Children's recurrent stomach pain

[Pinklemon]

My 8 yr old dd has been prescribed lactulose for her constipation and recurrent stomach pain. She is on the 6th week of lactulose and is cutting down to 5ml once daily this week and then 2.5ml daily next week. Doctor said if she is still having stomach pain he will send her for a scan. What sort of scan will that be? Will it be an ultrascan? Anyone's lo has recurrent stomach pain? He also said he could felt stool in her stomach. Can that cause the stomach pain? She is passing soft stool daily, does it take long to empty the all the stool in the stomach? Thanks for your help.

Both my DDs aged 10 and 12 have had this. DD1 had horrendous pain for about 8 months - she tried lactulose and various other things, had some success with an exclusion diet (no citrus or diary) and had ultrasound and MRI - we saw two specialists who were very nice, then all of a sudden it just stopped. The final diagnosis was abdominal migraine, which I think they say when they don't know. She's fine now. The pain was navel and below.

DD2 has pain higher up and on the right - she's 10 now but this has been going on, on and off, for a couple of years and originally she was given strong Gaviscon but it didn't help; I am taking her to GP again tomorrow as I'd like her to be tested for the H Pylori virus that can cause stomach ulcers, particularly as I had this as a child.

I think you are on the beginning of a long series of trial and error treatments, don't despair and ask for referral to a paediatric gastroenterologist if necessary however, definitely get the scan if its on offer that can rule in or out all number of things.

Although she's only 8, you also need to bear in mind that even girls of that age can get ovarian cysts - again, the scan will show this although I think its highly unlikely.

Coeliac ? Constipation, stomach pains, any other symptoms ? Of course, could be plenty of things but maybe look into that. Hope u get some answers soon.

No other symptoms apart from mild stomach pains on and off. The stomach pains don't last long and she is otherwise well in herself. Could it be stomach ulcer?

Hi Burningbridges, how did it go at the doctors?

DS1 had 2 stomach ulcers when he was 7, but he was in a lot of pain and vomiting blood. He had an endoscopy to diagnose them, a sixth month course of some medication, another endoscopy which showed they had healed.

Stomach pain can be a real problem to diagnose. In your shoes I would start keeping a diary. Write down everything she eats and drinks and wether she has pain on those days. You might find it is linked to something she is eating.

Good luck.

Look into "stomach migraines" - my ds had terrible stomach pains for several months and we went round and round in circles with the gp and hospital both saying initially that it was constipation, then psychological, then ulcers. He was writhing around the floor in agony on several occasions and it was horrendous to watch - he was about 7 at the time.

In the end I went to a homeopath on the recommendation of the pharmacist who prescribed something (can't remember what now) which did the trick. Whether they did the trick medically, or because the migraines had run their course or because it was in the mind I neither know nor care!

www.webmd.boots.com/migraines-headaches/guide/abdominal-migraines-children-adults