Maybe an Allergy

My 5 year old daughter has been having stomach pain that’s on again and off again for the last two weeks. When the stomach pains are around, it’s causing her to throw up and lay in bed for about two days. She then doesn’t want to eat the next two days. It’s very concerning and we ended up going to the hospital a few times over it.

Originally, the doctors thought it was an infection and it turns out that wasn’t the case. They couldn’t figure it out and since she was feeling better, we thought it might be a stomach bug or an allergy (but did not know what she shouldn’t eat). We tried to stay away from dairy, but eating pretzels caused another episode of stomach pains for my daughter. We ended up in the hospital and they still couldn’t figure out what was going on.

My wife and I are thinking it’s some gluten intolerance and we have been staying away from all things that have gluten. It’s sad for my daughter because some of the things she loves to eat (ramen noodles come to mind along with a variety of snacks) have gluten. It’s actually in a lot more products than I had realized. She was really sad that she wasn’t able to eat some of the foods she loves and started to say she didn’t feel special. She also said she doesn’t like herself. I know she was extremely sad and in pain, so I let her be in her feelings.

When she started to feel better, I talked with her about this not being her fault and that she still is special. Everyone is different and they also handle their own sets of challenges that are unique to them. Even if they aren’t allergic to the same thing as my daughter, they might be allergic to something else. That’s ok and it’s all about learning what is causing the reaction and staying away from it. When she started to feel better, she said she didn’t mean those things that she said and she understood what my wife and I were trying to reinforce - that she is special just the way she is.