Intermittent night foot pain/hysteria

About once or twice a month, my healthy four-year old son wakes in the night screaming of foot pain. He is inconsolable. He complains that the foot hurts on the top. His toes, arch, heel, etc. don't hurt him. He's able to walk on the foot and it's never the same foot each time. When this happens he can scream for up to an hour at a time and sometimes this happens twice a night. His pediatrician found no abnormality.

His feet do not hurt during the day and he's a normal, active child. We've asked if he was telling us his foot hurt because he was having trouble sleeping and wanted company but he's adamant that he was in a great deal of pain.

We are perplexed because he does not whine/cry during these incidents. He screaches and curls up with his feet as if he is truly in great pain.

He is our only child. We are a stable, married family with no disfunctional circumstances. He is not in daycare but does attend 1/2 day school three days a week. He is not having any problems at school and these incidents don't appear to be related to any particular events in the daylight hours that come before or after. In every respect he is normal in development.

Any suggestions?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Since the episodes are relatively infrequent, there does not seem to be reason for alarm. I wonder if your son is experiencing some muscle cramp, though the location is a bit unusual for this. Have you consulted with a pediatric orthopedist? It would be sensible, for the sake of covering the bases, so to speak. The frequency indicates this behavior is not rooted in a psychological explanation.

[HHartman]

My twin daughters (who are now 8) have had leg and/or foot cramps since they were a year old which occur mostly in the early evening or at night.  We had x-rays and blood tests done which turned up nothing.  Our pediatrician says they are called "growing pains" and I have since found many articles on the subject.  It was a relief to find out it wasn't a psychological problem (although when they were smaller and feeling a little "needy" I think they would sometimes use it to get a little extra attention).  I've read that they can be hereditary and their father also had them as a child.  When they are really severe, we have given them children's Tylenol which alleviates the pain within 10-15 minutes and calms them down quickly.  We have also taught them stretching and rubbing exercises to do when they begin to feel a foot cramp coming on, and this seems to help with the less severe ones.