A&E or repeated drs appts?? Help!

[Jns2020]

My 8yo daughter has had stomach pain since October. Everytime I go to the drs, he either requests a blood test, stool sample or gives me peptac liquid for her and tells me to bring her back in a month if it’s still hurting. Well it is still hurting and I feel awful hearing “my tummy hurts” multiple times a day and nothing seems to be stopping the pain. Dr said she can have calpol everyday but I don’t think that’s that good for her so I haven’t been giving it her constantly. Wondering now if I should give up on the drs and go to A&E but they are already stretched. I’m the kind of person that goes to the pharmacy first, drs is usually a last resort as I don’t like to waste peoples time but really dont know what to do for the best at the moment. Any ideas welcome.

What were the results of the tests done so far? Reasonable to go back to Drs and ask for a hospital referral I would think, either for a scan if there's a specific area of the stomach that's affected, or to a specialist.

agree that you need to get results.
ask.for a referral to gastroenterologist or an ultrasound scan.

My daughter was diagnosed as lactose intolerant by around that age, and then as having IBS when she was 11, calpol and nurofen had little effect. Changing to lactose free milk and now avoiding trigger foods are helping her. Might be worth asking for a referral to a pediatrician instead of the gp. That's what we had to do.

A&e won’t be able to help, she needs a referral to a paediatrician or gastro specialist. How many times so far has the gp said “come back ina month?”

A&E is only there for acute emergencies. They fix the problem but are not there for chronic issues and you'll only be sent back to your GP so just do that to begin with.

A&E can't help here, it's not an accident or an emergency - if you're lucky, they'll tell you to give her some pain meds and refer you back to your GP. Have the tests come back with anything?

You can request to see a different GP at the same surgery. I'd do that if you're feeling brushed off. I'd also trial cutting out lactose, my sister was diagnosed from a more or less constantly painful tummy at around her age.

Yep agree with others. This will just put added pressure on A&E, will mean a long wait for you and your daughter and they won't be able to do anything.

Be insistent on a refer all at the gp's though as something obviously isn't right.

You need to go back to the GP.

Are the pains daily? At a similar age, and in hindsight almost certainly due to puberty, I was diagnosed with abdominal migraines although now I think it was the start of endometriosis. Otherwise what about constipation?

If she is in pain, please do give her calpol or something to ease it.

Thanks everyone your advice has been great. We’ve had tests for ibs and intolerance but they’ve all come back negative. Blood tests have come back clear too. I’ll try a different dr and see if we can get a referral to a paediatrician. Thank you again.

Have you tried keeping a food diary to see whether there's a common demoniator? Is she otherwise well? Growing?

she’s growing ok. I did a food diary at the start of the year and the dr had a look over it and nothing stood out. He’s asked me to stop her eating certain food, acidic foods mainly but she had swimming tonight and barely kicked her legs. She said that kicking made the pain worse so I’m wondering if it’s more muscular than stomach acid which the dr seems so certain of.

Any chance it's her appendix? I could imagine easily that any deep pain in the abdomen would be painful to kick your legs with the added resistance of the water... Sounds like your plan to get this referred onwards is the right one. I hope it all goes well.

Pain when kicking suggests a problem with the bowels rather than the stomach. Could she be constipated?