Acute Abdominal Pain in Children – causes – symptoms

Has your child always been complaining about an uneasy tummy one time or the other? And are you concerned that checkups and medication haven’t much helped your child? Then it is taking matters into your own hands.

Severe abdominal pains are very common in children so much so that they have even lead to surgical emergency. Most children usually complain of stomach cramps and aches, severe sharp prick like pain in the abdominal region. And it is sometimes really difficult to know the real reason behind these symptoms because these symptoms may not just be from medical causes but can be attributed to psychological factors too.
Before we get into a detailed reasoning behind these, it is necessary to eliminate some basic factors which might result in tummy aches in children. Viruses and bacterial infections are the most common causes. They are the most sources of stomach flu and gastroenteritis. The effects of viral infections like that of stomach flu pass away quickly but bacterial infectivity needs antibiotics. Children might recover quickly in these cases but remember to include lots of fluid in the diet if recovery includes diarrhoeal activity to prevent dehydration of the body.
Food poisoning is another way of stomach aches. These forms of stomach aches usually lead to food allergies, gas production and severe food ingestion. Food poisoning should be taken seriously because they can be minor worries or extremely troublesome depending upon the cause of poisoning.

The symptoms of acute abdominal pain in children  with this kind of poisoning include

• Abdominal cramps,
• Diarrhoea,
• Vomiting with the symptoms emerging within two days of consumption of infected food.

Another cause of poisoning can be medicines themselves. An overdose of medicines can be hazardous to health and hence it is advised to keep away medicines from the reach of your children. The same is true for your household chemicals.
People usually have a tendency to believe that diabetes is an adult’s disease but this is not so. Diabetes can equally affect children and cause abdominal pain. If you think your child might be diabetic too then make sure to monitor his/her symptoms, get to know where it hurts most, and nature of vomiting and urinary problems if any.
Now to come to the psychological aspect of a tummy ache! In medical terminology, RAP or Recurrent Abdominal Pain is clinically used to describe stomach pain especially in the navel region. In many cases, this pain may not be extreme and the child might forget about it if he manages to get distracted. Emotional disturbance may be one of the reasons for this. He might be getting bullied in school or his parents might be going through a bitter divorce battle. Any trauma can affect him and it is usually not easy to tackle what is beneath a child’s mind. But the treatment lies in understanding your child so that he is able to overcome his emotional troubles if any.

Also Read: Upper Abdominal pain in children – causes overview

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