My 7 year old daughter has been having a lot of stomachaches lately. No other symptoms, just a bellyache. She is very high strung, so I'm thinking they're caused by nerves. She'll call from school begging me to come get her, then when we get home, she's okay.
I've talked to her about anything that might be bothering her, she says nothing. Her teachers hasn't noticed anything. Usually if she sits still and has a couple of crackers, she's fine.
I'm going NUTS!! I don't know what to do!! I hate to take her to the doctor, I know they will have to run millions of tests, and even then not know what's causing it, but I don't want to ignore it and find out there's a real problem. Anyone have any experience or advice?? It's a real mommy dilemma! She's never had any health problems, and loves school, so I can't figure this one out.
Have you talked with her teachers? Maybe she is having some stress with her schoolwork or even with one or two of the kids. If she's high strung, she might get bellyaches from that. Otherwise, sit her down, make yourselves comfortable and have a good girl to girl chat. She's old enough to understand, when you explain to her, that her bellyaches are worrying you. That, if anything is wrong, you'd like to know, so that you can at least try to help and understand. Maybe you can find a solution together.Also explain, that if there is nothing wrong at school, that you have to take her to the doc, bc it is worrying and you have to make sure, that healthwise everything is ok. it is funny though, that she only gets the bellyaches in school, but not at home? Home is her safe haven, so that might also contribute to the bellyaches going away at home. Talk to her not only as a mother but as a friend as well. I hope you can resolve this soon, been there done that. With my daughter it was a slight case of bullying at school, the teacher didn't know about it, but her friend did. Spoke to the person involved and stopped that and informed the teacher, didn't need a doctors visit after all
does it happen at a certain time of day??? Probably totally unrelated but I used to get some pretty bad tummy aches (where I felt like throwing up) a few hours after taking a vitamin...finally figured it out..
sounds to me she is having issues at school...maybe someone picking on her?
My oldest ds has tummy aches all of the time that he's went to the nurse about at school & once he got home he was fine.
His problem was that he wants to hold his BM's in & not let them go. He'll hold these for days & days...I don't know how he does it, but we've made him go and TRY atleast once a day and his tummy aches have stopped.
This may not have helped any, and I'm sorry if it didn't , but I thought I'd share because this went on for a while before we really knew what was going on.
Good luck, I hope she starts feeling better soon!
Thanks for the help, everyone! She does limit her bathroom use at school, first order of business when she gets home is bathroom time. But she's always been like that, so it's just pretty much her routine.
I hadn't thought about lactose intolerance. She does tend to get more of them after lunch. She doesn't drink a lot of milk at home, but eats a ton of cheese and yogurt and the occasional glass of milk with no problems.
As far as bullying, she's been adamant that nothing's going on. BUT, she's friends with 2 other little girls and one of them is a real piece of work. All I ever hear is why girl1 isn't friends with girl2 anymore because of something trivial...typical little girl drama, but for a sensitive kid, that might be enough to tie her up in knots.
I just wish there was some way I could get her to relax!! She's testing for the gifted program and really nervous about getting in, so that's another issue.
I guess I just needed some reassurance that I'm not the only mommy with this dilemma. More times than not, I've made her stay at school and she recovers quickly. Her teacher keeps crackers in her desk for Sophie now, just in case. And I'm going to send some Pepto for the office to keep on hand for her. We're lucky to have such an understanding teacher!
Shellie ... my 6-year old niece was having very similar problems about a year ago. My SIL was very worried about her, but didn't know what to do. My niece is also very sensitive and seems to get anxious about things. My SIL finally took her to the doctor, and the doctor prescribed one of the Rx acid reflux meds (Prevacid, I think). Abby takes it at night before bed, and it really seems to help. My SIL also started limiting the amount of dairy products Abby was eating (she was eating lots of cheese, yogurt, etc., just like your DD), and that seemed to help, too. Hope things start getting better soon! 
I was going to suggest both the bathroom habits & the reflux. I took my DD to the doctor a few months ago for the same reason. She's homeschooled, though, so I know it it isn't any school related stress.
The doctor said to make sure she has a regular bathroom routine, and that she gets plenty of fiber. DD also gets indigestion, as well. She can have Tums, but the doc said that liquids work better. If you decide to go for antacids, look at the labels. I went to the store & found children's Mylanta (or one of the brands) for what priced out as almost $20 per 100, while the EXACT SAME THING, just without the word "children's" was closer to $3 per 100. DD wanted the one with the kids on it. I think I said something along the lines of, "He!!, no!" 
My DD has tummy aches sometimes too, that I have chalked up to stress. They started this school year when her regular teacher came back from maternity leave (she had missed the first few months of school). Even though DD really likes her and we had known since before school started that this was going to happen, DD does not adapt well to change and this change threw her off a bit.
She also gets them every now & then when something is upsetting or stressing her. One time it was a stupid boy on the bus calling her names, another time it was because she was not wanting to go to gym class because they were playing basketball and she's not good at basketball, and most recently it was because it was state testing time. My mom told her that I used to get tummy aches every now & then also, and we never figured out why. That seemed to make her feel better and that this wasn't something extra to stress about!
I never did think about indigestion or reflux though, that's something to keep in mind.
-Lisa
I'd say it's time to take advantage of the school counselor. Teachers don't always know everything that's going on with all the sutdents they have to keep track of. Maybe she'll say something to the counselor that she won't say to you? The other thing I would recommend is some regular planned acticity. Even something simple like a walk around the block, or jumping rope, or swinging, could help alleviate any stress she might be feeling.
My son would get tummy aches in the morning.
Then we figured out he wasn't eating enough breakfast in teh morning. I told him to eat bigger breakfasts and he won't have tummy aches any more. That seemed to help.
One day after lunch he had a bad one, but I think his lunch did him in. Chocolate milk with spaghetti and meatballs 
There could be a lot of different reasons but the following is my personnel experience with tummy aches coming and going. It took about 4 months for anyone to figure out what was going on, and this was 4 months of the doctors etc...
I was getting stressed out about changes that were going on in my life and decisions I had to make (I thought they were huge but have since figured out they weren't as big as I thought they were at the time) I ended up taking half of a pill of Zoloft (the smallest one they make) whenever I felt like I was getting stressed out and it helped quite a bit.
I went through months of not eating beef or fried food because it would upset my stomach. Milk was about the only thing that would calm my stomach. Went through a lot of different test at the doctors and the hospital and long story short, my body creates more acid than normal when I become really stressed and it was eating up my stomach. It isn't quite the same as acid relux but have since tried some of the prescriptions for that and they work the same way the zoloft did.
But everyone's elses suggestions are definitely a place to start talk with who you can about what is going on in her life. It may be something as simple as she is worried about a class or a friend but to her it may seem like a BIG deal.
I hope she feels better soon, i've been there done that and it is not a lot of fun.
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