4 year old complaining of a sore tummy

[Isittoomuchtoask]

For a few weeks now my four and a half year old has been complaining of a “sore tummy” in the evenings, usually after dinner.

Tonight he had pesto pasta, but has had this for lunch at times and not complained of a sore stomach.

Anyway, it’s ramped up a bit and it’s been going on long enough that I’m starting to consider some sort of intolerance.

What would be the best thing to do? GP, or buy one of these kits you can get and do yourself?

I should add it tends to be fleeting. Only on one occasion did he cry, the rest of the time he says he’s got a sore tummy but it doesn’t progress and he’s not in visible pain.

There are no home tests for these things. It's either a blood test or skin prick tests for an ige allergy or elimination diet and challenge for a non-ige allergy.

Any other symptoms? How's his growth?

No other symptoms! He’s a skinny thing, not a very big appetite. He was born small though!

I will speak to the GP in that case. His dad mentioned a friend had used a company online who took a hair strand or something like that

Entirely possible it is food related but when mine was that age, a sore tummy often meant her tummy was sad - ie something was upsetting her.

Yes, possible. He is happy to say he is feeling sad when he is though, and will point to the area of his stomach that he says hurts.

It does seem a bit random though, and I’d have expected an intolerance of some sort to cause more long lasting (ans obvious) symptoms for him

DD says used to day she had a sore tummy when she was just stuffed!! Equally, she has a good friend who complained of a sore tummy a lot, who turned out to be coeliac.

I'd speak to the gp just in case of intolerances.

The hair stuff is bullshit. Don't do that it's just fleecing the vulnerable.

I would go to gp and ask for an iron and celiac test. If he's deficient in iron it could be an absorption issue and the celiac test will be able to show whether if that is the problem.

It could be bedtime delaying behaviour but I'd say it's best to be cautious

Hi did you find out what this was I’m having the exact same issue with my 4 year old