6yo physically sick with anxiety

[magicpeople]

I wasn't sure where to post this but really don't know where to go from here, and could do with some advice/support.

DS - for all his boisterousness - always been an anxious child, to the point he had been sick with nervous on many an occasion.

There are several triggers, but I think I've come to in conclusion he actually has a real phobia of sickness/being sick. Whether this arose from anxiety (and being sick when anxious) or whether he is actually anxious because of this fear, I don't know!

Today he refused point blank to go into school. We had this a few times over the last few weeks but have always managed to convince him to go in, with a plan of what do do in the event of feeling sick/anxious, bit today he kicked off majorly and ended up being sick in the playground.

So I've brought him home. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't feel I could drag him in being sick, but know he was only sick because did nerves, so feel I've made thing worse but now allowing him avoid school.

We did go into the office first thing, to see if we could speak to his teacher to explain what was going on, but she was too busy lesson-planning.

I had written a note on his jotter, so reminded him to tell his teacher the note was there, but when we went round to the gate he went chalk white, said he felt sick and ended up inconsolable (as I tried to persuade him to go in) until he was sick.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I'm at a loss here. I've called the school 3 times but it keeps going to answerphone. I have told DS we do need to go to school today but we'll work out a plan with his teacher to help him with this.

Realistically, though, he is one of 25 children and I know the teacher will be busy and I'm worried he won't get the support he needs.

Can anyone help? On the brink of tears but letting DS see that

Sorry for all typos, should have proof read.

Anyone?
I spoke to the headteacher and she's happy to help him with this, by allowing him to sit out of assembly/giving him other jobs to so, I til he's ready.
I took him back to school and he's fine, although he had diarrhoea before we left

Shameless bump for the evening MNers 🤞

Nobody?

No idea where to seek advice from now. Back to googling I guess.

I'm really sorry op, that sounds really tough. I don't really have any advice other than when I was a child I was very much like this. There would often be no real reason for my anxiety and could be something as simple as changing desks or a different school assembly. Looking back it seems incredibly silly but at the time I remember that horrible feeling of worry and hours of tears - my poor parents.
The only suggestion I have is to push to speak to his teachers and maybe find him someone to talk to? I'm still quite an anxious person and I found talking through my worries really helps, I think it probably did back then too.
Good luck

Poor little chap. His teacher doesn't sound particularly helpful and that lack of willingness to engage with you on this would really worry me. I'd definitely insist on a meeting with the teacher to discuss your concerns.

It's really hard at that age, sometimes they really don't seem to be able to work out exactly what is worrying them but if you keep chipping away gently you will find out.

Perhaps sit him down and both of you draw pictures of things that make you happy and things that make you scared?

Hi there. just wanted to say my daughter has had a fear of being sick prob from around the age of 7, on and off. It got particularly bad at the beginning of this year, and along with taking her to GP ( just to be sure....I was convinced it was anxiety related) and being reassured all was ok after a few basic tests, we got her a book about anxiety and it was brilliant - 'what to do when you worry too much' - it's the first hit on amazon if you type in anxiety children.

Really helped her understand the connection between her brain and tummy, and also helped her realise the more she worries, the more she'd feel sick, so it helped her take a step back and be more rational. Can't recommend it enough.

There's a couple of threads I was on about it .... I'm not on here much so don't know how to link, but if you do an advanced search and put in my username in that bit, they all come up as I don't post much at all!
Hope it settles soon - hard not to get overly worried about it yourself.

Thanks for your replies, it is horrible seeing him like that as he genuinely has no control over it & he looks so scared 

Thanks for the book recommendation @bobbymcf , I've ordered it along with a similar workbook one which was the next hit on Amazon. I'll go and search for your previous threads too.