May 24, 2021

Your child comes to you and says they take a bellyache. Tum aches are a common issue with kids. When to worry about that and what to exercise to help your child.

Common Causes for Stomach Hurting

So abdominal pain is something nosotros see very often and there's a whole bunch of reasons why kids can have intestinal pain. They can have abdominal pain because they're overeating; nosotros run into that a lot commonly around holidays, like Halloween, they eat too much candy. Christmas, they consume too much of the good yummy stuff that nosotros see around the holidays. They can likewise have gas pains if they're drinking too much soda. They tin have indigestion from spicy foods. For example, I meet a lot of kids that eat hot Cheetos and then they come in and tell me that their stomach hurts. The hot Cheetos are the cause of that stomachache.

Quite often every bit well, I run across kids coming in for stomachaches because of constipation. They'll say their stomach hurts around their bellybutton and then when y'all start request questions about their bowel movements, it turns out they haven't gone for awhile or when they go, it's hard to leave. And then enquire your kid if they accept a stomachache, if they've pooped recently.

Nosotros are as well seeing a breadbasket virus going around and a lot of kids will come up in and say they have a stomachache, merely they haven't had the airsickness or diarrhea because the stomachache just started that 24-hour interval and the parents are concerned. But the vomiting and diarrhea start within 24 hours of the stomachache.

A serious cause of abdominal pain that is always one that nosotros worry about is appendicitis. And you need to worry about appendicitis if the pain is on the low correct side of your child's abdomen. Your child won't hop up and down and they adopt to lie however, unable to move, even the slightest, without property on to the lower right side of his or hers stomach.

Nosotros oftentimes see a lot of kids coming in with stomachaches at the beginning of the school twelvemonth. Those stomachaches that keep coming back, they besides say they're effectually the belly button, they feel like they're in the, quote, "pit of their stomach." That's considering of stress. And kids tin can't really explicate stress that well, they just say their stomach hurts. And kids that have recurrent stomachaches often have some sort of stressors, whether information technology's something going on at school or something going on at home that they're worried nearly. So your child continues to talk about belly hurting around their belly push, ask them if they're worried about anything.

Home Treatment for Stomach Pain

So how long does stomach pain normally final? Well, that all depends on the crusade. With harmless causes, the pain is usually improve or gone in about two hours. Either that or you'll come across new symptoms, like the vomiting, the diarrhea, normally they'll pass gas if it's from gas pains, things like that. What if they have stomach pain from indigestion? Well the outset thing they should do is just lie downward. Quite frequently lying downward and not focusing so much on the belly pain does make information technology better. You can give them belly rubs, y'all can take a warm washcloth or a heating pad on their stomach and that volition make them feel better, too.

Avoid giving your child any solid foods and allow only sips of clear fluids if they're vomiting. If they continue to effort and swallow normally, the vomiting will go along and their breadbasket pain will get worse. If your child hasn't gone to the bathroom for a little while, have them go sit on the toilet and encounter if having a bowel move will assistance with their belly pain.

And finally, we usually don't recommend giving any medication for tummy cramps unless you know the cause. Plainly if it's because of constipation and this is a chronic problem, give them their constipation medication. But if you don't know what the cause is, don't requite your child Tylenol or Motrin to assist the tum hurting. Try and figure out with your pediatrician what the cause of the stomach pain is so that you can help them if this happens once more.

If your kid has stomach hurting because of stress or worry and it'southward something going on at school, exist sure to talk with the child nearly what's going on and and so relay those concerns to the officials at the school. Talk to the teachers, talk to the principal, encounter if you tin can resolve the problem that was causing their stomachache.

When to See A Professional

So when should you lot call your child'due south health care provider? Call immediately if the pain is severe and has lasted more than an 60 minutes or its constant and has lasted more than than two hours. Or if yous are worried about appendicitis or if the pain actually extends into the scrotum or testicles of boys. You may be advised to go to the children's emergency room for further testing that may non be able to exist done in your doctor's office to evaluate for those serious causes that may need a surgeon.

So abdominal pain is something that once again, nosotros encounter very ofttimes and there are so many things that could crusade information technology. Past working with your child's doctor, you can figure out what the crusade of the pain is and a plan to help your child.


updated: May 24, 2021
originally published: December xv, 2014

Heart Health

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