Muscle Pain: How to Care for Your Child

Muscle pain — also called myalgia (my-AL-jee-uh) — is pain or soreness in one or more muscles. It's common in kids and teens and usually gets better in a few days.

Follow your health care provider's recommendations for:

• taking a few days off from exercising

• any changes to medicines your child takes regularly

• going for any lab testing

• going to follow-up visits

To help your child feel more comfortable:

• Give acetaminophen (Tylenol^® or a store brand) OR ibuprofen (Advil^®, Motrin^®, or a store brand) if your health care provider says it's OK. Follow the directions on the label for how much to give and how often.

• Try a heating pad or hot pack on the sore muscles for about 15 minutes a few times a day. Be careful not to burn the skin.

• Massage the sore area.

• Your child's pain lasts longer than a few days.

• The pain gets worse or is severe.

• The sore muscles become swollen, red, warm, or painful to touch.

• Your child has other symptoms, such as pain in the joints, weakness, tea-colored pee, or fever.

What causes muscle pain? It can happen after exercising — for example, the arms or back might be sore from lifting a heavy weight, or one or both legs may be sore from running. Sometimes, a muscle is sore from an injury to it or a nearby part of the body, such as a sprained joint.

Kids also can feel muscle aches all over the body. This is common with infections like the flu or strep throat, certain medicines, low levels of some vitamins, and some medical conditions.