10yo ds constantly feeling sicky, what could it be? At a loss.

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Around 3 and a half weeks ago, ds (10yo) suddenly felt really warm and sickly whilst out at a fun day type event. He was there with his dad, he took him to a shaded area and gave him a drink and they stayed there for a while until he felt ok again. Since that day, on and off he keeps saying he feels sick. He’s not been sick any of these times, just the sicky feeling. He’s usually enjoys food but he’s started refusing some meals saying he feels sick and hasn’t got a appetite. A few times during the night he’s woke me up really distressed that he feels sick so we’ve sat in the bathroom until he’s calmed down and he’s slept the rest of the night in my room. We’ve been to the doctor who put it down to anxiety and has asked him to write his worries down each day. It’s so random, yesterday he was at his grandparents house while me and his dad were at work, he said he felt sickly some of the time there but once he was home he was fine, we played some board games before bed and he was laughing and enjoying himself then suddenly at 2:30 this morning he was literally having a panic attack saying he felt sick. He didn’t vomit and hasn’t done any of the times he’s had this feeling. I really don’t know what’s going on. He’s been home with me today as it’s my day off and he’s been fine then as we sat down for tea he says he feels sick and hasn’t got an appetite. Has anyone had any experience like this before?

Assuming it is psychological not physical - It's quite common to develop an over concern about feeling or being sick. The first incident causes a worry and the person starts over attending to internal sensation - and of course we have sensations all the time, but if you focus on 'do I feel sick' then you will feel sick.
Really, the best thing is to break the cycle of concern - try to get him to run or jump or spin when he feels sicky - if he's not sick it breaks the concern, if he is sick it breaks the concern because look, it happened, he coped, and now he's ok. The anxiety feeds on over estimation of risk and underestimation of coping.

Bit of long shot but rule out type 1 diabetes as blood sugar swings can cause loss of appetite / nausea but usually be other symptoms too like extreme tiredness, weight loss, more thirsty, getting up to use toilet in night. It’s possible he feels sick when blood sugar is high or low but then ok when it’s in normal range. Did the doctor do any tests?

thankyou for your replies!
no the doctor didn’t do any tests, she spoke directly to him and concluded it was anxiety. she wants to see him again before he goes back to school so that will be next week so i’ll ask her to check him over thoroughly then.

Could be a mix of anxiety but also has he been checked for iron levels? At his age if his diet is lacking vitamins somewhere he’ll start to feel the effects

How are his bowels? When he wakes in the night is he waking because of the nausea or because of something else initially and then experiencing the nausea?

It sounds as though the initial sickness at the event might have set off an unconscious fear of being sick. I just say that because most of the times you mention since are times when he isn't preoccupied with something else and so his fears creep in - like in the middle of the night. Or perhaps at his grandparents because he subconsciously didn't feel secure because neither you or his dad were there.
One of my children used to wake in the night feeling sick but not being sick, and be absolutely fine in the morning, This seemed to happen after an actual time when he was sick in the night and panicked. He got over that but then felt sick every single time he was away from home, to the point he was sick but only on overnight trips.
I would say if you can distract him out of it then he's fine, but you could take him to the doctors again for peace of mind if you're worried.

The doctor has just assumed it’s anxiety? FFS.

was this preceded by a virus? Lots of children have persistent nausea after covid for example and there’s been a lot of covid around this summer.

Hes waking because of the nausea and during the day it just seems to come on suddenly and randomly at different times.
He hasn’t had any colds or bugs since around May when he had the sickness bug.
To be honest the doctor was really lovely but i do think ill push for some tests just to check his iron and everything.

Yes definitely push for blood tests and be your child’s voice. Some GP’s can be very dismissive of children’s symptoms but us parents know when our child is not right.

I had a year of my daughters symptoms being ignored by our gp but she was eventually diagnosed with chrons disease.

Could it be reflux?

My son had something similar when he was younger, he used to say it felt like dirty water in his mouth!

After many tests and being fobbed off by GP's for two years he was diagnosed with crohns at 8. We were often told it was anxiety!!

Constipation? Maybe he is a bit dehydrated and backed up a bit.

Dd had this for months on and off, but did vomit. It often came on at night. She was fine in between bouts and happy at school (she used to insist on going in despite up all night feeling sick) so I knew it wasn’t psychological but I really had to push hard for tests. Tested positive for Helicobacter. Treated with antibiotics and PPI with immediate improvement but symptoms took some time to resolve and she was left with IBS. She also had iron deficiency anaemia and needed intravenous iron. She ended up having ultrasounds and seeing gastroenterologist. She’s fine now but her gut is still very sensitive. I would never write off symptoms as psychological without running tests.

Is it worth keeping a food diary, so you can see if there is a pattern?