AboutMary Pat, R.N. Expertise I am happy to answer general non-diagnostic questions on infant & child care, infant & toddler feedings, discipline, illnesses, and how to access resources for the child with special needs.
Experience I am a pediatric nurse, an R.N. with 40 years experience first as manager of a community hospital pediatric department & 11 years working in a private pediatric practice. I have managed more than 100,000 phone calls from parents in private practice.
2 days ago, my 3 year old son, suddenly start complaininng about leg pain and and suddeny refused to stand on his right leg, complaining about pain. We went to the hospital for first aid, xrays of his knee did not show ny sign of fracture. now 2 days laer he still does not walk, he has full flexibility in his leg and joints, and he does not has any pains whn not standing on his leg, lso he sleeps well en he now does anything in the house crawling n his kneew. Still I'm worrie about his condition. I saw this questions from another parent from 4 years ago (see below) it it exactly the same sitation, however I would be intrested how this childs condition improved or what has ben done to hep him. We are doing a blood examination today to rule out any infection or arthritis, however seeing my 3 year old struggling to stand on his feet, hurt me to the bone :(, any advise is greatly appreciated.
kind regards
Expert: David Olson, MD
Date: 10/15/2004
Subject: Toddler with pain in knee
Question
Hello, My 2 1/2 year old son just all of a sudden claimed of a pain in his right knee. When he went to walk on it, he fell and compained of pain. He said he could not walk on it, and pointed to the front part of the knee for where the pain was. My son, Matthew, is in very good health. He is 39" tall and weighs 34lbs. He is very active and has never complained of any pain in his leg before. This just happened yesterday. There is no brusing, swelling, redness, etc. on the right knee. We took him to the Dr. last night and after she examined him she could not find anything, and suggested we give it another day. He has full mobility, and shows no sign of knee pain when you bend his leg, move it, etc. when he is laying down. He says the most pain is when he tries to climb stairs. When he woke up today, he seemed to be a little cautious when he was walking and was definitely favoring his left leg over his right. His Dr called in the morning to see how he was doing and she was pleased that he was actually up and about without major pain, which allowed her to rule out a virus. She suggested that we try and go about our normal daily activities and see if he gets any better, so my wife, based on the Dr's suggestion took him to his normal Friday play group. After play group my wife called me and said he was great, and that he played as if nothing had ever happened. However, since he is now back home, he went to walk up stairs in our house and again fell to his knees and said his right knee hurt again and said he could not climb the stairs. He can walk on the floor, but he says the stairs hurt, going up and down. Do you have any idea what could be causing this acute pain? Should we be concerned at this point? One item to note is that all day yesterday he was playing just fine, but my wife did say he was jumping off the couch onto some pillows on the floor, but that he was landing on his feet, and while doing so he did not complain of any pain. I did read that this jumping from a high elevation could cause a small hairline fracture in his leg which would heal by iteself in a few days? Does this seem like it could be a potential cause?
Answer Dear Filip:
It is good you are providing your son with close monitoring by his doctor and they are doing all the right things to find out why he is not weight bearing on his leg.
It is impossible for me to advise you about the child whose parent wrote to Dr. Bowen 4 years ago. I and he would have no way of knowing what happened to the child.
