Is this attention seeking or should I worry?

[MumOfHals]

Recently my nearly 4 year old has been saying something hurts when she goes to bed, a few times it's been her knees, or belly.

She eats so much, she's constantly on the go and she never complains unless it's bed time.

I asked her tonight if her eyes hurt and she said 'yes' I said do your ear lobes hurt 'yes' do your finger nails hurt 'yes'

Is this quite common for kids to test their luck? When she did it for the first time we brought her downstairs and let her watch a film...

Or should I be concerned further? I have health anxiety so worry about diseases etc a lot

I suspect your answer lies in the cause and effect of her coming down to watch a film.

Having said that, my DD at the age of 4 had a long phase of tummy pain at bedtime. It went on so long that the GP actually referred her for ultrasound to check we weren't missing anything.

In hindsight I'm 95% sure it was related to anxiety re school. She became so unhappy at that school that I moved her and funnily enough the tummy pain disappeared entirely at exactly the same time.

I think with any persistent complaints of pain, I'd always feel the need to see the GP because there's a risk attached to us dismissing what our kids are telling us.

My ds5 has something different that hurts every night and it's to avoid going to sleep because sleep is boring. My answer is that a headache, leg ache, finger ache, toenail ache are all best fixed by a decent night sleep. He does get really bad growing pains in his legs but I can tell the difference between that and the other stuff. The growing paint are more in the middle of the night/morning too.