DD (2.9 yrs) keeps complaining of tummy ache

[Pennies]

For a few months now DD keeps saying she has a tummy ache. When she does I rub her tummy and judgin by her reaction and subsequent normal behaviour it either just vanishes within minutes or is monir enough for her not to notice.

At first I thought it was because she regularly eats sand when she plays in the sandpit so we reduced her access to it. However it has still gone on and for a while I thought it was attention seeking but now I'm not so sure.

She complains of a tummy ache several times a day (and occasionally at night too) but is eating well, pooing normally, looks great, stomach feels soft to touch and she doesn't demonstrate any pain / discomfort if I do feel her tummy and is generally thriving.

I'm going to take her to a GP next week but in the meantime I'm wondering if anyone else's LO has done the same. Was it attention seeking or was something actually wrong?

Aren't tummy aches meant to be the child version of migraines?

Am sure I/ve rad this somewhere. Instead of getting headaches, they get tummy ache

It could be trapped wind

Get her to lie on her front on the floor and lift her arms, legs and head off the floor

Stay like that for a bit and roll tummy on floor and if it is it will come out!

Well, CD she doesn't seem very windy - all she seems to want is the warmth of a hand on her tummy and then hey presto 70% of the time she's cured.

DS (3) is doing this at the moment too - half the time I think it's made up (as he seems totally fine, still running/climbing/rolling around/eating loads etc), but I will take him to the GP if it doesn't stop. It does seem though as if it's something that he's heard and picked up on and found it gets you out of stuff. For example he often says it when he's tired and doesn't want to walk.

Is it indigestion? DD (2.7) complains of this sometimes after meals, but it usually goes after a little rub and a little cuddle

try doing a food diary - everything she eats and drinks needs to go in it, and note when she says she's got tummy ache, there might be a link [and if there isn't then you have done the first thing a gp or dietician would ask for...]

Some children regularly get swollen glands in their stomach, my ds (3.8) being one of them. This often happens when he is a bit off colour with a cold or other virus - and this week after he had his pre-school jabs.

good point nbnc, mine get that too