“My daughter keeps having an upset stomach. What can I do to help her?”
My daughter almost constantly has an upset stomach. We've taken her to her pediatrician and they found no abnormalities. What could this really be?
4 Answers
More than 40% of children experience functional abdominal pain. That means that there is objective pain due to impaired functioning of the gastrointestinal symptoms. Something to keep in mind would be the foods she consumes prior to the onset of pain and if there are any other patterns. Seek the advice of a pediatric gastroenterologist who will help you understand the symptoms better.
Many times children have an upset stomach or abdominal pain that is constant but is simply due to an abnormal message being sent to the brain from the pain nerves that are in the abdomen. This is termed functional abdominal pain and is completely harmless for the child. Usually it gets better with time and sometimes counseling.
I will suggest evaluation by a Pediatric gastroenterologist for causes of abdominal pain and upset stomach such as constipation, celiac disease, food intolerance, lactose intolerance, IBD and unknown stress or anxiety etc.
It is hard to answer your question without seeing and examining her. If physical exam and growth are normal, next step is to obtain labs, urine tests, stool tests and/or imaging. A referral to pediatric gastroenterology would be the next step.
