Leg Pain Causes
ABDOMINAL PAIN:
Abdominal pain is the most common cause of lower limb pain in children. It can be due to various reasons, including constipation, urinary tract infection (UTI), appendicitis, and gastroenteritis.
BONY PAIN:
Musculoskeletal pain accounts for about 50% of all pediatric visits to the emergency department.
Child abuse is a common cause among toddlers and infants, while sports injuries tend to be more prevalent in adolescents.
Other less common causes of pain may include:
Infection (e.g., osteomyelitis)
Bone tumor
Degenerative joint disease
Fibromyalgia
Nerve entrapment (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome, tarsal tunnel syndrome)
Birth injury
Tumors
Trauma (e.g., sports injury)
Other causes of pain include:
Fever
Infantile colic
Post-surgical pain (e.g., following corrective procedures such as hernia repair, inguinal/umbilical/Hiatal stenosis, hypospadias)
Toxic synovitis (a clinical syndrome that usually follows septic arthritis)
Causes of leg pain in children
By Cause
INFECTION:
Osteomyelitis (bone infection)- this condition can cause bone pain, swelling, and fever. If the head of the thighbone (femur) is infected, then a child might have a limp or walk with a limp.
Septic arthritis- this condition can also cause fever, pain, and swelling in the affected joint.
Skin infection (cellulitis)- redness, warmth, and swelling are signs of cellulitis. This skin problem occurs when bacteria enter the skin through a cut or other wound. The most common causes of cellulitis are streptococcus and staphylococcus.
Tetanus (lockjaw) is a severe bacterial infection that affects the nervous system, causing unbearable muscle spasms. It is most common in toddlers aged 10, who may experience difficulty swallowing and opening their mouths.
Throat infection (pharyngitis):
causes a sore throat, causing pain when swallowing. Usually caused by streptococcus or adenovirus.
Urinary tract infections:
children aged one might experience fever, vomiting, stomach pain, or blood in the urine. These symptoms are more likely to occur in children who have a blockage or anatomical abnormality of the urinary tract.
Viral infection:
viruses such as enteroviruses and adenoviruses can cause mild to moderate fever, rash, muscle aches, sore throat, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting.
Pain in legs at night:
You are at night in bed, thus want to sleep. You have already read many articles or seen many videos to get rid of the pain, but it did not work. Pain starts this time also when you go to bed. This type of pain is excruciating and destroys your rest too much. So let us discuss the causes of leg pain while sleeping in this article.
Causes:
Leg pain at night can be caused due to many reasons, which are listed below:
Stiff muscles are one of the major causes of experiencing leg pain while sleeping. If your power is rigid, it cannot give enough space to your nerves and bones, leading to pain in the legs. Due to this, you get hurt in your legs at night.
Weak muscles are another reason for the pain of the legs at night. If your muscle is fragile, it cannot bear the weight of bones and nerves, which leads to a lot of pressure on them and thus makes you feel pain in your legs while sleeping.
leg pain treatment:
There are many types of medicines to get rid of leg pain at night. You can also do a few exercises and yoga for the treatment of leg pain at night. Yoga poses that help in reducing pain include Cobra pose, child pose, etc.
The heating pad is one of the common ways to get rid of the pain in your legs at night. You can also take a hot shower or use warm water to reduce pain in the legs at night.
Stretching:
It would help if you did some stretching exercises before going to bed to get rid of the pain in your legs. Another critical reason for leg pain during sleep is that you have not slept properly, so try to sleep on time.
Besides these, some health problems like rheumatism, arthritis, etc., are also responsible for the pain in your legs at night. If you have any of these diseases, you should consult a doctor to get rid of this problem.
If all these remedies fail, you can take the help of expert doctors or do surgery to get rid of the pain in your legs at night. Surgery, in this case, is just a last option, and it is not advisable to go for surgery unless any serious problem occurs.
So, these are some of the reasons you have leg pain during sleep at night; try to avoid these problems so that you can get rid of the pain in your legs quickly without any tension.
lower leg pain at night:
When you go lay in bed at night, your leg is very relaxed when you lie down. However, a problem arises when the muscle of your legs is not stiff enough to bear the weight of your body on it. Due to this, pressure affects muscles and becomes a part of pain in the lower limb at night.
In another situation, when you set your leg in one position for a long time, muscles tend to become stiff due to its pressure. This further increases the pain in your legs at night.
You can get rid of this problem by doing some exercises before going to sleep. Do not keep the exact position of your legs for a long time because while relaxing or sleeping, your legs are in a relaxed state.
Another reason for leg pain at night is that if you have not slept well and rested adequately, then there is a chance of you experiencing pain in the lower limb during sleep. Therefore, always keep in mind to sleep on time and rest before going to bed because that will be helpful for you to get rid of the pain in your legs at night.
Treatment:
There are many medicines and therapies available to remove this problem. For example, if you have very little time to do exercises or do yoga, you can use a heating pad at night to get rid of the pain in your legs. But it would help if you slept well before using a heating pad.
Acute pain :
Acute pain is that of short duration, lasting less than six weeks. It may be caused by injury or inflammation to tissue in the lower back, hip, knee, ankle, and feet. For example, a sprained ankle often causes acute pain.
Acute pain can resolve completely when there is an adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients. Acute pain is considered very important as it alerts us to possible injury, with which we can take action, e.g., the patient moves the affected body part with assistance.
Chronic Pain :
A common cause of chronic pain is musculoskeletal problems that lead to people needing long-term treatment or even surgery; this often occurs after an accident, although it can also be caused by arthritis or other problems.
Chronic pain is typically persistent (continuous or intermittent) rather than acute and long duration (at least six months). It represents the body’s response to certain conditions that are not healing correctly.
Chronic pain has many causes, including cancer or nerve damage. In addition, it can have physical or emotional reasons. It can be mild to highly excruciating, depending on the cause and type of pain. Chronic pain is considered very important as it alerts us to possible injury, with which we can take action, e.g., patient moves affected body part with assistance.
Cancer pain :
Cancer pain can be caused by cancer itself or its treatment. The type of cancer, the stage of the disease, and the tumor(s) location can affect how a person feels pain.
Cancer pain is also classified as being either acute or chronic. Acute cancer pain refers to that which develops after diagnosis or at the end of a long-standing established cancerous process. Chronic cancer pain refers to pain still present after the cancerous process has been treated or gone into remission for a significant period.
Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN):
PHN is a complication resulting from a previous attack of herpes zoster (shingles). This condition involves pain along the course of one or more nerves (trigeminal) affected by shingles. As a result, the patient experiences severe, burning, lancinating pain that is made worse by warmth and touching the affected area.
Patients with PHN may experience a chronic “hangover” effect from shingles, with pain occurring indefinitely after the rash and blistering have resolved. PHN is a complex problem for patients as it can be excruciating and debilitating.
Back pain:
This type of pain is prevalent, especially in the lower back, where most lumbar nerves are located. It can also occur in the neck and legs, but in these cases, it is usually a side effect of something going on in the back.
Back pain can be acute or chronic. An injury often causes acute lower back pain to muscles, ligaments, tendons, or spine bones. It may also be caused by overuse injuries, such as from exercises or sports.
Neuropathic pain :
It is often chronic and usually has no direct cause, making it hard to diagnose. This pain occurs when the nerve fibers themselves are damaged by diseases such as diabetes, shingles, shrapnel injuries, multiple sclerosis (MS), HIV infection, alcoholism, herpes zoster infections, and other conditions.