9 yr old headaches and sore tummy

[Helpisneeded100]

Hi All,

looking for some advice or if anyone else has experienced this.

my 9 year old daughter often gets headaches and we are struggling to understand what’s causing it. Sometimes they have a sore tummy too. It’s not painful enough to stop her doing anything and she has been checked by the GP and optician and all clear. She doesn’t feel dizzy, no double vision or sickness.

Has anyone else’s child had this? If so what did you do to find out root cause?

thank you 🙏

Yup. Was initially treated as abdominal migraine but actually was anxiety. Treatment was propranolol (prescribed by paediatric consultant for abdominal migraine, but also worked on the physical symptoms of anxiety), and also therapy/CBT. They've come on in leaps and bounds. Came of the medication completely after around 18 months.

We had no idea about the anxiety btw (which I felt absolutely shit about at the time) and they'd already been referred by GP to paeds. They couldn't/wouldn't express it which is what led to the physical symptoms. Just one day broke down crying on the way to school and said they couldn't go. Turned around and driving home they started to feel better. That was the day they decided to talk about how they felt.

Yep - turned out my DD was coeliac. She did have other symptoms but headaches was a big one for her. Other symptoms were; sore tummy, general aches and pains, loose stools and heartburn.

Has her iron levels been checked. Low iron can present as sore tummy in children.

When DS was between about 9-11 he had lots of unexplained tummy aches and headaches. Turned out it was an avoidance tactic due to stress about certain things e.g. swimming lessons with a particularly nasty teacher who made fun of the slow ones. We also discovered he had dyslexia and was struggling at school/ trying to mask/ hide it. The symptoms were basically his way of getting a much needed 'rest and recovery' day. Once we worked this out and talked about it things got much better.
Keep a diary. Is there any pattern to them e.g. always a certain day or activity?