9 year old evening tummy aches

[LilacCritic]

My 9 year old daughter has been having tummy pains for the last few weeks. They always seem to start around 7pm and she said it feels like a stinging pain. No problems in the day. We went to the doctors last week who said it could be indigestion and prescribed gaviscon advance and to use it for a week. It hasn't made any difference and we'll be going back tomorrow. For the last few days shes been saying it feels like theres a ball rolling around in her stomach. My initial thoughts are gas painsI started my periods at 9 so have got that in the back of my mind too. Just wondered if anyone else had any experience with this at all?

As a child I would sting in the evenings at bed time, and it’s only as an adult I realised it was thrush from the bubble bath each night.
hope you find the reason.

Do a food diary? It does sound like indigestion how often are you giving the gaviscon?

I'd be thinking about food intolerances. It'd be easy enough to do a few days of basic food cutting out the most common - grains and dairy - and see whether that makes a difference. If she has proper allergies it probably won't but if simple intolerance it's usually short lived.

So is this directly before bedtime?

Have you considered fear of the dark/dislike of going to bed and other behavioural issues.

If it doesn't exist in the day but appears at bedtime and has been going on for weeks, I would be exploring this.

Thank you. I started a food diary on Thursday and reduced meal sizes too. Gaviscon was prescribed after every meal and before bed.

It did cross my mind. I've been setting more time aside to talk with her just incase anything is bothering her. She's normally quite good at communicating but they have been speaking about worries at school and I'm wondering if it's sparked something.

I'll do a proper food diary and see if there's a pattern. I'll start with dairy as her sister had a milk allergy when she was younger. She's not big on milk, cheese and yogurt anyway so shouldn't miss it for a few days.

Sounds more like something she is eating or something worrying her causing her to have these pains. There is also nothing wrong in being prepared incase they are period pains starting.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this OP? I could have written your post! Im not sure the gaviscon is working for my
daughter. The GP said we could try omeprazole next

Hi sorry for the late reply!
No improvement unfortunately. We did the Gaviscon and it didn't help at all. Just finished a month of omeprazole as she said it felt like a 'spikey ball' in her tummy.
This again made no difference. In the last few weeks she has said the pain is now in her lower belly so I'm thinking it is likely period related. She's not in as much pain but there hasn't been a day where she hasn't mentioned it.

My daughter has also sometimes mentioned the ball thing! Or more often says its stinging.
She has it most days. Definitely exacerbated by anxiety (just started secondary school and it was the worst it’s been in ages the first week) but it also happens when she’s tired or at totally random times.

She says it’s nearer to her belly button though so I don’t think it’s period related and has been going on for months. But she didn’t need any gaviscon in the summer hols.

She is more relaxed at school now. It’s driving both of us mad now tbh!

That's so odd! The ball feeling was just above her belly button but she hasn't has that for a little while now. It was exactly like your daughter said with the stinging sensation.

It's really frustrating 😕

Have you tried cutting anything out to see if its an intolerance to certain foods?