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Friends say they recall similar pains, which used to be called growing pains.
The description fits what doctors still call growing pains, or benign limb pains of childhood. The suffering is real, though the source is still not understood. Most pediatricians do not believe growing pains are actually related to the child's growth. For one thing, the location is ill-defined, not specifically at the limbs' growth plates, and for another, the pains occur mostly in the age group from 4 to 12, while the periods of most rapid growth are usually earlier or later. About 20 percent of healthy children get growing pains, usually at night and usually in the legs.