If a person or organization suffers from growing pains, they experience temporary difficulties and problems at the beginning of a particular stage of development.
There's some sympathy for this new country's growing pains.
...the growing pains of teenagers experiencing their first taste of adulthood.
2. plural noun
If children suffer from growing pains, they have pain in their muscles or joints that is caused by unusually fast growth.
growing pains in British English
plural noun
1.
pains in muscles or joints sometimes experienced by children during a period of unusually rapid growth
2.
difficulties besetting a new enterprise in its early stages
growing pains in American English
1.
recurrent pains in the joints and muscles, esp. of the legs, of growing children
a loose term with no precise medical meaning
2.
difficulties experienced in the early development of a person, project, etc.
growing pains
temporary difficulties and problems in an organization or a relationship as it develops and grows stronger
The country is now facing some troublesome growing pains. The economy is still expanding,but at a slower rate than in the recent past.
Examples of 'growing pains' in a sentence
growing pains
Often I am ill with my growing pains and the breathing I am not supposed to think about and raging headaches that leave me hollow-eyed.
Hilary Mantel LEARNING TO TALK: SHORT STORIES (2003)
He knew it was just a case of growing pains, the natural transition process from small-time local supplier to major distributor.