Expert: David Olson, MD - 9/27/2006

Question
My 7 year old daughter has been complaining of bad stomach aches for the last 8 weeks. I have taken her to the doctor twice. The first one just GUESSED that she might be constipated and told me to give her metamucil. The 2nd one felt her abdomen and said she did have some stool in there. He told me to give her correctol and get her cleaned out. My daughter has never had issues going to the bathroom. She poops a good 2 times a day at least. Always. She is STILL complaining and it gets so bad that she cries a LOT and she's constantly telling me her tummy hurts. It breaks my heart and it scares me as well. I feel like we're being blown off by the doctors. Could this be something serious? She seems to eat well during the day, but she's barely eating any dinner and sometimes wants to skip breakfast too.  

Answer
Hi, shawna,

Although constipation is the leading cause of stomach ache in kids, of course lots of other things can be to blame.  If she is having two soft stools per day, hard to claim she is constipated.  It sounds like she needs a further evaluation, with some blood work and perhaps an xray study, or a trial with an anti-acid medicine.  It bears further evaluation, based on what you are telling me.  Probably not serious, but you don't know unless some other things are looked in to.

Good luck, Dr. Olson