functional abdominal pain syndrome

Hello, my son has grown into the same thing. Went from completely normal to pain, not related to food and no other digestive issues. He is now 12. His first start was at 8 years, very bad, 5 months, then it was tolerable for 2 years. It became bad for another period of months, we did scopes, tests, all normal. This year at 12, he's back to bad in a 5 month cycle. We see a pattern, 2 bad days, gets better, gets better, gets better, goes back to bad, 2 bad days, and on same cycle. Nothing that helps ibs makes it better, and some things, ppi, peppermint oil make it worse. I have taken him to neurologist (thinking abdominal migraines) endocrinologist, gi's, gis say ibs, but it is not ibs. The pain does not occur while sleeping, it comes on within a few minutes of waking up and then from that point forward it remains basically at that level until he sleeps again. I started noticing hot showers make it worse. What has just happened this week though, and why I write is I started to try to get him into a pain program, and in the corse of that, a nurse a luries children's just said on the phone has he tried acupuncture yet while I was making an appt trying to get in.   I couldn't get into luries in Chicago, so went somewhere else and asked the pain clinic md about it, he said oh yes, for sure try it, I do it myself., and he gave me a name and number. We went to a person who would treat children, and it was completely amazing. He said he has too much heat and like a cold headache centers in you head, heat can do the same. He started pressure points on his elbows and knees and my son was feeling relief. He did one session and my son sighed with relief when he got off the table. The next day, after 5 solid months of pain days from 9 down to 3, he was at a 1. My son was so happy. The next day though, he was back up on the pain, but we went back that night, and he was relieved of the pain again. The treatments should teach his body to retain the right reaction. and eventually we won't need to go. We are going forward, it really was amazing and they do see this! Doctors don't know. I just talked to my pediatrician today and she's very interested to look at it.   It's a parasympathetic nervous system thing, and that people grow into it and out of it makes sense (to me)when they're growing, they just can't quite regulate something. I hope something works for you. ! 

My 8 year old son was just diagnosed with functional adominal pain. It is so hard to see him suffer! Have you had any solutions to help your child?

Hello, I jyust wanted to provide more feedback. My son thinks he is definitely benefiting from acupuncture. We started three weeks ago, 3 sessions a week. He has moved away from chronic pain to no pain, but now just nausea which we are taking as progress. In addition, I found gut-directed hypnosis for trials, the numbers are much better than drugs. It is also called medical hypnosis, there are trials on the on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. The short and long term results for reduction in pain and number of pain days between hypnosis (HT) versus Standard medical treatment (SMT) are quite amazing, we are trying that also. 

All, im new here.  Please try to read the response, it is a bit long

My daughter (5years) has been experiencing  pain/discomfort  for a long time now.  First it started in Nov 2017 until end Dec 2017.  The pain has now started again end of Feb 2018 and is still on as we speak.  The pain/discomfort gets so bad that she sometimes cries and wakes up at night. Below is an outline of the pain and the medical assistance we have sought since

1. Pain is localised to the left side of abdomen, above the belly button and occasionally moves down, just below the belly button.  She describes it as a very tight and rapid squeezing feeling that results in pain.  The pain is 24/7 and does not seem to be made worse by eating or lack thereof.

2. Occasionally she indicates that she has a slight headache and also feels a bit of pain on her back.

3. She has the following allergies: egg white, wheat, soya and peanut. Before the pain started in Nov 2017 she used to eat most of these food items without much trouble but we have since pulled back after the pain started.

4. She is slightly asthmatic and highly allergic to grass.  In fact when the pain started after she was put on a program for asthmatic program where she was taking Sintrine tablets (montelukast sodiun)

5. We have been to see a paediatric Gastroenterologist and did the following tests

       a. Barium swallow to see movement of food in the stomach

       b. CT scan

       c. Abdominal and Pelvic Ultrasound scan

       d. Endoscopy 

       e. PH Catheter test

       f. Countless blood tests to check liver, kidney, bladder and all other organs.  The only thing we picked from              the bloods was low antibodies for which we have taken booster vaccines

       g. stools samples

5. We have tried countless meds (Buscopan, Esomeprazole, Lacteol forte, Gaviscon)

6. We currently only giving her Pegicol (for constipation)

The Paediatric gastroenterologist had diagnosed her as having constipation.  I have some doubts and think that it is something else.  I am a very concerned dad and would like your assistance as this condition is having a big impact on my daughter.

Hi Tony.

Have you tried Carnett's test?

Get your daughter to lie down.

Ask your daughter where the spot that hurts most is. Put your finger in exactly that spot.

She may no longer be able to locate the exact spot, especially if she has developed allodynia or hyperaesthesia, but try your best.

Press with the tip of your finger. Ask your daughter if it hurts.

Let go but keep your finger in exactly the same place.

Get her to raise her head.

Press again. Does it hurt more or less?

If the answer is it hurts more, google ACNES and/or CAWP and go from there. Good luck because your doctor is unlikely to have heard of it and will probably have heard wrong. However the condition is treatable especially if you live, say in London Ontario, Wisconsin or Milwaukee.

If the answer is it hurts less, be aware that progress on the neurobiology of functional abdominal pain is moving at a fairly rapid pace - more rapid than the average doctor can keep up. So keep looking for the latest breakthroughs.

Good luck.

 

my 11 year old son is now suffering with faps and chronic migraines .. i too have had every test known to man done .. this is a very sad illness .. i found a youtube video about faps and a studies for a medication to help control it the video is kind of old but made me hopeful in finding something to help .. the video is by john campos

To all the parents with kids who have pain around the belly button (AKA Functional Pain), or know someone with this condition, then please share this with them. We found the solution.

My 7 year old daughter was suffering from functional abdominal pain syndrome. It started everyday randomly, and mostly at night she cried herself to sleep in pain.

The pain is centered around the belly button. We got every test possible (endoscopy, CT scan, stool, urine, blood & xray test, and nothing has found. We were sent home with a Functional Pain diagnosis. Which basically means, the doctors don’t know what is happening.

As a last ditch effort, we put her on gluten free diet. She was not diagnosed with Celiac disease, but we wanted to give it a shot.

Gluten Free Diet made the problem go away almost immediately. It worked for us. Hopefully it will work for you too. It’s worth a shot.

Please pay it forward if this post helps you.

I was told by a doctor that as we grow up, the nerve endings around abdomen do not reliably form the same way for everyone, and that makes it very challenging to pinpoint the location of abdominal pain. We found it more helpful to monitor the daily diet, the time when pain varies (after eating, drinking, before going to sleep or after waking up, changes before or after going to the toilet and so on). Going gluten free helped but it has very difficult to trust most brands that claim to be gluten-free. It seems I can almost trace certain foods going through my body from eating until they come out (e.g., cheese & dairy). What has worked for you? Any successes you had in tracking down the root cause reliably?