Night Time Hip Pain

[Mom210]

My 5 year old daughter wakes up in the middle of the night on a regular basis complaining of pain in the top of her right pelvic bone. This has been happening for approximately 7 months now.
When the pain first began she would sometimes vomit and also complained of stomach pain. The pain would occasionally occur during the day but mostly at night between the hours of 2-6am. We took her to our family physician, who after giving her a urine test, diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection. She was prescribed Septra for 10 days and symptoms improved. About 2 months later, the pain came back, she returned to the doctor, was given another urine test, diagnosed with another urinary tract infection and put on 10 more days of Septra. At this time, he was concerned about kidney damage and ordered an ultrasound. The ultrasound came back clear.
Next, he referred her to a urologist to determine if she had vesicoureteral reflux. The urologist gave her a urine test and said she did not have a urinary tract infection and did not exhibit any of the usual symptoms. After a consultation and physical exam, he questioned whether or not she ever had a UTI, but went ahead and ordered a VCUG and renal ultrasound. She did not have a fever, did not experience burning or difficulty urinating, leaking or bed wetting.
After the VCUG and renal ultrasound, we discussed the results with the urologist. He said that she did not have kidney reflux and she seemed perfectly healthy. He said although he is not a bone specialist, he did not see anything wrong with her hip bone on the VCUG or ultrasound either. He recommended that if the pain continued to see our family doctor again who might refer us to a bone specialist for more tests.
This night time "hip pain" is becoming quite troublesome and expensive and we are no closer to resolving the issue than the day it began 7 months ago. My husband and I are beginning to wonder if it is just growing pains or a gastrointestinal issue, possible caused by gas or constipation?
I'm afraid to keep giving her ibuprofen on a regular basis. We've been trying to give her placebos instead by giving her a medicine cup of sugar water or putting Vapor Rub on it and calling it "hip cream". This rarely works and she is in visible pain. She will wake up and climb into our bed. She tries to be quiet and not wake me up, but I can hear her grunting in pain and tensing up. We are all losing sleep over the matter and the medical bills are piling up. Most importantly though, I hurts me, as a mother, to see a 5 year old child in pain on a regular basis and there's nothing anyone can do about it?
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please reply. I have exhaustively searched the internet for an answer to no avail. Again the pain is on the top of her right pelvic bone and occurs almost exclusively at night. She does not have pain in her hip joint or anywhere else, is healthy otherwise and there are no other symptoms.

[punky2002]

My 6 yr old dtr. is experiencing the same thing.  It really bothers her in the middle of the night and when she gets up in the morning.  However, later through the day and afternoon she seems ok.  I have been researching as well and can not find anything to explain what is going on.  I thought growing pains as well, but read that they do not occur in the upper thigh, pelvic, hip area?  I will keep searching and let you know if I find anything out and would appreciate if you could do the same.   Thanks.
PUNKY2002

[Mom210]

Thanks for the reply. I'm sorry to hear that you're daughter is having the same problems. I will definitely let you know if I find anything out.

[Angelinthemorning]

The gastrointestinal sounds like a valid explanation.  When I was 12 years old I started getting similar pains. (Although mine was usually right b4 bedtime).  Start recording the foods they eat and see if that contributes at all to how much pain they have.  I was diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) put on meds and that seemed to clear the problem up.  However, are you noticing any symptoms to support this??  Constipation, diaherra?  Encourage lots of water and up the bran in their diet.  If IBS is the cause those would both help tremendously.Those would both be good indicators.