Anyone else have a kid with a nervous stomach?

[BamaTanya]

Our 15yo dd has a nervous stomach. I had one at her age. My dad had one, too.

 

She gets anxious before we go places, even if it is somewhere we've been before. Last week she got ready for SS and threw up before we got out the door. This morning she wouldn't eat anything and looked like she was doing fine. She found me after SS to ask if we could go home. She'd been in SS talking to her friends and excused herself to go to the bathroom where she threw up.

 

Then, on the way home, she asked me to stop at Burger King where she wanted 2 double cheeseburgers and a Coke. :tongue_smilie: She's been fine the rest of the afternoon!

 

It is not just church. It's parties. It's work. It was the earring piercing trip.

 

And then she's fine.

 

I remember having spells like this when I was in high school/college. I used to skip breakfast to keep from feeling the nausea. I used to avoid brushing my teeth because the gag reflex might get triggered.

 

I outgrew it and eat anything/anytime. I hardly had any morning sickness when I was pregnant!

 

What could cause it? What should I be doing to support her? Obviously, we can't stay at home all the time!

 

She has two brothers on the autism spectrum who take several medications for their difficult symptoms. She thinks I need to take her to the doctor and find a medicine that helps her . . . that there's something wrong with her, too?

 

What do you think? Besides just plain old anxiety (and skipping breakfast which seems to make it worse) what else could be a factor? If it were a stomach problem, wouldn't there be symptoms other times of the day?

 

If I take her to a doctor for these symptoms, what kind of dr do we need to see?

 

tia

[Hunter's Moon]

My older sister, now 18, had Acid Reflux ever since she was a baby.

 

It would really bother her when she was nervous. She would periodically get heart burn, but nausea was her main problem a lot of the time. She has almost "outgrown" it now.

 

Maybe taking her to the doctor would be a good idea. Even if you don't think she is sick, it might put her at ease.

[cjbeach]

I do and didn't know I did :confused:.

 

DD was in ps K last year. 6 weeks before school year ended she started to complain of a LOT of stomach aches. Then one morning I got a call from the schoolnurse she had vomited on her DESK.

The next day the teacher told me my dd was being sorta bullied by another girl in the class who was telling my daughter things like "I'm gonna tell Mrs. A xyz and then you'll be trouble and this and that."

Nice.

 

(Ask me why my sweet dd is homeschooled this year.)

[lisamarie]

I did but I got/get diarrhea when I get anxious. It started when I was in 5th grade and was being bullied by a couple girls. If I had a test, I'd get sick. If I was stressed, I got sick. I still deal with it occasionally, but nothing like when I was in school. Now it's only when I am going into a new situation and feel unsure of myself. I really hate it and can completely understand why our DD would like to get medical attention for it. It's a real inconvenience and embarrassing.

[ereks mom]

The first time I noticed it was when he was taking the ITBS when he was 8yo. He was so stressed about the upcoming test--first time he ever took it. He did fine--very high scores--but for some reason, he was overly concerned about it. He said he didn't want to do poorly and make me look like a bad teacher! He got so worried that he would throw up every day, several times a day. At first I thought he had some type of virus, but it turned out to be just the anxiety. It went on for several weeks after the test as well.

 

Ever since he was about 14yo, he has been unable to eat first thing in the morning. He can drink coffee and sometimes an Instant Breakfast, but he has to wait for his stomach to wake up before he can eat anything.

 

The "nervous stomach" issue has been worse since he started college--especially when he is feeling the pressure of several assignments due at the same time, or an upcoming recital or music juries. If he gets upset about something, he can barely eat, and he has been known to be nauseated and/or throw up when he is stressed. When the pressure is over, his appetite returns, and he eats normally--he especially loves spicy foods! He's not picky, but he's never been one to eat a lot at a time (except when he was about 12 or 13 and growing fast). But he eats nearly nothing when his stomach is bothering him. I tell him that not eating just makes it worse, but he can't seem to help it. He takes OTC acid reducers--either Pepcid or Prilosec--as needed. During the summer and on Christmas break, he almost never needs them.

Edited June 13, 2010 by ereks mom

[MamaT]

I was like that as a teenager. My mother took me to the doctor and he prescribed some medication that I took before any event that could cause me anxiety. It worked, but I don't remember what it was. It was just our regular family doctor.

[ereks mom]

I was like that as a teenager. My mother took me to the doctor and he prescribed some medication that I took before any event that could cause me anxiety. It worked, but I don't remember what it was. It was just our regular family doctor.

 

She would get upset and cry every morning before school, and my mom took her to the doctor. He prescribed some kind of little green pill that my sister would take every morning before school. I have no idea what they were, but we called them her "cry pills". I don't think they helped much, because she still cried every day. It turned out that she was afraid of her teacher, because the teacher would actually shake the children who did something wrong! When my mom went to the school to complain, the teacher denied it, and the matter was dropped. (This was in the late 60s.) My sister's anxiety subsided as soon as the school year was over.

[keptwoman]

I'm still like it! I just take it as my bodies way of coping with stress and anxiety. I don't vomit, but I get the "other end," cramps and nausea. I've never really worried about it too much because it's never got in the way of life. I've only once resorted to drugs, and that was to deal with the side effects rather than the anxiety, as I knew the anxiety would be gone on X day when we stepped on the plane to move to Australia :)

 

I think DD is a bit the same, but she usually throws up on the last day of a holiday. Strange but there you go, I'm not much bothered. We just clean up the vomit, give her lots of love, and carry on.

[flyingmommy]

My son had that problem every year for about the first few weeks of school. Actually, he started having that problem after having the teacher from H*** in 4th grade..... but that's another story. We found a homeopathic remedy called Calms Forte and it helped him.

 

J

[gingersmom]

I had a nervous stomach for about the first 30 years of my life. It was just awful.

 

I knew what foods to avoid but it still made no difference. Stress was my enemy. When I got older I ate tums (and other medicine like it) by the handful. It made no difference.

 

I finally took myself to the doctor and got put on medicine. It was the best thing ever. I was seriously upset with my parents for never taking me to the doctor to have it addressed.

 

My mother (to this day) says she feels so much guilt. She says she didn't realize it was that bad, she didn't know they could give you medicine for it, blah blah blah.

 

Please take your daughter to the doctor. If nothing else you are out the cost of the co-pay for the visit.

[ereks mom]

My son had that problem every year for about the first few weeks of school. Actually, he started having that problem after having the teacher from H*** in 4th grade..... but that's another story. We found a homeopathic remedy called Calms Forte and it helped him.

 

J

 

Thanks!

[Angel]

Just giving this a bump back up to hear about the Calms Forte.

 

I could have written your post about dd15. She has been to the dr over the past week 3x for a staph infection and it has kicked her mild anxiety into high anxiety. We will be taking her back soon to discuss an anti-anxiety med. She cannot eat in the morning, feels sick to her stomach, etc. Not eating only makes it worse but there's nothing to help. She has sensory issues which only compounds the problems. Our ped. and I discussed this briefly and she said that a small dose of med could be life changing for my dd. The list of health problems the anxiety can cause is long and surprisingly I have a lot of them.

 

I have dealt with this since I was 14 but I was diagnosed Irritable Bowel. I now know that IBS can be caused by anxiety (along with TMJ, acid reflux, etc) so I may be checking with my own doc.