There are many health issues that children face such as Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA), scoliosis, circulatory problems, migraines and for girls there is endometriosis to name a few. I suffered from painful legs from the age of 11 and would walk to school in tears for two year, and this was a long walk every day from a top floor flat and walking up hills to get to my school a suburb away. My mother dismissed it as growing pains and I was never taken to a doctor. I have always had painful legs and circulation problems not to mention Reynaud’s syndrome, as I got to my 30’s, which is agonising in my feet and hands. I assume my parents didn’t know about magnesium deficiency or B12 back in the early 1970’s and it may have helped me. By my teenage years the circulation in my legs got worse and I would lose all feeling in my legs sitting on the floor at school assemblies. My parents didn’t take me to a doctor to find out why, they were just not interested. My circulation is much worse nowadays in my arms and legs, which causes me to lose a lot of sleep every night.
Parents need to be more aware and listen to their children, but not to encourage hypochondria. Children should have proper medical checkups like adults do, because children do get cancer, tumours and many different health conditions. Girls do have a higher pain tolerance than boys but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something wrong. Do not let a doctor fob you off and be respectful when asking to be sent to a specialist or a paediatrician.
Hormonal changes are notorious for playing havoc with adolescents too from severe acne, which can become infected, to girl’s reproductive system problems, this includes fibrocystic breast disease. Doctors tend to be very dismissive of this and I speak from experience of over 43 years of chronic breast pain. I lost confidence in doctors in the first two years and I found male doctors were the worst and very ill informed of such matters. I ended up going through alternative therapy but even that was not successful. When it comes to girls and hormones, please don’t rule anything out because it can last a lifetime with misery and pain.
