7 year old with consistent stomach ache

[Placeinthesun]

My 7yo is complaining endlessly of having a sore tum and feeling sick. This has been going on for about 6 weeks on and off. He's not been sick, not had the runs and is not constipated. He's just generally being a bit whingy and angry but isn't off his food (altho has become fussy about somethings having never been a fussy eater) but is eating a little less than usual . I think he is egg intolerant like me so I exclude egg from his diet.

He had bad reflux as a baby and was medicated and on prescription milk for it. He grew out of it at around a year old.

He went through a period of the same complaint about 2 years ago. GP told us to keep a food diary (eggs were excluded after that) but there was not much they could do with no real other symptoms. I don't really no what to do. He's not good at articulating where the pain is but is often up in the night saying he feels sick or his tum hurts.

Any ideas anyone.
Thank you.

Coeliac? Especially if anyone else in the family has it? Is he losing weight, or small for age?

Being tall/plum doesn't exclude coeliac, but there is a tendency for it to cause weight loss and (in kids) slow growth. It is often associated with other food reactions such as to milk, eggs, as these reactions may be a sign of gut damage.

As he has had these symptoms for some time, I think another trip to the GP, mentioning coeliac would be a good idea.

Stomach migraine is common at this age but I am very dubious that it isn't just thrown in like 'virus' tends to be.

He's one of the tallest in his class(despite being one of the youngest) and 2-3" taller than his twin brother. He is neither fat or thin. No history of coeliac in the family.

Worried the GP will think I am making a fuss or being an overprotective mum of I mention coeliac but yes I should make an appointment.

TBH, if he was Coeliac he would have the runs. It could be that he needs a gastro-resistant medicine and it could be reflux. I suffered from the age of about 4/5 with reflux and wasn't diagnosed until 30. All sort of things trigger fats, cereals, bread, chocolate etc. If you cut these out you would see a result in about 3 days. My friends DD (7) is going through the exact same thing at the moment.

Nope, coeliac might give you the runs, but it might not. It may cause the opposite, or bowel habit might be fairly normal...

Actually, yes, you are right Raw I just remembered a friend of mine has Coeliacs and has absolutely no symptoms. It is the weirdest thing.

I will watch with interest as DD1 (about to turn 5) has had similar complaints. I thought she was being a hypochondriac but took her to the GP anyway, who was very sympathetic and took her much more seriously than I had! She said her tummy felt more bloated than it should so prescribed Movicol (even though DD1 wasn't constipated) for a week to see if it would improve the situation. A fortnight later DD1 was still bloated so she had blood tests for coeliac (my DF has it) and some other stuff (not sure what I'm afraid), which all came back clear. DD1 hadn't been complaining any more of stomach aches in the meantime, so the GP said to come back in 2 months for a review unless the need arises before then. She has mentioned the odd tummy ache since.

I've tried to get her to take a probiotic in the meantime (children's Optibac) but she hates the taste and leaves it untouched. Anyone know whether you can get a false positive for the coeliac test? I've also had it and came back clear but don't have the best digestion myself (no obvious triggers). I did suspect DD1 of having reflux when tiny, she used to bring up lots of feeds but not quite enough for anyone to have taken it seriously (in retrospect, I should have pursued this further).

Ktay, many ceoliac blood tests (and biopsy tests) will be false negative, so you get the all clear, but actually do have the condition.

This is because you have a cut off for the level of antibodies in the blood, but actually many people with the condition don't have very high antibodies in their blood... Sometimes the antibody action is mostly confined the the gut wall.
The biopsy may only sample normal tissue (you can have lots of normal tissue and just patches or sections of damaged gut).

Really, by the time your gut is damaged enough to show damage on biopsy, you may have had coeliac for many years- the biopsy is showing serious longterm damage.

In your case, with symptoms, and a family history, I would consider an exclusion diet (for the whole family!). A month with absolutely no gluten containing food (and preferably completely grain free), something like "whole30", and then reintroduce grain foods one at a time to see if there are any reactions. If gluten grains (or other grains are causing a problem it will be quite apparent when you reintroduce them (expect a stronger reaction.

Also I think with people at risk due to family history, retesting every couple of years with the blood test is advisable. A negative now doesn't mean negative forever.

False positives would be very unlikely on the other hand.

Thanks RawCoconutMacaroon - I did mean false negative. I'll give the exclusion diet some thought. I did notice my symptoms were much better when I was on holiday in Greece last year and hardly eating any gluten at all - but being on a nice relaxing holiday will doubtless have contributed too! We were so relieved when DD's test came back clear and it would be a right bugger having to follow a GF diet for either of us. I'm loath (sp?) to impose it on her but might give it a whirl myself in the summer when it is easier to avoid the stodge.

raw that's really interesting. I've had 'IBS' tests for 3yrs (including colonoscopy and endoscopy) and 2 negative coeliac tests. But my stomach has only 'healed' in the last 6 months since I cut out gluten. My dietician said he often saw patients who presented as having coeliac (ie; severe IBS), tested negative but improved once gluten was eliminated.

Meglet, that doesn't surprise me!

The trajectory with ceoliac or non-ceoliac gluten intolerance (which may actually just be a different presentation of the same condition) seems to be (for many people)...

Development of ibs in the teens/twenties, migraine and frequent headache, skin problems. With increasing age, more symptoms, fatigue, pain and joint problems, thyroid, diabetes and pocs (and other fertility affecting conditions increase in the 30s and 40s... Often people have blood tests and are told all is "normal", and yet a gluten free diet reverses all or most of the issues.

I did have antibodies to gluten (at a fairly low level). No biopsy but I've been gluten free (and mostly grain free) for 3 + years now and it literally changed my life.

I rarely eat any "gluten free" products as they are just junk, the ingredients required to make bread and cakes commercially with no gluten and scary, and I react to a lot of them (I'm pretty sure I cross react to maize flour).

I'm certain that over the 20+ years I had ibs (sometimes bad enough for hospital), and an increasingly long list of health issues, my drs thought I was making it up.

A properly done exclusion diet will give you answers. Although it's not easy - you need to watch every label and pretty much cook from scratch all the time (after a while that becomes normal of course).

defintly woth asking for a paediatric referral.