Growing Pains: Did You Know?

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine, Science & Society

Ed Hessler

The McGill Office for Science and Society (OSS) posted a short article - first published in the Skeptical Inquirer - about a common phrase: growing pains.

Author Ada McVean writes After writing that "They just don’t have anything to do with growing,"  Ada McVean writes about fear it causes in children and the accompanying anxiety in parents, offers a definition, their frequency in children, the knowns and unknowns, concluding with some comments on their treatment.

 

The Mayo Clinic offers similar advice on treatment in an information sheet about growing pains, although it says nothing about "lots of chocolate and snuggles". The sheet includes an overview, followed by symptoms, when to see a health care provider (important section), causes, and risk factors.

I'm not an MD or a Nurse Practitioner or is the author and was on the verge of not sending a link to the original article but am more comfortable in posting it after reading the Mayo Clinic Information Sheet which includes almost identical recommendations but expands them to other symptoms to look for. McVean offered one I appreciated, about chocolate and snuggles.

Read the article.