To ask for any advice, my daughter has had stomach ache for over 2 years

[Imsolucky1983]

I am at my wits end. My daughter started complaining of stomach ache and "sick" coming up her throat age 5. After a year of doctors visits I eventually went to a&e after being up for 8 hours with a screaming child. We were given a diagnosis of acid reflux. Gaviscon didn't help. Ranitidine helped about 50:/: we are now on lansoprosole which has helped about 75:/: but we are still having about 4 attacks of a "burning stinging" stomach a night, and about one episode of heartburn a day. My dd is now 7 and is so fed up, she asked me if she will feel ill forever we are under a consultant they have done an ultrasound of her stomach, tested for a bacterial infection with a stool sample and done a blood test. We see them again in a month. They are not overly concerned though. My dd is finding the pain so upsetting though she has even had to have a few days off school when she has been awake with the pain at night. She has said it's hard to concentrate on her work at school when the pain is really bad. She was even in pain on Christmas Day. I've noticed it is worse in the hours before she does a poo. We are currently trying a dairy free diet as her younger sister has cows milk protein intolerance but so far it has not made any difference. We have tried probiotics which help with her mild? constipation, although her ultrasound showed a lot of poo but they were not concerned. We have tried movicol but that seemed to make the pain worse. She has been tested for cealiac. We have taken her to a cranial osteopath. We have increased fruit veg fibre and water intake. We have tried gaviscon in conjunction with lansoprozole. I am at a loss. Does anyone have any experience of something similar? Or any ideas of other things we can try?

[fibrecruncher]

Sorry to hear this op, no advice I'm afraid but this sounds a terrible situation for your daughter. I hope the Dr's figure out what's wrong.

[DJBaggySmalls]

Thats a lot for a child to cope with. How about a childrens chewable calcium supplement before bedtime? It should help neutralise stomach acid. A drink of milk might help as well. Try lactose free, goat or camels milk if you are concerned about lactose.

[TitaniasCloset]

Omeprozole might work better? Sorry I'm not sure. But poor thing, how awful for her

[DailyFail1]

Have they ruled out inflammatory bowel disease?

[RhodaBorrocks]

Are they certain she doesn't have a congenital hiatal hernia? I had one and it wasn't found until I was 16. My DParents later said they felt so bad that they allowed the doctors to fob them off for 16 years, including treating me for lactose intolerance/cow's milk allergy/reflux/stomach ulcer/mental illness.

[WyfOfBathe]

As well as trying to "fix" the causes, could you ask your GP or the consultant about referring your DD for pain management? They may be able to provide her with painkillers, or alternatively with therapies like CBT or meditation to help her with the emotions cause by being in pain.

[LucieLucie]

Back to basics, have you ruled out a parasite invasion?

[MummyIsAFreeElf]

My little cousin suffered from something very similar. He cut out fizzy juice and water, anything citrus or spicy and anything else that was acidic and it really helped him.

[Barktheheralddogssing]

I had this ... it was diagnosed as ibs-c.

I had mild constipation and terrible pain in my lower stomach, very low, when I needed to go, so that I was dout led over with the pain, it made me cry.

All fibre is not equal ... it can make ibs worse.

I cut out gluten and had lactose free products. Then increased water intake and added a psyllium husk capsule per day.

Obviously for a child I would check with your gp or chemist first.

I now never have that pain, so something helped.

[Barktheheralddogssing]

doubled over with pain fgs ...

[EstelleRoberts]

Sounds dreadful, the poor love.

Has it been suggested that she might have food intolerances? They can cause reflux and stomach ache. While foods like dairy, wheat, soy etc are the obvious candidates, it is possible to be intolerant of any food, and some people are intolerant of many. My DD is intolerant of dairy and wheat, but also foods that are usually viewed as innocuous, like carrot, grapes, banana and sweet potato.

Unfortunately, there are no tests for intolerances, so the only way to identify them is to go on an elimination diet and then gradually add foods in until symptoms show. It is a pain, but better than being in pain every day.

I hope you get some answers soon.

[LeadPipe]

How is her weight?

She might try sleeeping on an incline to help with the night reflux/pain. One of my pregnancies the pain was so bad that I had to sleep sitting up for about 6 months. It really did help with the pain.

If she has a lot of poo then I'd definitely try to get things moving along as much as possible. It really might make a difference to her pain.

So sorry she's going through this.

[mawbroon]

I replied on your other thread, but this one probably will have more trafic, so I'll C&P.

Just to add another story.

DS1 was like this. When he was 6yo, I got to the root cause of it which was an undiagnosed posterior tongue tie. He was swallowing a lot of air when he chewed and swallowed because his tongue was unable to lift fully to complete the "correct" swallowing action. The air was coming back up and bringing stomach contents with it, so although technically not reflux, it had the same effect. He complained of a burning stomach and chest as well as being sick in his mouth a lot. Omeprazole helped a bit, but not very much.

He had an endoscopy which ruled out anything sinister, but did show irritation and some crystals in his oesophagus, so it definitely wasn't nothing.

We had his tongue tie released when he was around 6.5yo and the "reflux" stopped overnight, I kid you not. Within a fortnight, he had loads of energy and he's never complained of it since - he's 11 yo now.

He also had a rake of other things going on which were also related to his tongue tie and orofacial structure. He had a very high palate which restricted the space for his eustacian tubes and his nostrils. He had ENT problems, slept terribly from birth, snored badly, bouts of apnoea and mouth breathing to name a few of the difficulties and by age 7yo, even my untrained eye could see he was in for a load of orthodontic problems too.

You've only asked about the stomach pains, so I won't write an essay on how I dealt with the other problems, but if any of them are also familiar, I'm happy to expand.

Unfortunately, I was fobbed off by HCPs all over the place when I told them it was all related to his tongue tie. Mainstream HCPs are woefully underinformed about it. They spout "might affect speech and licking ice creams" but there is much, much, much more to it than that. I had to dig and dig until I found the information and help that I needed.

[whoneedswings]

I had this as a teenager and after a couple of years of tests was simply diagnosed as 'stomach migraines' which are apparently common in children, and yes incredibly, almost unbearably painful. Switching to goats milk and watching my diet carefully has helped me control it, but the trigger for mine is emotional pain or stress (hence the worst being when you're young) and I will set it off every now and again.

Some other good suggestions on here though so keep searching and the very best of luck

[LeadPipe]

Did they try motility drugs? Such as Domperidome (this one may be outdated but there are others) to help with gastric emptying? She may have delayed gastric emptying and a motility drug could move the food out of her stomach more rapidly.

[TerrorAustralis]

Has she been tested for h. pylori?

[LeadPipe]

Maybe at your next appointment ask about these things: (I'm just throwing stuff out there)

The next line of treatment for her constipation? (usually a stimulant laxative (such as senna) and if stools are hard combined with lactulose (or stool softeners).

Are they certain that she doesn't have faecal impaction?

At what point would they consider scoping her?

Can they do barium swallow test?

[Out2pasture]

ABDOMINAL MIGRAINS

[Gooseberryfools]

Celiac testing is sometimes not reliable. I would probably try being gluten free for 10 days

[Mummyoflittledragon]

Your poor little girl. I had regular stomach pain but not constant, which mother described as growing pains - doubled over in pain. Thank goodness things are moving on, mother didn't even bother to take me to the doctor.

I am now gluten free, dairy free. I also eat very little added sugar. I eat plenty of plant food, mainly vegetables. I buy raw sauerkraut (can get online or from internet). I take probiotics (biokult - they do it for kids too). I also eat coconut oil (with a sliver of dark chocolate to help it go down as the texture is a bit yukky. I drink a little diluted raw apple cider vinegar (raw with the mother, which I buy from Amazon). I have chronic all over body pain and changing my diet has reduced my pain considerably. This diet is anti inflammatory, which is why the pain has reduced as well as being a medicinal diet, which suits me. I know that it would be harder to give this diet to a child because the tastes and textures are extreme. If you were to consider introducing any of the above foods, I'd be very careful as these could make your dds symptoms worse temporarily as her body struggles to cope with the dietary change. So always start with a very small amount. I would, however, go gluten free now.

I would also favour vegetables over fruit. My cousin has had to cut out all fruit as it was giving her diarrhoea and nasty stomach cramps. She went through an elimination diet, much like you are doing with the dairy. I know the suggestions are a bit grim. Sorry. And unfortunately, if your dds issues are dietary, it's not a one size fits all. My body loves raw onions for example and this makes a lot of people with stomach ailments in very bad pain.

Regarding the lansoprazole, this is a proton pump inhibitor (as is omeprazole). Long term use puts people at risk of getting an overgrowth of Colostrum difficile. This is a bacteria, which causes diarrhoea, which does not improve. It can be mild to severe and can also be difficult to treat and can lead to death in very extreme cases. Sorry to be alarmist. I'm not suggesting you take your dd off the PPI's Rather that you be aware of the potential consequences of being fobbed off by the doctors.

I hope you manage to get to the bottom of why she is in so much pain x

[junebirthdaygirl]

My ds had dreadful tummy pains for years. Saw many doctors. Tested for coeliac etc. Eventually they said it was schoolitis which l felt wasn't sure. He got a bad pain one night and had to go to out of hours and saw a completely different doctor. He said his tonsils were completely septic and he was swallowing the poison into his stomach. Tonsils had never been checke d as it was always tummy ache. He had his tonsils out straight away and never had a pain since. This had gone on for years.

[Ginorchoc]

Abdominal migraines? My daughter is in daily meds for it and it has really helped.

[Imsolucky1983]

dailyfail1 what is inflammatory bowel disease?

[Imsolucky1983]

rhodaborrocks no they haven't checked for a hernia I will add that to my list thank you.

[Imsolucky1983]

lucielucie sorry if this sounds a stupid question but what is a parasite invasion?