or another licensed provider. In an emergency, call 911.

References

Junnila, J. L., & Cartwright, V. W. (2006). Chronic musculoskeletal pain in children: Part I. Initial evaluation. American Family Physician, 74(1), 115–122. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2006/0701/p115.html