Aching

Miss M has been having stomach aches. They started just before we scheduled her tonsillectomy, and I blamed them on the ibuprofen they told us to give her to try to reduce the size of her tonsils. I stopped giving her the ibuprofen but the aches didn't resolve. We talked and it came out that she was being bothered by another girl at school. Her teacher handled the situation and the stomach aches vanished for a while.

They have returned a few more times, seemingly randomly, and have disappeared again.

Last week they started again. Every day.

These aren't just oh Mom I have a stomachache kind of aches. No, they are holding the stomach, moaning, screaming, crying kind of aches. She thinks she is going to throw up, but she doesn't. Sometimes she needs to go potty, but it doesn't seem to help the ache.

Last Friday I took her in to see the doctor to rule out any medical cause for this pain. I think it is largely psychosomatic, but I needed to be sure. We are keeping a diary of abdominal pain, times, duration, circumstances, etc. But so far it is the opinion of the doctor that it is anxiety related.

I am keeping the diary, but I am also starting to work with her to try to relieve these anxieties. I know 1st and 2nd grade seem to be highly stressful for kids for some reason or another and I want to start developing better coping techniques with her. Yesterday I gave her a notebook to journal in when she's upset or has something she'd like to talk about. She seems excited to try it.

We'll try to avoid even the joking things that could make her worry. We'll give her Tylenol when the aches hit. We'll encourage her to talk and to write.

We'll hope that this new growing pain goes away soon.