Regular Tummy Aches?

[JJorn]

My three year old regularly tells me that her tummy hurts. This has been going on for awhile but is more frequent the last few days and she woke up last night saying that she was sick and it hurt. There does not seem to be much of a pattern with it. What should I do?

[DucksLikeRain]

Keira began having almost daily headaches, stomach aches or "sore throats" (later figured out to be reflux) when whe was 3. It took me 3 years to figure it out but after we connected them as being migraines and/or abdominal migraines and eventually cutting out gluten, they're gone.

Obviously that's just one scenario. Stomach aches can be so vague and at age 3, they can encompass all kinds of things-intestinal pain, nerves, reflux, etc. We started looking into things after the almost daily complaints had been going on for a month. She still will complain but now that she's 7 she can start to differentiate between "I ate too much" "I'm carsick" "I'm nervous", etc and the "I ate gluten and I'm going to throw up for the next 18 hours and have a migarine" stomach pains.

As for what you should now-I'd be aware of it, watch her diet and maybe take it to the more bland end of things, but unless it gets to where it's really impeding on her I'd sort of step back and leave it alone without other symptoms. If she's laying around and not wanting to eat, I'd probably take her in before the weekend since it's going to be a long one.

[JJorn]

This has been going on for months. Thus far is hasn't seemed to impact anything long term and even now she said that it doesn't hurt anymore after saying it hurt three times today not including in the middle of the night. Sometimes she doesn't poop for a few days but it has never been hard for her to go.

[runningmomofmany]

Gas maybe? Does it help if you rub her tummy? Maybe try some acidolphilus. If she had some kind of mild bug back when it started it could have thrown things off. Mylicon might help too if it is gas.

[froggie83]

i would start a journal: write down what she eats and when/how much, when she says her tummy hurts, when she uses the potty (both pee and poo), and include any thing else that might be involved (nervous about a playdate, car ride that could lead to being carsick etc.)
this could help you fing the triggers and help you stop the tummyaches

(nak)

[babybluesash]

Probiotics might help as well, even with the getting regular bowel movements.

[JJorn]

Good suggestions all. We've done probiotics before but not for a few months. She still said her tummy hurt while on them but they are worth a shot again. I really hope that it isn't a food issue since she is picky already and simply refuses to eat anything if she doesn't want what I offer.

[jazzmom]

The same thing happened with my oldest when she was that age. I always made sure she didn't have to poop (I still ask her if she has to poop when she says her stomach hurts, much to her embarrassment! ) and that she wasn't sick otherwise. Her doctor said it's very common for kids that age--and mostly girls--to have random stomach aches. There isn't really any rhyme or reason either, oftentimes. For Madison, would have her lie down until she felt better. It would be 5 minutes max and then she'd hop up and play, good as new. They finally went away as she neared 5.

[ljs318]

The same thing happened with my oldest when she was that age. I always made sure she didn't have to poop (I still ask her if she has to poop when she says her stomach hurts, much to her embarrassment! ) and that she wasn't sick otherwise. Her doctor said it's very common for kids that age--and mostly girls--to have random stomach aches. There isn't really any rhyme or reason either, oftentimes. For Madison, would have her lie down until she felt better. It would be 5 minutes max and then she'd hop up and play, good as new. They finally went away as she neared 5.

I was going to say almost the exact same thing. My older DD had tummyaches for the longest time and I would always ask her if she had to poop. I even made a mental note to ask at her next yearly check up, but they stopped. Not sure anything specific happened to make them stop, but she just turned 5 and I can't remember the last time she talked about a random tummyache. Our Pedi always asks if she has more tummyaches or headaches than a normal kid... but by that time they had stopped. Hope she feels better.

[JJorn]

I always ask if she has to poop as well and she always says no. Whenever I suggest anything to do with the bathroom, though, she always says no...and then generally has to really go within 5 minutes. Irritating! I do hope that it is nothing but will pick up probiotics and start a food diary for her.

I am very glad to hear that other kids did this around age three, too.

[Bridget]

My Kai's been complaining of a tummy ache for almost 2 years now. He says it's always there and never goes away. I'm trying to figure it out by cutting out foods but so far no luck.

[3andMe]

My youngest DS says he has tummyaches fairly frequently. No real pattern. He clutches it, says it hurts, and asks for an ice pack (it's his cure-all). I ask him if he feels like he needs to poop, too. I often think that he might just have gas, because it doesn't seem to persist and it comes and goes and often just goes away for good and doesn't come back for days or a week. I tell him that a warm pack and lying down for a little bit on his left side might help. Not that he does it.

Some people tend to have more visceral sensitivity than others, and feel more discomfort to the random sensations produced by their intestines as things move around or distend them. I remember someone in school once telling me if she had a gas bubble, she just lay on the floor and moaned until it went away. I know other people who can stand all kinds of sensations in their guts without blinking an eyelash but faint at a needlestick. So my best guess with MY DS, just with the random nature of his pains and the fact that they come and go and sometimes might last for a while one day but don't ever stick around too long, is that his tummy is just more sensitive to the sensations of stretch and pressure than some other people. Or maybe he is just commenting on every single little crampy feeling he gets until it moves along.

Obviously there are both sides here, from people who have seen these pains turn into something and those who have not (and those who are still looking). I was just going to mention the standard talk to your doctor if they persist, and then I just remembered that I actually took my DD into the doctor about escalating abdominal pains a few years ago, and she got an exam and a couple of minor tests like a urinalysis. I elected to not do anything more invasive after talking to her doctor about all of the options and deciding to watch and wait, and after about 3 months they stopped completely. So I guess my DD grew out of tummyaches too, and I totally forgot about it, but they had been getting worse and worse and actually stopped her from playing.

[Babidol]

Piper gets them too and she's 3.5. For her it tends to be having to pee or poop. Or if she drank too much juice too fast or ate too much. She's starting to recognize what she thinks causing it but for the most part I just get the "mommy, my belly huuurrrrtttttssss" several times a day. She's a daily pooper with normal stools so it's not that.

[Ashleen]

Paige had tummy-aches around age 3 as well. They started happening after she had, had her first stomach bug, so I thought one possibility was that she was just more aware of the sensations happening in her stomach. We also had moved recently so another possibility I thought of was just the stress of the move. They did eventually stop and nothing ever came of them.

[JJorn]

She is a sensitive little girl - incredibly ticklish - so maybe that also relates to being more sensitive to digestion sensations. It may also have started after a bad bought of diarrhea that the kids both had for about a month several months ago. They had to be on probiotics to get things back to normal for them both.

Since it really isn't impacting her life beyond a few minutes of frowning and saying that her tummy hurts, I'll just be watching for now.