6 year old and constant stomach pain

[ilkleymoorbartat]

My 6 year old is saying she has stomach ache everyday. It seems to come and go but has been constant for 1 month.

We've taken her to the GP twice and they say nothing is wrong. It came on very suddenly. She was sick in the night and then over the following week she started complaining.

She says it feels like she needs to go to the toilet but can't. She's pooing twice a day and her poo looks soft. She did seem to be quite windy when she went for a poo earlier so I'm wondering if she's having pain from trapped wind.

The GPS just say anxiety. Which could be a factor. She's now very worried about going anywhere in case her belly hurts.

Am at a bit of a loss as to what to do, and it's now becoming a bit of an issue too.

Any advice would be helpful!!

My son has something similar (he's 7) and we think it's linked to anxiety too. He doesn't have any physical symptoms other than a stomach ache, and it does tend to be when he's either worried about something or has been over stimulated and busy. It tend gets better after a day or so chilling at home x

Thanks for replying @BearKey I hope your son is ok.

Thing is I don't want totally write it off as anxiety given that she's saying she has this sensation of feeling like she needs to go for a poo but can't. But equally I think she's become hyper aware of all the sensations in her body, and that's not helping things

It is very common for children to have stomach ache when they feel worried about things, they have stomach aches much more regularly than adults.

As this page explains, it is common never to find a cause: alderhey.nhs.uk/symptom-checker/abdominal-pain-tummy-ache but it also gives the worrying symptoms - do any of these match what is happening with your DD?

Thanks @watchfulwishes she doesn't haven't any of the red or amber symptoms apart from
It being stomach ache for longer than a day.

My friend’s DD has this. Turned out to be lactose intolerance and since they swapped out dairy she’s been fine.

My 5 yr old has mesenteric adenitis following a virus. It lasted a few weeks, bless her.

Had not has!

Hmmmm that's interesting @FestiveDove do the symptoms sound similar? Having read about it just now, she doesn't have fever or anything.

@ilkleymoorbartat Hi. No temperature at all. It came out of nowhere. Put her to bed and the next morning she woke me up saying her stomach was hurting and she thought she was going to be sick.
The stomach pain seemed to come and go in waves throughout the day / night but at its worse we were in A&E having tests done as they were worried it could be her appendix. She often felt sick (but wasn’t) and would sit on the loo as she felt she needed to go but then nothing would happen. Apart from keeping on top of pain
medication there wasn’t much else we could do for it and had to wait for it to pass.

Works are very common and can cause tummy aches, might be worth treating just in case?

That's really interesting, she's been saying she feels a bit like she wants to be sick but isn't iykwim

Thanks @TimmyMeatballs good idea

My daughter used to complain of stomach pain every day, would have bad wind and it turned out to be coeliac disease. There is a blood test that you could ask the GP for but if you do don't cut out gluten containing food before then.

I'll go back to gps and ask for more tests. Anything else specific I should ask about?

Worms. I meant worms, common and cause tummy ache.

Kidney issues. I think they do a blood test. Is she losing weight? Keep an eye on that as this could be significant if she is.

DS's friend had similar that that age, it was due to him being gluten intolerant (coeliac), Your child should be checked for this and lactose intolerance. Both very common.