My 10 year old son

[Tammy]

Hi, my 10 year old son has been complaining of upper stomach pain since January 17th, 2000.  I have had him to our family Dr. numerous times.  Finally after him having this pain for so long I took him back to the Dr and said "enough is enough " The same day, Feb. 9th he had a stomach X-ray done.  It showed that he was very constipated.  The Dr. put him on a senna laxative for 2 weeks.  The pain has not let up.  Not only that but the pain he complains of is in his upper stomach not his lower stomach (not sure if that makes a difference) I am not sure if this is school related, but he doesn't complain too much on the weekends, just mostly on weekday mornings and at night.  He seems happy at school, I have spoke to his teacher and she has said that he seems fine at school.  On the days that I send him anyway (b/c he can't stay home all the time) he says the pain lets up a bit around 10:30 or so and comes back about 2, but this is not regular.  I guess what I am wondering is, what could this be? Any ideas what I should do, what to look for?  What kind of thing would come and go like this?   I hate to see him in so much pain. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[marilyn]

Tammy, For two years my son suffered severe abdominal pain usually accompanied with fever and listlessnes. His symptoms were identical to appendicitis and several times the doctors thought his appendix was rutpuring. Lo and behold, the pain would subside and we would take him home with the understanding to bring him back immediately if the pain returned. It usually did, but perhaps not for weeks or months later. If he went to visit his grandparents he always took a note authorizing them to take him for medical care should it be needed. Twice he ended up in the emergency room while on such visits. After another year and numerous doctor and hospital visits, his pediatrician said he was going to do "exploratory surgery" to find out what was going on in there. They found his appendix was fine but removed it anyway in order to eliminate appendicitis questions in the future. What they did find was the lymph glands in his stomach were inflamed and the size of golf balls. The term they gave was "Mesenteric Adenidas" and knew of no cause for the condition. Since his operation he has had zero episodes, and this happened when he was 9 years old, he's now going on 30. Poor guy to endure such pain for two years, but thank God it went away!

[Murielle Lemieux]

I was reading this site.  It is awesome and interesting. I would like to thank Karen J. Seppa for writing about the importance of keeping files. It is really important.  Karen, can you contact me and I would like to have more information.
Also, I would like to hear from Erika on her son's Nissen fundoplication.
I can be reached at derek.***@****
Thank You all and wish you all the best of luck in your journey in finding the answers to your concerns.
Murielle

[Tammy]

Hi everyone, wow what a response.  Thank you to everyone again for replying.  I am a true believer that parents have more knowledge sometimes then doctor's do.  We can all learn from each other.

An up date on my son.  Well he is doing great.  We got the constipation looked after, that was part of the problem. But what I do have to say is that MOST of his pain was due to the fact that he wanted to stay home with me and not go to school. Despite the need to baby him and keep him home I HAD to send him to school. That was very hard to do. Mostly b/c I wasn't sure that it was the problem.  I did have to rule it out however, for my own piece of mind. I was advised to send him no matter what, even if he was late getting there. Finally I had to tell him that he would be going to school everyday. That he would NOT be allowed to stay home due to a stomach ache. It worked!!! It was a hard struggle, for me as much as for him. And it didn't happen overnight. Please don't think I am saying that this is for everyone, but for us it was the problem. He has not complained about a stomach ache in almost 2 months. That is great for him and for me.  Everyday was a battle, things are much easier now.

Thank you to everyone for your support and your stories.

Once again I can be e-mailed at ***@**** if you ever want to talk further.

Hugz,
Tammy

[tracy]

My 10 yr. old son has been having severe stomach pain for about a year and a half now.  He's been to 3 gastroenternologists and has been diagnosed with Barrett's Esophogus with intestinal metaplasia by all three.  The pain is severe and he lives with it every day for a year and a half now.  I'm very frustrated because none of the strong med. help at all.  We have not found any pattern with what he eats or what he doesn't eat.  He has been tested for all food allergies and all came back neg. We have tried all kinds of diets anyway, but nothing makes the pain change.  I don't know what else to do. We have tried everything.  I hate the idea that I have no control to fix this for him.  He will have endocopies every so often to check on the Barrett's and metaplasia. He is too young to have this disease.  Usually people who have had severe GERD for a really long time get it in their 50's and 60's and the chances of it turning into cancer are not encourging espicialy for someone so youg with this disorder.  We just have to keep on top of it.  I don't know what else we can do at this point.  If it ever turns cancerous we will at least catch it early (God Willing!)

[jackie jones]

My child is going to be 3 years old she has been having stomach pains on and off for like a month now.  her stomach looks very swollen if she does not have a bowel movemenent in the morning or by nightime.  She is contstantly passing gas all day long and the stomach is very hard to the touch from the top to bottom.  The stomach does go down after but when she goes to the bathroom says that her stomach hurts very much.  I want to know if she could be dringking or eating something that is causing this --she does drink a lot of juices

[Patty M]

My grandson is 10 years old and has had problems with his bowels since birth - constipation - he was going a week without a bowel movement.  No one seemed concerned but me - I knew this couldn't be normal so I looked on the internet and his parents have been giving him mineral oil every night but he still does not have a bowel movement every day - as far as I can find out at least every 2 to 3 days which I am still concerned about.  How long can  a person stay on mineral oil.

He does not eat right so this does not help.  I have just received gummies from Juice Plus which is suppose to have all the fruits and vegetables a child needs and I hope this helps.