5 year old slow eater and “sore tummy”

[littlebid]

My 5 year old has become a painfully slow eater over the last few months and her mealtimes are double the length of the rest of the family’s. She also often urgently needs to go to the toilet for a bowel movement halfway through a meal. She says she eats a bit faster at school and waits to go to the toilet there but that she has a ‘sore tummy’. She’s not in any distress but I’m worried there may be something underlying. She’s always been in the top centiles for weight and height and can sometimes seem a bit bloated: she would snack and eat constantly if we let her and she complains regularly of being hungry when she has eaten more than me!

I don’t want to trouble to GP at the moment when it’s probably nothing...has anyone had anything similar?

Is she avoiding having a poo at school? Where is her poo on the Bristol stool chart.

Is she gassy?

Could be worms or allergies

That should be investigated by a medical professional.

You don't know that it's nothing, and while you're ignoring the problem it could get worse and lead to a poorer outcome.

Make a GP appointment.

She can be gassy but not regularly/constantly really. And she says she’s happy to go to the toilet at school. No itchy bum...

Looking at a stool chart (wow!) I’d say 5 or 6. More on the loose side in general I think.

I think you need to make a GP appointment with an issue like this which has been going on for a while.

Agree with PP. GPs are still open and will happily see patients with legitimate conerns. Not everything is COVID. Life and all its other challenges continue. (Im a GP Nurse).

It could be an intolerance possibly

Thanks everyone. I may try to get through to the GP then. I didn’t want to sound neglectful, just everything I’m seeing in the local news at the moment says how swamped they are and it’s hard to know what to do for the best, as a non-expert.

Gps aren't swamped any more than usual. She needs to be seen

You could phone the surgery and ask how busy they are and take it from there. Or explain the situation.

We had similar around same age, initially put it down to reflux which had been ongoing since a baby. Worked out actually onion powder causing problems for him (his dad has issues with onions so don’t include in foods generally) realised when he stopped complaining about sore tummy at start of first lockdown and after checking ingredients of a food he had normally been eating daily but couldn’t get at time found had onion powder in. No problems since as long as we keep check of what he’s eating. So could be intolerances