What Are Growing Pains?

Growing pains are a hallmark of growing and developing during adolescence. However, these natural aches and pains can significantly impact your child’s day-to-day life if left unmanaged. Fortunately, your local chiropractors at East Lake Chiropractic and Medical Center in St. Cloud, FL, can treat your child’s growing pains to ensure they maintain health and well-being during their growth and development. We are here to tell you more about growing pains and how our chiropractors treat them.

Understanding Growing Pains

Growing pains are deep muscle aches and throbbing sensations, usually in the legs, thighs, and calves, that children feel throughout adolescence. Some children experience severe growing pains that disrupt their ability to sleep. Others have growing pains that affect both legs at the same time. Although it is in the name, many doctors believe growing pains do not occur due to growth spurts. Instead, growing pains may result from increased activity during the day and tight muscles.

Treating Growing Pains 

Most growing pains resolve within minutes or hours without any intervention. You can give your child a heating pad or over-the-counter medication to treat most growing pain symptoms. However, severe growing pains may require treatment from our chiropractors since underlying spinal health issues could be the culprit.

Our chiropractors will begin your child’s treatment with manual therapy to massage the soft tissues in their legs. We knead and stretch the muscles and soft tissues to increase circulation. Doing this promotes blood and oxygen flow to the legs, easing tension and reducing pain. We may follow manual treatment with hot and cold therapy to improve your child’s soft tissue health. Spinal adjustments may be necessary to correct misalignments in your child’s spine and surrounding joints contributing to their growing pains. Therapeutic stretches and exercises also help your child’s muscles remain loose to prevent pain.

Visit Your Chiropractors Near You in St. Cloud, FL, to Treat Your Child’s Growing Pains

Growing pains can make your child’s daily life painful and challenging, so contact your local chiropractors at East Lake Chiropractic and Medical Center in St. Cloud, FL, to treat your child’s growing pains today. We can improve your child’s spinal health and help them move around without pain again, so call us and schedule a consultation at (407) 957-9995 to keep your child active and healthy.