14 year old - morning nausea and stomach aches

[AbbotSade1985]

Hi all.

Looking for others in a similar situation. Just before the summer, my 14 year old DD woke up one morning feeling really sick. It was the last day of term and was reslly hot, so we thought heat stroke. She got better through the day, but then it happened every morning for a week.

During the summer hols it went away, but Sept it returned. At least 2 or 3 times a week, she wakes up and isn't nauseous straight away, but it creeps up within about an hour. It's like she gets hungry and the acid build up makes her nauseous. She hates being sick so this has caused massive issues. She hasn't actually thrown up, but comes close. Mostly, when it happens, she does breathing exercises and feels better within 15 to 30 mins and goes to school. Sometimes there are stomach aches, but nothing severe. She also gets hiccups a lot, which comes and goes.

Saw a GP this evening, who seemed stumped and wanted to do lots of blood tests. My DD is quite anxious anyway and almost had a panic attack when hearing she has to have a blood test.

Just wondering if anyone has had similar. My DD loves school, but it can be stressful what with exams and all the friendship issues, so I'm not so sure. Could it be anxiety? Apart from this, she has lots of fun with her friends and is really active.

I remember being sick in the mornings as a teenager and it turned out to be the multivitamin I was taking each morning was making me sick. I’ve realised that any multivitamins that include iron make me puke.

Ds was in hospital last year with suspected appendicitis, even though we’d had months of what you described. He was put on adults stomach tablets and all symptoms disappeared but it was a short term solution and the pharmacist took us aside and said she didn’t agree with him being prescribed them and we should figure something out. Nothing found in any bloods but it improved with reduced gluten (they told us not to fully cut it out). He was the same op, fine then off it went, in particular on certain school days, leading us to think anxiety. Hope she gets sorted

Sounds like anxiety, could it be school related? Especially if it went away over the summer. If you can afford it maybe try some private CBT sessions. I can also recommend the Thrive programme to help anxiety and stress.

Many conditions can cause this and her hormones ramping up in her teenage years can increase things like this. Remember hormones can affect lots of things like how full you feel and if you have hypermobility it can affect your ability to keep your joints in place at certain times of the month. Many women suffer from a variety of symptoms of dysautonomia, which in itself comes from various illnesses like ehlers danlos syndrome, including feeling sick. I have the sickness feeling on and off and my suggestion is to treat it like morning sickness and eat crackers straight away, before hunger or sickness feeling. Not a lot, just enough to give the body something to work on. Little but often. Even a mint or two could help. Not a miracle cure but can help reduce intensity.

By all means, discuss with her about the possibility of it being anxiety and what could be causing it. BUT if you are not absolutely sure it is that then don't let doctors get away with saying its probably that and doing nothing else. Ask them what else it could be and what else should be tested. Keep a diary of food and sickness times. Also, its common to feel sick when you are building up to going to the loo as the body is sending out varying signals, so possibly tell her to pay attention to that as well.

I would keep pushing to make sure anything else is ruled out. But, given it’s linked to school (intermittent and morning only) it’s highly likely anxiety. We children, my brother had stomach migraines diagnosed during school (this was daily for few years), and I spent about 2 years between year 8 & 10 feeling so sick at night that I had to sleep propped up. Neither of us hated school and there was no other major trigger.

Similar symptoms to my daughter - the cause for her is anxiety. She takes propranolol each morning first thing before breakfast which helps with the physical symptoms of anxiety. She also has counselling.

I suspect it’s anxiety. They put so much pressure on them at school. I know two others in very similar situations. For the blood tests you can buy Emla cream over the counter to numb the area so it isn’t painful.

I will be interested if you discover the cause. My 16 year old has had exactly the same- getting worse since January. Whilst I do agree it gets worse with anxiety it definitely isn't the only cause. Mainly because the nausea has continued through the holidays. Not every day though. Sometimes in the evening as well. Also occasionally eating appears to make the nausea start. Currentky waiting for blood test results- which have taken so long I suspect they've been lost. Must chase up again.

My DD had this when we came out of Covid, she was seen by a private psychiatrist for severe panic attacks, upto 25 a day, she was diagnosed with 3 high level anxiety types. She would have headaches, dizziness, constipation, diahorrea, palpitations, acid reflux, indigestion (sounds like an advert going round lol) and would not allow herself to vomit, no matter how ill she was, possibly also emetaphobic. She's on SSRI's now and they help and she is slowly coming out of this phase. I sympathise with anyone who has gone through this or watching their child go through it as you feel completely helpless and the GP/NHS were less than nigh on useless

My friend has this and she has endometriosis! She is constantly feeling ill and can even vomit in the morning from it.

I think it could be anxiety, but if the GP wants to do a blood test I'd want to do to just in case it's something else.
My son has had this a lot in secondary. Woke up fine, then within a very short time was suddenly really nauseous. Never actually sick. Had occasional day off school for it as he said he was too sick to move around, but generally went in. It was always better when he returned, and it never stopped him eating lunch.
He has always got on well at school with no obvious issues or reasons for anxiety. He always said he wasn't anxious. However, the moment he left mainstream and started 6th form (in the same school) it never happened again.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Just wanted to give a quick update. Took her to see a gastro consultant. He felt her stomach and she's on laxatives now, due to constipation. We're also getting an ultrasound sorted to rule out anything else. I suspect there are definitely anxieties issues generally, but at least we're dealing with some of the physical problems which no doubt have contributed.

Hi OP we've had similar, anxiety that caused tummy aches and vomiting at exactly the same age. Ours turned out to be undiagnosed autism, he's 18 now and only recently diagnosed. He also has pots and coeliac disease both of which I've recently discovered can be linked to neurodivergence. It's was a difficult time for sure. All the best.

Maybe you need more support as a family?

Have you talked to the GP about anxiety potentially being the cause of your DD's anxiety? And about your own anxiety?

How does your anxiety affect your parenting and home life?

Thanks for the update OP
we saw a GP today for similar issues for my teen.

GP is running tests. And has recommended movicol rather than senokot

Hey guys. Wanted to update, but it's been so busy.

An ultrasound has shown a rather large cyst on one of her ovaries. It now explains all her symptoms, including the morning nausea and constipation.

Due to its size, it will have to be removed, but we're waiting for an MRI scan to see exactly what it is made of and where exactly it's located.

Poor thing. Thanks for the update. Hopefully the removal fixes things for her x