Autistic teenage daughter and stomach pain

[mrstrickland]

Hi all, looking for some advice.
My daughter is 13 and just started her period. She has been crying about feeling hungry (and wolfing down much more food than normal). I have tried explaining to her that her stomach pain is most likely period pain than hunger pains and tried to rationalise this with her, i.e. you have eaten 3 slices of toast and your tummy is still sore, so that would probably mean its period pain.

Any ideas on how to help her recognise the difference between hunger and period pain? Or do I just give her regular paracetamol when she is on her period?

Thoughts please!

Thanks

i mean i eat a lot more when i'm on my period, very sugary foods aswell so maybe i'm not the best person to take advice from but have you not been giving her pain relief anyway

Hi, thanks for your comment but its different. She is complaining of feeling hungry but eating is not resolving the feeling she has. My question is more about how do I help her to feel the difference between period pain and hunger....

you can't, though maybe explain that hunger is higher up in her tummy and period cramps are lower down maybe show her a diagram of a woman and point out the womb and explain that's where the pain is coming from, that's the best advice i've got

Come up with a new routine - when you have a stomach cramps have a bath/take a paracetamol/go for a walk/wait 30mins before eating to see if goes away

You have two issues which are so tricky with a diagnosis of autism - hunger and pain.

thanks. She has such low tolerance to hunger though that she is doubled over in pain at the best of times when hungry so she definitely wouldn't be willing to wait. The over eating doesn't bother me in the slightest, its just trying to help her understand that there are different types of tummy pain and eating doesn't cure all!

I'd let her eat and also offer paracetamol. And it's useful if she's eating, so that she's not taking pain relief on an empty stomach.

Its new to her, so may take her a while to work it out. I'd also get an app for period tracking. And make notes of the pain.

She can then know when to expect her period, and when she may need to have extra snacks for school of she feels more hungry.

I'd give her a special hot water bottle for her tummy when it's period pains.

My dd eats a lot when she’s on her period (or the day before), she’s also autistic and not very verbal, she won’t take anything for tummy ache. Maybe she does feel extra hungry? I know when I am on my period I crave carbs.

Had similar last year with autistic dd I had to show her it wasn't hunger so hot water bottle, paracetamol, ibuprofen. Lots of repeating that when having a period eating more won't stop the tummy ache. It seems to have got through to her after about 10 months. It has been very repetitive though.

Have a routine of taking paracetamol or ibuprofen when on period, then the period pains aren’t as bad and won’t be confused with hunger as much

all great ideas thanks. I did buy a hot water bottle that wraps around her waist so will make sure she uses that next month and give her regular paracetamol. Maybe you are right and it will just take time and reminders to get her to feel the difference between the 2. She doesn't normally feel pain so it must be pretty sore

My daughter finds paracetamol doesn't touch the pain. She has ASD and finds communicating the levels of pain difficult. We know its bad because she often vomits with the pain. Ibuprofen with Lysine works much better than paracetamol

aw poor thing that sounds awful 😢