I am looking for help for my 10 year old who suffered from a bad concussion last winter. He is no longer having headaches but is still suffering from stomach aches that come and go. They have become much worse since he started back at school and he is not sleeping well. Anyone experienced this?

3Mommy
Welcome. Not sure why your son would be having stomach aches instead of headaches. But kind of guessing it might be because he is stressing because of school. We have a post concussion syndrome forum that you can come read in. It might help.

Also, is it possible that even though there are no headaches, he is having other problems, but telling you stomache aches is the way he knows to tell you? Say he might be having dizziness to a degree, but doesn't exactly know how to relate that, because it isn't that bad most of the time. I would see if you can pin point exactly what kind of stomachaches he is having. Say are they small butterfly's, are they small things. Or are they big things. Are they more like anxiety issues.

I would get him a psychologist involved. If nothing else have the school counselor talk with him.

Donna

It's possible that the stomach aches are not related - just coincidental (or have become coincidental). I had a lot of stomach problems at that age.

Doc

Hi 3Mommy,

My son is also experiencing the same problems as your son. Stomach issues, sleeping problems, crying, depression, irritability ... the list goes on and on. He is headache free and has been for a few days now. But this has happened before and the headaches have returned. My son is 6 weeks post concussion.

They say the stomach is not related to the concussion but I have been researching and found that there are a lot of post concussive patients who have complained of stomach issues. It seems to be a common complaint.

My son was on Aleve for the headaches and that caused him to double over in stomach pains. He was taken off it and put back on only to have the same thing happen. He is currently been free of all medications for 48 hours to see how he does.

How long has your son been post concussive? How did he get the concussion?

~ Austin's Mom

After my concussion, my first symptom (and the most severe for the first several weeks) was nausea. Is he nauseated or having stomach pain?

Also, if he was taking a lot of NSAIDs for headaches, that could affect the stomach.

There is also a TBI/PCS board on these forums that is VERY helpful. Come on over and join us!

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html