My son wakes up screaming in the middle of the night about 3-4 nights per week with leg cramps. I can feel the knots in his calfs, quads & hamstrings. My husband & I end up taking turns going in his room to massage his legs and try to work out the cramped muscle. We try to do that first before giving him tylenol or ibuprofen. However, most of the time we resort to giving him pain meds as well since he usually wakes up multiple times per night. I called his doctor's office & they told me it's normal & try giving him bananas. While this might give him some benefit, it can also plug him up. Has anyone gone through this, and if so, did you find anything that helped? My son is a red-head with sensitive skin so I also need to watch what kinds of creams or lotions I apply to him.
Leg Cramps can be due to a potassium deficiancy, thats why they recommended bananas. My neice used to have terrible growing pains, that sound very similar to what you are talking about. Try a multivitamin with lots of potassium or try to get him to eat other foods high in it.
Good Luck!
2 of my 4 kids have dealt with this as well so I definitely know what you're talking about. A couple things that have helped us:
-a good stretch is to have him lay on his back, legs flat on the ground. You take one leg and place his ankle on your shoulder (you are obviously low to the ground at this point). Hold your hand on his knee to keep it from bending. SLOWLY raise his leg until HE says to stop and then just hold it there. After about a minute, you may be able to raise another inch. I remind my son to breathe deep while I'm doing this - it helps him to relax and to get oxygen to his muscles.
-rub a pain rub on the muscle. I use Melaleuca's Pain-a-Trate because it penetrates further into the muscle. Then I put on an old leg-warmer (yes, from the 80s).
-a heating pad set on LOW is also very helpful but you'd never want to leave it on all night unsupervised.
-at last resort, I use ibuprophen. Tylenol products don't seem to help.
The cramps are most likely a potassium deficiency or dehydration. Is your son taking a vitamin daily? If he is and still needs potassium, here is a list of edible options (and the amount of potassium):
Papayas 304 1 papaya 781 mg
Lima Beans 188 1 cup 955 mg
Plantains 179 1 medium 893 mg
Jerusalem Artichokes 150 1 cup 644 mg
Bananas 118 1 banana 422 mg
Oat Bran 94 1 cup 532 mg
Tomatoes 255 1 cup 528 mg
Cucumber 301 1 large 442 mg
Cantaloupe 160 1 cup 427 mg
Pears 275 1 pear 333 mg
Mangoes 207 1 mango 323 mg
potatoes
My daughter had similar issues, though not so extreme as to cause night time screaming. Anyway, we got the same advice to give her bananas. We did that and also had her do some leg stretches each night before bed. Toe touches for the hams, heel to bottom for quads, and standing on the steps, heels down for calves. This combination really seemed to help. She also was sensitive to the binding effects of bananas, so we made sure to include more high fiber foods in her diet. Oatmeal or raisin bran for breakfast, raisins and yogurt for snacks, honey is also a great, natural stool softener. Good luck!
Hi B.,
Growing pains are a real and painful problem for some kids. Our son has had problems and our pediatrician gave me lots of great information about it. Basically, kids are growing faster now than at any other time in their lives and the changes in their bodies as they grow so fast can cause physical pain and discomfort. Potassium can help as can otc pain relievers such as tylenol or ibuprofin. Remember, it seems scary because it happens at night when everything seems scarier. He's probably having the issues during the day too but he is up and active and not noticing the symptoms like he does lying still at night. Comfort him, ease the pain and know that it is temporary. If your concerns persist, contact your pediatrician and take him in. Hang in there!
Maybe he is lacking potassium. Have him eat banannas.
He could be deficient on magnesium......many people are. There is a supplement for kids called Kidscal by NOW brand. It has calcium and magnesium in it and comes in a yummy orange taste. Otherwise he should be able to get it from foods rich in magnesium. Almonds, dark green vegetables, avocadoes, mangos and melons.
You could request that your doctor do a blood test to find out if he is nutritionally deficient in any areas. That would be your best bet.
It sounds as though your son is going through some growing pain.
Bananas are the best to give him the potassium he needs to stop the cramps. Also, you might want to try Tums.
I get cramps and charlie horses in my feet and legs because of low calcium. I have a health issue called "hyper-para-thyroidism". Tums takes the cramps away within minutes.
Having a banana a day will help him. The doctor is right.
It helps me tremendously!
J.
This can be a sign of calcium deficiency. A no-sugar kid's multi, or a chewable vitamin could help.
My son is going through that right now and he is also a red head with sensitive skin. I have also heard that water and bananas help. I hope it does because it was really bad last night and he kept waking up with them. He's twelve and it scared me to death when he started hollering. Hopefully these things will help. I did give him water and a vitamin last night and it seemed to help. On my way to get bananas now!
Cramps can be caused by dehydration. Make sure he's getting a lot of water to drink. I also found out they can be caused when your spine becomes mis-aligned. This is why you get a lot of these while you're pregnant - because your back gets so out of whack with the extra weight in front. I wonder if you might want to see about taking him to a chiropractor. See if that helps.
