3 year old waking at night with stomach pains
3 year old waking at night with stomach pains
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Puggit

Original Poster:

49,230 posts

266 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
First off, we're trying to seek medical attention - but are getting fobbed off. Waiting for a callback from our GP today. He saw the GP yesterday who passed it off as gastroenteritis.

For the past 3 nights our 3 year old son has been waking through the night (and I mean through the night) with stomach pains. He's vomited a small amount on 2 of the nights. He also threw up big time 6 nights ago all over his bed.

The pains arrive at 9.30pm (bed time is 7.30pm) and he lies there curling up in a ball, then stretching out. After 15-60 mins the pain subsides and he's able to fall asleep again until the next bout. The first 2 nights the bouts were every 2 hours, last night it was every hour at least.

Phoned our out-of-hours GP service last night when it started who got us to carry out a check of the stomach for lumps - nothing.

Calpol is barely helping. It's reached the point where he becomes delirious at night and his behaviour is utterly erratic and non-sensical (as are we!). During the day, he's fine - although appetite is subdued.

Does anyone have any ideas? From being an internet doctor it appears that some complaints only manifest themselves at night. Today's plan is no bed time milk, which can really aggrevate a dicky tum.

Poor little mite has just fetched his duvet and pillow and has bedded down on the dining room carpet!

Apologies for any typos/spelling errors, I'm somewhat sleep deprived

davido140

9,614 posts

244 months

Friday 9th October 2009
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bedtime milk? lactose intollerant?? as you've already decided to do, keep him off the white stuff for a few days, see what happens, if it gets worse I'd be off to A&E if I were you, especially if you're getting the run around from your GP.

you are entitled to request a new GP and dont have to give a reason.



Edited by davido140 on Friday 9th October 10:42

Dupont666

22,251 posts

210 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
milk of magnesia is what I used to get given... can that not be given to the poor mite?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_of_Magnesia

Matt_N

8,954 posts

220 months

Friday 9th October 2009
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Might be worth trying to get an x-ray done, might have swallowed something?

Phil Dicky

7,193 posts

281 months

Friday 9th October 2009
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Dupont666 said:
milk of magnesia is what I used to get given... can that not be given to the poor mite?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_of_Magnesia
God I think I lived on that stuff biggrin

KrazyIvan

4,341 posts

193 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Next time it happens, either take him to AnE or call and amublance, might sound OTT, but it will be the quickest way of getting it diagnosed. Remember your local GP's is run like a buisness these days its about what they can get paid for, while doing the least amount of work, diagnosing a child takes a lot of time and effort.

Edited by KrazyIvan on Friday 9th October 10:49

phil1979

3,644 posts

233 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Puggit said:
First off, we're trying to seek medical attention - but are getting fobbed off. Waiting for a callback from our GP today. He saw the GP yesterday who passed it off as gastroenteritis.

For the past 3 nights our 3 year old son has been waking through the night (and I mean through the night) with stomach pains. He's vomited a small amount on 2 of the nights. He also threw up big time 6 nights ago all over his bed.

The pains arrive at 9.30pm (bed time is 7.30pm) and he lies there curling up in a ball, then stretching out. After 15-60 mins the pain subsides and he's able to fall asleep again until the next bout. The first 2 nights the bouts were every 2 hours, last night it was every hour at least.

Phoned our out-of-hours GP service last night when it started who got us to carry out a check of the stomach for lumps - nothing.

Calpol is barely helping. It's reached the point where he becomes delirious at night and his behaviour is utterly erratic and non-sensical (as are we!). During the day, he's fine - although appetite is subdued.

Does anyone have any ideas? From being an internet doctor it appears that some complaints only manifest themselves at night. Today's plan is no bed time milk, which can really aggrevate a dicky tum.

Poor little mite has just fetched his duvet and pillow and has bedded down on the dining room carpet!

Apologies for any typos/spelling errors, I'm somewhat sleep deprived
Does the episode start slowly, then persist for about an hour, then fever and vomiting strike?

If so, I wonder if he has a form of IBS.

About 2 years ago this started happening to me, usually early hours of the morning. One espisode lated 4 hours - you can't sit, lie, stand, anything - you literally roll around the place, tummy as tight as a drum. Then a red hot feeling to the head, and wallop - vomit time. Then, as quickly as it starts, it's gone, and you feel great, apart from feeling like you've been beaten up.

Before I was diagnosed, I had barium meals and ultrasounds with Bupa, followed by a camera thing through the belly button to look for twists/lumps in my intestines. Nothing. All clear.

Then they stopped. And thank God they haven't returned. Was a very nasty couple of years, I can tell you.

There was no logical reason, either. I wasn't even under any pressure to cause the stomach stresses. Very odd.

Buscopan might work, but not sure if a child that yound should be taking it.

Project 644

37,069 posts

206 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
KrazyIvan said:
Next time it happens, either take him to AnE or call and amublance, might sound OTT, but it will be the quickest way of getting it diagnosed. Remember your local GP's is run like a buisness these days its about what they can get paid for, while doing the least amount of work, diagnosing a child takes a lot of time and effort.

Edited by KrazyIvan on Friday 9th October 10:49
Do this. No messing. If they need to keep him in for observation then so much the better as he will get diagnosed quicker and therefore stop being in pain quicker.

pano amo

814 posts

254 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Certainly would agree with above posts. You'd never forgive yourselve if it was something serious. Dont let docs etc fob you off. They see so many people all day long, they cant care about everyone!

If its something acid-related, you could trying raising the head of the bed by putting books underneath the bed legs so that your kid sleeps at a downward angle. This should keep the acid down where it belongs. We did something similar for our youngest and it did the trick. Appreciate it might have been something different to yout kid.

Puggit

Original Poster:

49,230 posts

266 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
phil1979 said:
Does the episode start slowly, then persist for about an hour, then fever and vomiting strike?

If so, I wonder if he has a form of IBS.

About 2 years ago this started happening to me, usually early hours of the morning. One espisode lated 4 hours - you can't sit, lie, stand, anything - you literally roll around the place, tummy as tight as a drum. Then a red hot feeling to the head, and wallop - vomit time. Then, as quickly as it starts, it's gone, and you feel great, apart from feeling like you've been beaten up.
It's difficult to say if it starts slowly, as he's tucked up in bed then wakes up crying. He certainly rolls around the place.

Last night one episode did involve him reaching for the bowl to be sick in - lots of burbs, a small mouthful of puke and straight back to sleep (for 40 mins).

Not sure about red hot feelings in the head, but we've not detected any temperature at all during this.

The other reason we don't think he has gastroenteritis is that no one else has caught it, especially our 1 year old.
Puggit jnr suffered gastro a lot when he was younger (one episode leading to an ambulance called during a severe febrile convulsion) - and this is just not anywhere similar.

phil1979

3,644 posts

233 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Puggit said:
phil1979 said:
Does the episode start slowly, then persist for about an hour, then fever and vomiting strike?

If so, I wonder if he has a form of IBS.

About 2 years ago this started happening to me, usually early hours of the morning. One espisode lated 4 hours - you can't sit, lie, stand, anything - you literally roll around the place, tummy as tight as a drum. Then a red hot feeling to the head, and wallop - vomit time. Then, as quickly as it starts, it's gone, and you feel great, apart from feeling like you've been beaten up.
It's difficult to say if it starts slowly, as he's tucked up in bed then wakes up crying. He certainly rolls around the place.

Last night one episode did involve him reaching for the bowl to be sick in - lots of burbs, a small mouthful of puke and straight back to sleep (for 40 mins).

Not sure about red hot feelings in the head, but we've not detected any temperature at all during this.

The other reason we don't think he has gastroenteritis is that no one else has caught it, especially our 1 year old.
Puggit jnr suffered gastro a lot when he was younger (one episode leading to an ambulance called during a severe febrile convulsion) - and this is just not anywhere similar.
When I say red hot, I mean a wave of nausea combined with that horrible head sweat that comes on before throwing up - almost as if the body is making you feel as rough as possible so that vomiting is unavoidable - not necessarily meaning that you'd have a raised temp - just a sudden pre-vomit 'whooooa' feeling, if that makes sense.

Has he just started pre-school, or something similar, that's maybe stressing him a little under the skin, so to speak?

Edited by phil1979 on Friday 9th October 11:23

Puggit

Original Poster:

49,230 posts

266 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
phil1979 said:
Has he just started pre-school, or something similar, that's maybe stressing him a little under the skin, so to speak?
Thought has been crossing my mind about the stress issue.

He's at the same nursery as for the past year, but he did get stressed a month ago about us moving house. He regressed on his toilet training, but we soon got it back on track. We've only had 3 viewings of our house, so the whole excitement of trying to move has evaporated (as has the conversations about it).

phil1979

3,644 posts

233 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Puggit said:
phil1979 said:
Has he just started pre-school, or something similar, that's maybe stressing him a little under the skin, so to speak?
Thought has been crossing my mind about the stress issue.

He's at the same nursery as for the past year, but he did get stressed a month ago about us moving house. He regressed on his toilet training, but we soon got it back on track. We've only had 3 viewings of our house, so the whole excitement of trying to move has evaporated (as has the conversations about it).
May be a factor. But first and foremost I agree with the posts above - when it happens again, A&E to be sure.

Good luck!

SGirl

7,922 posts

279 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Definitely try raising the end of the bed where his head is - they used to tell you to put the Yellow Pages under the feet of the bed, but that might not work now because the book is thinner. wink This works with babies - don't know about toddlers, but it's worth a try! And definitely see a doctor. A one-off, okay. But this isn't a one-off, so best to get to the bottom of it.

Good luck, hope the littlie is feeling better soon. smile