We had that - stomach aches, headaches, anxiety, turned out to be celiac was the root issue. Anxiety is much better after 18 mo GF and still improving all the time.

PSA: celiac can occur in all ages, ethnicities, and body types; doctors tend to look for the skinny small kid falling off the growth chart, but my medium-to-tall kid actually was putting on weight (bc malnutrition was causing an insane appetite) so was heavy at the time.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve just always made staying home from school or activities boring. It’s not a punishment, but I make sure there’s no benefit to it so the kids only claim to be ill if they’re actually ill. My rule is that if you don’t feel well enough to go to school, practice, etc., then you don’t feel well enough to do anything else either.

This might work with your kid but this would do no good with my kid. His anxiety makes him want to stay at home. There is no “not making it fun”. He could stare at a wall and be happy if it meant avoiding an activity. There is no activity in the world fun enough to threaten to take away. Miss vacation? He would be thrilled. Not see a friend, sure thing.

Could be anxiety. It can be tough to decide if you make them do stuff or not because the pain itself is very real.

Sometimes it is better to just make them do things because often the key to treating anxiety is to face the fear. But it totally sucks as a parent to figure out when it is real or not. My son has gone through numerous tests because eventually his pain was so bad we feared it was a medical issue. To date, nothing has been found. There are days he can barely eat, but also days he eats wat too much. We are working on both dealing with the anxiety and dealing with portion control and food choices.

Show your child that you take it seriously. Book a doctor’s appointment, as these things are hard to diagnose. Start journaling the pain too — severity on a scale of 0 to 10, time of day, possible triggers. With all the attention being paid, if this is an avoidance behavior, it should stop right away. If it is a medical condition, you’ll be gathering the info. you need to help the doctor to make a diagnosis. It’s also relatively harmless to give Tums. They’re just chalk, and they help to supplement calcium. If they reduce pain, that’s good data to have. Since the pain has been clearing up, I wouldn’t give your child a pass from normal activity. Send him or her to school and extracurriculars unless there’s vomiting or diarrhea involved. Let your child know that s/he can take it easy if necessary and call you if things get worse. Chances are that you won’t get a phone call.

DS has anxiety and a lot of stomach issues. He’s also very dramatic and it’s hard to tell if he’s actually hurting from nerves or trying to get out of something. If his stomach hurts that bad all he can have is plain toast and water. And absolutely no video games. That’s how I always know if he’s really hurting or trying to avoid something. He has a large appetite and loves food. Almost always if it’s nerves he feels better once he is there. Lately he’s been having a lot of stomach issues to try to stay home and play video games.

Tell him that it is important for you to understand the nature of his tummy pains. That if he just doesn't want to do stuff, he can tell you, and you will let him skip it. (And then follow through on that.)

Once he believes you that he doesn't have to manufacture reasons to skip something, either his stomach complaints will stop, or will continue. Then you need to consult a Gastro specialist.

This describes me in the 8th and 9th grade (in the late 70's) I was on a cholesterol medicine called Atrimid-S. 2-3 times per month I would get extreme stomach cramping. No illness. My mom referred to it a German Testitis (as the first time I had it, I had a German Test).

At the time, my father was my Doctor.

In my Sophomore year, I joined a study at NIH that was looking at Niacin for treating familial high cholesterol. In the workup, the doctor when hearing about my stomach cramping and my meds told me to stop the Atrimid; that is causing the cramping.

After that, I had no stomach issues and missed no school.

Could be food related. Dairy does this to me.

I had that as a child, and my parents never believed me. Turns out I have a chronic illness that was diagnosed at age 37. Please believe him and seek treatment. It could also be anxiety.

Anonymous wrote:Try lactose free milk. Sudden onset of a milk allergy or i tolerance happens all the time. Made a huge difference for us and all stomach problems stopped.

Yep, this was me at age 10. Lactose intolerance.