Comments for What To Do for a Child with Baffling Stomach Aches at http://belleruthnaparstek.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://belleruthnaparstek.com Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:55:17 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://belleruthnaparstek.com/ask-belleruth/what-to-do-for-a-child-with-baffling-stomach-aches.html#comment-996 Regarding the post from Rosalynne about her daughters stomach aches. I am 59 years old. I had stomach aches since I was a very little girl. I was given pepto bismol every morning before going to school. The doctors pooh poohed it as just not wanting to go to school. So over the years I dealt with stomach aches until one day in 2006 during a Dr visit, with a new Dr., he suggested a blood test for H pylori an intestional bacteria. My test was positive. After a month on 3 different antibiotics I can now say that I know what it is like to NOT have constant stomach problems. So I agree with Belleruth, before we assume it is anxiety or some other emotional problem, make sure your little girl has a complete medical workup. - Linda Pfaff Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:32:47 +0100 http://belleruthnaparstek.com/ask-belleruth/what-to-do-for-a-child-with-baffling-stomach-aches.html#comment-994 Both these posts are really helpful. Thanks much for writing. - Belleruth Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:36:48 +0100 http://belleruthnaparstek.com/ask-belleruth/what-to-do-for-a-child-with-baffling-stomach-aches.html#comment-992 Please forgive me for being picky about medical terminology -- A food allergy is an immune reaction to a food or drink. So if a person eats, for example, shellfish or peanuts, and has a life-threatening immune reaction (anaphylaxis), or gets hives, that is an allergy. The inability to properly digest something like lactose or gluten is NOT an allergy. It is, however, a food sensitivity. It is similar to an allergy in that the person does need to avoid that food. However, being tested for allergies will not tell you if a child has food sensitivities that are not based in the immune system. There is a breath test for lactose intolerance, and blood test for celiac disease (a major cause of gluten intolerance). But some food intolerances can only be diagnosed by elimination diets. I hope that this information helps clarify how it can be that a person has negative tests but still has a food intolerance. - Ann Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:31:03 +0100 http://belleruthnaparstek.com/ask-belleruth/what-to-do-for-a-child-with-baffling-stomach-aches.html#comment-989 I have an 11 year old who suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder due to past domestic violence. He suffers from anxiety and stomach aches on a reoccuring basis. He has been tested for allergies and we found that he is lactose intolerant, however the stomach aches seem to relate almost entirely to anxiety now that we eliminated dairy. Both myself and his therapist have often wondered what else we can do to help ease the anxiety so I am going to give these a try! Thanks, Kimberly S - Kimberly S Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:05:26 +0100 http://belleruthnaparstek.com/ask-belleruth/what-to-do-for-a-child-with-baffling-stomach-aches.html#comment-988 I can imagine the visualisations helping. I would like to point out that just because tests come back negative doesn't mean your child will not be sensitive to something. My daughter had stomach ache for over 18 months. She tested negative for all sensitivities. In spite of the doctor's insistence that there was nothing wrong ("The tests were negative!") my wife insisted on an exclusion diet. After 3 months of experimentation, we found she was highly sensitive to wheat. This was eliminated from her diet and now she doesn't get stomach ache unless she eats wheat (in a friend's birthday cake, for example). - JB Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:24:26 +0100