My son gets bad ankle pain which is disturbing his sleep. What to do?

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

There can be few reasons for his ankle pain:

1. Growth pains in addition to calf muscle over-exhaustion, can lead to such acute pains during sleep, or sometimes, it may not let the cold fall sleep at all.

2. Deficiency of calcium and magnesium it could be true deficiency (they are not getting enough of it in food) or it could be due to the sudden growth spurt or exhaustion, where the body’s demands are more than the amount supplied to it.

Apart from the above reasons, pain could also be because of a trauma to that area, and rarely due to a congenital disorder (unlikely in your child, if that was the reason, you would probably tell me about other symptoms as well).

So what you need to do now:

1. Supplementation of calcium and magnesium various syrup formulations are available. Please find out locally as to which one is available.

2. Give him plenty of fruits like bananas, apples, and foods containing green leafy vegetables.

3. Having a hot water bath before going to bed helps in controlling the pain in a big way.

4. You can continue massaging his legs at night.

Let me know if this pain persists even after one week of following the above advice.