Let us know how you get on, bitworried. I can't believe they wouldn't understand why you were concerned, but at least the second GP has taken you seriously!
Bad moods and obstinence, Riss ... dd has those in spades even at 6
DG - where to start with the soreness and the screaming when she wees ... it's driving me to distraction. They always used to treat it as a UTI, but then an emergency GP had some urine tests done which came back negative, and when he looked at dd's records he told me that she has never, ever tested positive for a UTI. So it's only because of that that she's been referred to the paed, and will (finally) get a scan next month. In some areas it's standard practice to have scans done with water infections, in others they are only done where there are repeated symptoms but no sign of infection. If your dd hasn't had one, maybe you could push for one just to put your mind at rest that there's nothing going on within her urinary tract that's causing the problem.
The paed is convinced that dd's soreness has nothing to do with either water infections or problems with her urinary tract, but is doing the scan to make sure. She has suggested a number of things which may be the cause of the soreness; one is the fact that dd is still not dry at night, and she thinks that the urine may be forming crystals which irritate the urethra and cause the soreness. Both she and the GP harp on about barrier creams (which we always use), and she also suggested giving dd a bath in the morning rather than in the evening, as a bath removes stale urine and any crystals better than a wash does. Neither have helped, although we have found one particular barrier cream (Thovaline) is better than most when she's really sore.
She has also suggested that constipation may be either the cause or a contributing factor - and dd has always been a bugger with pooing. Hanging onto poo or being constipated puts pressure onto the urethra and can lead to soreness. The paed also suggested that it works both ways - the vulval soreness can cause constipation because the pain from the vulval area can desensitise them enough that they don't get the message that they need a poo. I don't know whether your dd has similar problems but it's something to consider if she does.
Something else that the paed has suggested is that the soreness could be that the urine isn't dilute enough - that dd isn't drinking enough. It does seem to be worse when she doesn't, but I think that's more because she's already sore and the stronger wee stings more, rather than because the stronger wee is causing the soreness.
She has some other things that she wants dd checking for if the scans are clear. She has suggested lichen sclerosis which looks alarming but given the symptoms I would probably have noticed! She has also mentioned diabetes, which can cause soreness because of sugar in the urine, although dd has always been clear when they have tested her urine for sugar. Again, perhaps it's worth having your dd checked, or buying some Diastix over the counter and checking yourself.
The paed doesn't think that dd has any of these things, though, and it's frustrating when she basically shrugs and says she doesn't have a clue what's causing it, vaginitis doesn't have to have a cause, there's not much you can do to ease it, and you have to listen to your child scream in pain when she wees.