Intermittent but regular bouts of abdominal pain in 10 year old boy. Anyone experienced similar with their dc?

[hmc]

He has been experiencing episodes of abdo pain for a few hours each time at intervals of a couple of weeks since October. Having missed a few days of school I took him to the GP and suggesting appendix (dd had episodes of tummy pain similar to this for a few months and went on to develop acute appendicitis) and she sent him for an abdominal ultrasound at the hospital whilst warning me that the ultrasound was unlikely to be conclusive and might show nothing. Well - it showed nothing as predicted. That was a fortnight ago.

This week he had an episode of abdo pain lasting 3/4 hours on Tuesday, and is now in bed and missing school because he developed abdo pain over night.

Could it be anything other than grumbling appendix? Anyone experienced similar?

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Constipation? Food sensitivity? Indigestion/reflux? Mesenteric adenitis? Abdominal migraine?

I think sometimes kids just get stomach aches on a regular basis even though there is nothing physically wrong (although the pain is real) and 10 is about peak age for that.

I was going to suggest mesenteric adenitis, although I think it's normally linked to having a virus as well (hence swollen glands?). DS has it.

Thanks - he went to docs and they have taken a urine sample and ordered full blood count. Will google mesenteric adenitis

Hope you get some answers soon hmc.

We are going through a lot of problems with dd due to upper abdo pains. It has been on and off over a year now. Always central, varying in pain intensity. Has made her miss a full week of school recently. Nausea, headaches, pale and generally feeling wiped out, has had odd bouts of reflux/regurgitation but not regular, mainly when pain tum flares up. Pain has come on recently after eating whereas before it followed a pattern of early morn and night time. Currently trying out Omeprazole and has been instructed on a bland diet (since this flare) until we get forwarded for an earlier pead appointment. Almost ulcer like. Dd has allergies. Any symptoms simular to your son hmc?

yeah, for years
been tested twice for celiacs
my sister has migraines with abdominal involvement so i think it might be that for ds

Are his underwear clean, or do you sometimes see some marks, as if he hadn't cleaned himself properly.
We had that with DS2 and it took us months to discover he suffered from encopresis, which is extremely severe constipation. At first I had refused this diagnosis, because he went to the toilet every day, but the gastroenterologist told us, constipation meant you don't empty your bowel completely not that you don't go daily. One night he had such pain, we had to go to A&E. Once he completely blocked the toilet, not with paper but with enormous stools.
An abdominal Xray showed he was full of balls poo up to his lungs. it looked like a drug mule xray.
Then I started thinking about the previous months, and remembered the way DS2 would run for the toilet. With encopresis you may suffer diarrhea and still be constipated. The hard mass stays in the intestine, and just the runny poo passes behind. Except sometimes it doesn't and that's when they have tummy pain.
I know you had an ultrasound, maybe ask for an Xray? My DS2 didn't have a distended tummy and by touch you couldn't feel anything, but the xray was shocking.

Sorry to hear about your poorly dc

Some of these conditions like celiacs and encopresis I hadn't considered - and whilst I don't think ds' symptoms tally sufficiently to be this it is something to bear in mind if we continue to struggle to identify what is wrong... so thank you for sharing those experiences

Doesn't get the reflux chloesmumtoo so probably not the same issue.

I hope that your children's health improves Alma, Chloe, Sanfairy and Gordon

Thank you Hmc, I hope your son gets better soon.

The correct term for my son condition is or hopefully was fecaloma, which then caused him sometimes to soil himself, hence the encopresis diagnosis, which I never really agreed with, as I told you.
By the doctor's definition it is soiling even if you have just a tiny mark in the underwear.
Then the news arrived we were moving to Australia, and things got worse.
Children who have difficulties sharing emotions and feelings tend to close their intestine, I was told.