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Expert Q&A
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| By Michael F. Wasserman General Pediatrician | ||
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My child has been complaining of knee and leg pains at night. It's not every night, rather just a couple nights in a row once or twice a month. I have resorted to children's pain medicine once or twice, but I am wondering if topical treatments like ICY HOT and BENGAY are safe to use with a child this age.
Leg and knee pains are often signs of children overusing their muscles, joints and tendons. Using ice packs or oral pain medicine (e.g. Tylenol) is fine. The BENGAY and ICY HOT preparations are generally distracters of the nerves that transmit the pain. If these are truly muscle cramps, sometimes a multivitamin with calcium/magnesium can be helpful in prevention.
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