Tummy ache in children

Category: Babies & Children · All children symptoms

What it can feel like

Tummy ache is one of the commonest childhood complaints — crampy pain around the navel, often coming and going, in a child who is otherwise well. Most childhood tummy aches are functional or viral and settle; the assessment sorts the common pattern from the surgical one by the pain's behaviour and company.

Possible causes

A symptom can have many causes, and most are not serious. The lists below group conditions this symptom can be associated with — common causes first. They are possibilities to discuss with a clinician, not a diagnosis.

Common causes

Tummy ache in children can be associated with constipation (the most overlooked cause), viral infections and mesenteric adenitis (glands in the abdomen swelling with a virus), indigestion and reflux, food intolerances, anxiety and school-related stress (real pain via the gut–brain axis), and growth-spurt cramps.

Other possible causes

Tummy ache can also be associated with appendicitis (pain migrating to the right lower corner, worse with movement, fever, loss of appetite), intussusception in toddlers (episodic severe colic with pallor), urine infection, diabetic ketoacidosis, testicular torsion referring upward, and inflammatory bowel disease when growth falters.

Red flags — when to seek help promptly

Pain that moves to the right lower abdomen and worsens, with fever and reluctance to move or jump
Severe colicky pain episodes in a toddler with pallor, drawing up the legs, or jelly-like bloody stool
Tummy ache with green vomiting, a rigid or swollen abdomen, or blood in the stool
Tummy ache with testicular pain or swelling — check the scrotum in boys
Tummy ache with weight loss, night-time pain or diarrhoea, or poor growth
A child who is becoming drowsy, dehydrated or pale with abdominal pain

What a clinician may do

A clinician will examine the abdomen (and the scrotum in boys, and the urine — urine infection is a great imitator), chart the pain pattern, and review growth. Suspected appendicitis goes to surgical assessment; blood tests and ultrasound support the decision. Functional pain is explained as real pain with a sensitive gut, not dismissed.

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Frequently asked questions

Why do clinicians ask children to jump or cough?

Because peritoneal irritation — the inflamed lining in appendicitis — hurts with any jolt. A child who hops happily is less likely to have an inflamed abdomen than one who refuses to move or screams on the car ride's bumps. It is a simple, honest window into the abdomen.

Can anxiety really cause tummy ache?

Yes — the gut–brain axis is anatomical: stress hormones and heightened gut sensitivity produce genuine cramping pain, classically on school mornings and easing at weekends. Naming it as real pain with a stress-sensitive gut — and treating both the stress and the gut — works better than either 'it's nothing' or endless testing.

Related symptoms — Babies & Children

Baby not feeding well Baby reflux Bedwetting Constipation in children Cough in children Crying baby

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Please note: This page is educational information about a symptom. A symptom alone cannot diagnose any condition, and the causes listed here are possibilities, not a diagnosis. If you are worried about a symptom — especially one that is new, severe, getting worse or not going away — please see your own clinician, who can examine you and arrange tests. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.