Dr Hive: 3yo and tummy aches

[athena1277]

Little dd recently turned 3yo.  The last several weeks she has complained off and on about having a tummy ache.  As best I remember, it began as an occasional attempt to get out of bed at bedtime.  Now it can be any time, although it doesn’t last long.  She eats plenty, although she’s a picky eater.  We are potty training, but she doesn’t have a problem going #1 or 2 in the potty (or a pull-up, sigh).  Older dd has Celiac Disease, so I know there’s always a chance she develops it too, but she isn’t showing any signs other than the tummy ache.  

Is there any way to figure out if the tummy aches are legit, or if it’s just something she has learned that will get her attention?  I can’t figure out if it’s worth going to the doctor about or not.

[Pen]

Personally if I had one child with celiac, I’d certainly presume a second child with tummy troubles is legit .  

[Katy]

My guess is that it's always been legit, it's just low-level enough that she doesn't notice it until she's quiet.  Like when she just goes to bed. You can start with the doctor but my guess is celiac too.

[Tanaqui]

Isn't celiac a heritable condition? If you have one child with celiac, and the other is now presenting with stomachaches, I wouldn't waste time. Just go get it checked out.

[Sara in AZ]

I’d definitely check it out. When my dd with celiac was diagnosed the only symptom she really had was chronic tummy pain starting when she was about three until I finally got a doctor to test her around age 7. We had the whole family checked out after that. Hope you can get to the bottom of it!

[J-rap]

Two of my kids had tummy aches as young children.  They were also my two who were prone to drama though, so I also used to wonder if those tummy aches were always real!  Now that they're all grown up, they've discovered they're highly sensitive to gluten.  They've never been tested for celiac, and I kind of doubt they have that, although I could be wrong.  But when they started going off gluten after high school to try it out, they couldn't believe how great they felt.  No more tummy aches!  They feel so much better now.  One of these children is able to handle a little gluten in very small dosages, but the other one cannot seem to tolerate any.

Another dd had trouble putting on weight as a toddler and the doctor suspected celiac.  The blood test was positive for it, but the biopsy was negative.  

But in your case where one child already has been diagnosed as celiac, I'd highly suspect it.

 

[73349]

If bedtime falls half an hour to a couple of hours after she eats dinner, it makes sense that that's when the stomachache would be starting.

Not only does she have a 30x greater risk of celiac than the average kid (because a sibling has it), getting poked for a blood test would be a deterrent to faking it in the future if she really is just stalling or something. I'd take her in.

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by whitehawk