7 year old with mystery stomach pain

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My 7 year old has been complaining on and off for months about stomach ache. I took him to the drs a few months ago who said to keep an eye on it. Since Christmas he has been complaining more and saying it hurts all the time.
I took him back to drs yesterday who has requested a stool sample to test for any infections and asked us to keep a food diary.

It doesn't seem to impact him day to day and there is no pattern to it - he will complain just as much after doing a poo as he will before. First thing in the morning before breakfast and before bedtime and any time in between, school have mentioned it a few times also.

Dr google seem entirely useless and I'm not sure it can be anxiety based as hes generally a pretty happy and enthusiastic child.

What can I expect with the beginning of testing with the drs? Yesterday they said if nothing shows in stool sample they will do bloods to test for celiac / colitis (Im doubtful about this as he has no other gastric symptoms).

Has anyone else's child had mystery stomach pain and can anyone give me any ideas of what sort of investigations they might do after bloods?

It could be anxiety. How is he getting on at school?

Like I said he seems generally pretty happy, school is going well - he's bright and at the right levels, loves maths and is reading well. He has friends and rarely says anything negative about school which is why I'm stumped.

I had abdominal migraines as a child. They were awful. Like on the floor in fetal position unable to move awful. It’s very common in children. They most often occur at night and when they are unusually tired or stressed or a bit unwell but can occur at other times.

They should rule out more physiological causes with blood tests and stool samples, yes, but I’d raise it as a possible concern.

I think possibly not abdominal migraine as he says the pain is now constant. He came in this morning at 5.45 saying the stomach pain woke him up - but he happily ate all his breakfast at home and then had a further bowl of cereal after being dropped at his Nannas before school.

At this point I'm quietly hoping its worms or something as otherwise Im worried it could be something a bit more significant. Hes saying the pain is central/left and higher up so possibly spleen related.

DC2 had mystery stomach aches at this age and it turned out to be anxiety. They were later diagnosed with AuDHD.

Have you started the food diary? My almost 7 year old has just been diagnosed as lactose intolerant despite happily having dairy for previous 6 years. Only symptoms for her are severe stomach pains.

He could also have some actual underlying medical problem so if it continued I would be pushing for a CT scan to rule out physical stuff too. He could have bowel or intestinal issues, twisting, or blockages. Always worth getting checked out physically too. I hope he gets some relief soon.

I have had a lot of stomach issues over the years. Stool fit test will show if blood present or not. I have then gone on to have colonoscopies and CT scan to understand root of issue. While it absolutely could be anxiety etc, could also be a physical problem. Doesn’t necessarily mean it is something sinister. I had a small operation when younger and the relief I felt after was immense. I had periods of pain, periods where I felt ok, but once it was sorted I was like a new person- sleeping better, being able to go to bathroom without pain, no anxiety over what I was eating (trying not to trigger!).

good luck that it’s something they can sort quickly for you

I gave my DS a gaviscon out of sheer frustration. He was under the age on the box. It was a magic cure. Ultimately ended up on Omeprezole (as Dr said he couldn't have gaviscon long term but okayed it for a month trial) which seemed to cure it.

Interestingly the Dr actually said initially there was nothing he could take and it was here that a poster told me he could have Omeprezole. Forever grateful to that poster.

Thanks for your comments everyone! His stool sample came back clear for infection so DH has taken him today to another Dr appt this afternoon so hopefully we can get blood done. I've asked him to see if they can do a blood count as I have seen that stomach pain can have some link to Leukemia
(I don't think it will be! But its crossed my mind as absolute worst case scenario and I want it ruled out)

We have done food diary and nothing seems to be prompting it but I think our next step is stopping milk for a bit. Even though he's drunk litres of the stuff from age 1. 😂
Thinking about it he was a VERY refluxy/sicky baby which was very triggered when I had dairy when breastfeeding.

I've also been considering the anxiety and ADHD link - he is generally quite laid back emotionally but is one of those kids that cannot sit still and never has (crawled at 4 months etc) He gets easily annoyed by some noises and talks like he thinks to fast for his mouth to catch up.
School haven't mentioned any concerns as he's very bright and loves it there but he's very easily distracted.

So if all tests come back clear I might ask school in a bit more depth what they think too

Mine had this. Turns out it was abdominal migraines.

Cause seems to be anxiety and he was later diagnosed with ADHD. Starting ADHD meds drastically reduced the migraines and now he only gets them when seriously stressed.

School NEVER flagged any concerns about him. I think he masked loads which caused the hidden anxiety. Once he could concentrate easier at school (ADHD meds) he calmed down and the migraines reduced.

Coincidentally he also had severe reflux until he was 5.

Before diagnosis I had taken him to so many different doctors!

Could definitely be Coeliac disease- hope you get a blood test ASAP.

Dd2 had horrendous abdominal pain around the same age. No painkillers touched it (later told that was one of the things that helped with diagnosis). After many appts, much trauma and worry, it turned out to be mesenteric adenitis - basically swollen glands in the stomach, generally from exposure to a virus (even if they didn't actually get ill). At that age everything's close together and swollen glands press on nerves. Pain can be very severe (they were testing dd for ovarian torsion/tumours at one point, I was beside myself).

Once we got the diagnosis the docs just shrugged at me and expected her to cope with it as it's thankfully not classed as serious. However she was on full doses of paracetamol and ibuprofen EVERY day for many months and still off school, still not sleeping, absolute nightmare.

In desperation I took her to a homotoxicologist (homeopathy with a machine to work out which remedies were needed). A mum friend recommended it, I was sceptical but omg. She tested dd, I said nothing about diagnosis, she immediately said swollen glands plus various viruses hanging around. Gave us drops to put in her water. I put them in in the car before driving 45 mins home. Within 2 hours the pain had dialled right down and within 24 hours it was gone.

When she was exposed to viruses or caught something particularly nasty it tended (still does) to get her badly. But many times I've been able to use the same drops we had. Sometimes we have another appt and pinpoint a different virus. She grew out of that awful pain but still gets a lot of viruses. Every single time we leave it to see if she can get rid of it, it lingers on for ages, we get an appt, get the right drops...and it's sorted.

It's expensive but so worth it. Apparently mesenteric adenitis is v common in both sexes around this age so worth asking about that, although I realise it may be something different. Hope he's better soon.

By the way, dd never had a clue which drops were in her bottle. It has always been completely obvious to me when a particular type were/weren't working. As soon as we get it right, she's sorted. Still go occasionally at nearly 18 and has never failed!

Just here to pick up tips as we have the same issues with DD aged 5 - on and off complaints of stomach pain for months. Once what seemed like awful pain, she was mooing, seen at A&E but it passed after a few hours so they didn’t investigate further. She has a blood test next month which includes coeliac. Thinking about it, older niece had stomach pain for a while that they thought was post-covid - wonder if that’s similar to the mesenteric adenitis described above. She’s grown out of it.

Personal rant coming (sorry)

I had stomach pains on and off as a child. Turned out (when I was twenty fucking seven) that I had coeliac disease. Oh my god those doctors could have saved me decades of pain if only I had actually been listened to and diagnosed in the 90s but I think doctors were not clued up then. I was asked over and over again if I was trying to avoid eating to be thin (basically accusing a 6 year old girl of an eating disorder.)

my son is now complain of tummy aches. Went to doctors last week.

we are doing it in this order

blood test for coliac
testing for inflammatory bowel disease
stool sample for infection
possible anxiety.

i will update you when we know what it is :)

So sorry for those years of pain @Riverflow6 - physical and also the distress of not being believed.

Really helpful to see your plan in order. Is dairy a query? That’s another intolerance I sometimes wonder about, but not with enough conviction to do a food trial since we already don’t eat meat.

following on from his Drs appt on Friday we now have 2 further stool samples to do (joy!) and a blood test.
Turns out first Dr only ordered the test for infection but not the other tests! This one seems to have been a bit more knowlegable about what tests to do!

I'm waiting for the blood test appt to come through on the app and will drop off the other poo packet later in the week.

Dr has told us not to mess with his diet until both tests are done so we will keep him as is and wait and see. He didn't complain about his stomach at all on Saturday but then did complain on Sunday (after quite a stressful house time getting out of the house) he said he has still had it all day Saturday. This morning he woke us up at 5.30 saying it was hurting but didn't say anything further during breakfast.

Im just hoping all these tests can get sorted asap, I'd quite like him to not be in pain at all times.