Severe stomach pain along with fever in kids

Normal fever itself is a very troublesome situation for everyone. When it comes to kids, the situation gets worse as kid’s immune systems are a little weak and not fully developed. They don’t understand what is going on in their bodies hence they become cranky and disturbed. We parents also get very tense when our little ones fall sick. We leave all our work behind and sit beside our kid and monitor him day and night. When fever comes along with other symptoms like stomach pain, cold, cough, headaches, abdominal pains, and constipation, the situation gets worse. The same happened to my kid too. He sometimes gets a cold, slight headache, cough, and light stomach pain whenever he gets a fever. But he didn’t get severe stomach pain along with a fever since he was born. That’s maybe because he always ate home-cooked food and never ate junk food from outside. Of course, he used to eat some chocolates, biscuits, lollipops, bread, and cakes once or twice a month, but in a very limited quantity. Since he was becoming big, he started loving outside food too like pizza, burgers, noodles, chips, and biryanis. He was 4.5 years old when he got his first stomach infection along with a slight fever after eating outside food. In this article, I will tell you every detail of how and why he got a stomach infection though he eats home-cooked food most of the time.

What is a Fever?

A fever is a sign of an infection present in your body and your body is fighting to get it out, hence the body temperature rises. This infection can be a viral, or bacterial infection, or babies can get fever due to vaccinations also. A fever is actually a good sign as your body is trying to get rid of the infection from your body. Fevers can last from 3 to 5 days. This is normal and it will go away on its own. We can take paracetamol to reduce the temperature or any body pains. If the fever lasts for more than 7 days, then a blood test needs to be done to find out what is causing the fever. Antibiotics will be given only if the fever doesn’t reduce after 5 days according to the age, weight, and cause of fever. Never take or give antibiotics as soon as you get a fever. Antibiotics make the immune system more weak. Take it only after your doctor’s advice. And once you start an antibiotic course please complete it. Many antibiotics are given to patients according to their disease by doctors for 5 days, 7 days, 3 days, or 10 days. Don’t stop the course in between as you start feeling well. If you don’t complete the course, the same illness will attack you again within a few days worse than before.

What is stomach pain or Abdominal pain?

Kids are more prone to stomach pain than adults, as they eat more junk food and their stomachs are not fully developed like adults. Stomach pain is different from abdominal pain. Stomach pain is caused due to food poisoning, gas, lactose intolerance, and indigestion. It mainly hurts in the upper part of the stomach. Abdominal pain is caused due to constipation, stress, injury, appendicitis, kidney stones, and stomach ulcers. It mainly hurts in the lower part of the stomach. You can easily understand the difference between stomach pain and abdominal pain in your kid by asking him at what point or pace his stomach is hurting. He will show you the exact point of pain in his stomach if he is old enough like babies older than 3 years can communicate many things. Kids less than 3 years old or some autistic kids can’t tell you properly. They just catch their stomach and cry. But still, you can understand where exactly the pain is by pressing lightly at different points on their stomach.  If they cry more at pressing certain points on their tummy, that is exactly where it hurts. Let me explain to you in detail the different parts of the stomach, what causes pain, and at what place.

Causes of Stomach Pain:-

• If the pain is near or in the belly button it is due to constipation, indigestion, and stress.
• If the pain is on the left side of the belly button, it is due to left kidney stones and urinary tract infections.
• If the pain is on the right side of the belly button, it is due to right kidney stones and urinary tract infections.
• If the pain is below the belly button, it is due to urinary tract infections and pelvic pain.
• If the pain is above the belly button, it is due to gas, stomach ulcers, heartburn, and pancreatitis.
• If the pain is in the right upper part of the stomach, it is due to gallstones in the gall bladder and gas.
• If the pain is in the right lower part of the stomach, it is due to appendicitis, groin pain, pelvic pain, and constipation.
• If the pain is in the left upper part of the stomach, it is due to gas and stomach ulcers.
• If the pain is in the left lower part of the stomach, it is due to constipation, pelvic pain, and groin pain.

Pelvic pain can be caused due to menstruation, ovulation, endometriosis, fibroids, gastrointestinal issues, and urinary tract infections. Groin pain can be caused due to muscle strain, ligament pull, injury, and stress on the legs.

Symptoms of stomach pain from mild to severe:-

• Kids catch their stomachs and cry or say it’s hurting.
• Babies cannot show you where the pain is, so they just cry uncontrollably.
• Babies older than one year, will keep their hands on their tummy and cry.
• Babies get fussy or irritated all the time.
• Feeling nauseous along with stomach pain.
• Vomiting continuously along with stomach pain.
• Have diarrhea or not able to pass stool along with stomach pain.
• Their belly is hard and bloated.
• They get a sudden sharp pain and it goes away after a few minutes.
• Don’t eat or drink much. They will tell their tummy is hurting even after drinking just a sip of water or just having a bite of food.
• Get fever along with stomach pain.
• Kids sit or sleep in a position where they press their legs to their stomachs.

Home Remedies for stomach pain:-

• Drink plenty of water. It’s not possible to drink a whole glass of water when your tummy is hurting. So you can have sips of water every half an hour.
• You can also try giving electrolyte water, coconut water, buttermilk, or some fresh homemade juices to your kid.
• Avoid solid foods if your kid has severe stomach pain. Mashed food or soups work best at this time.
• Apply coconut oil or castor oil to your baby’s tummy and give him a light tummy massage.
• Make them lie down on their stomach. this will help decrease the pain a little bit.
• Give them food in very low quantities every one or two hours.
• Avoid oily or greasy foods.
• Avoid outside foods and all types of junk food.
• Give foods that are light on the stomach like fruits, rice. and oats.
• Place a warm heating pad on their stomach.
• Give ajwain water or zeera water.
• Give ginger water. Since ginger has anti-inflammatory properties, it helps with indigestion too.
• Apply hing(asetofoetida) paste on their tummy. You can make this paste at home by taking one spoon of hing mixed with one spoon of ghee and heating it on the gas stove for a few seconds. Once it becomes warm, apply it immediately. It gives instant relief.
• Keep them hydrated.
• Give a warm bath.
• Distract your kid with other things like indoor games, cartoons, books, toys, and telling stories. This will make them forget the stomach pain for a few minutes or hours.
• You can also try Mamaearths tummy roll-on whenever your kid gets stomach pain. You just need to massage the tummy by just rolling it on the tummy for a few seconds. Kids love this.

Medical Treatment:-

1. Never give any medication for stomach pain without asking your pediatrician.
2. Never give paracetamol for stomach pain. It worsens the pain.
3. If the stomach pain is severe, your doctor will give gas tablets called Lanzol Junior to take twice daily. You should take it Half an hour before breakfast and dinner.
4.  There is another syrup called cyclopam for severe stomach pain in kids. This can be given once a day.
5. If the stomach pain doesn’t decrease even a little bit after 2 to 3 days and gets worse, your doctor will give injections to relieve the pain.
6. If the kid has a fever along with stomach pain your doctor will also give paracetamol drops or start an antibiotic course if the fever doesn’t go away after 4 days.

My Personal Experience with My 4-year-old kid:-

For four years, my kid didn’t get severe stomach pain or normal stomach pain anytime. He got mild stomachaches only when he got a fever. He was a school-going kid. So when he was all ready to go to school one fine day, I gave him appe for breakfast. He ate them for the first time in 4 years. If you don’t know what appe is, let me tell you. It is a traditional South Indian breakfast recipe. It is made by mixing sooji, curd, baking soda, zeere, ajwain, salt, and it is kept outside at room temperature for 4 to 5 hours to ferment. Since it was delicious, he ate more and went to school happily. In school, for snacks, I gave him fruits. In school, during their snack time, I got a call from his class teacher that he vomited everything that he ate and they dropped my kid home early that day. When he came home, he was normal. He was playing and eating normally. I thought maybe he ate fruits too much or didn’t chew properly, and that is why he vomited.  At night, my kid went outside with his father and bought some snacks. They bought potato chips, chakram, fried peanuts, and banana chips. My kid also ate some chakram that night before dinner.

Before going to sleep, his body was warm and he started feeling weak and told me he had a stomachache. I checked his temperature with a thermometer and it showed a fever of 99.9 degrees Fahrenheit. I gave him paracetamol syrup and applied some coconut oil to his stomach. At midnight he vomited when his fever rose high. The next day was also the same. He has a high mild fever but severe stomach pain and vomiting. He didn’t show interest in eating and drinking anything. Whenever I gave him some food, he complained of stomach pain and vomited everything that he ate though I was already giving ondem syrup to stop vomiting. We took him to the doctor on that same day in the evening. The doctor told us that he might have got a stomach infection as he ate outside food. He didn’t give any other medications. He  just told to continue paracetamol for fever, ondemn drops or vomikind for vomiting, and gas tablets for stomach pain. He told me to wait for 3 days, and if the stomach pain doesn’t reduce or gets worse anytime, he told me to come to the hospital to take injections for stomach pain. We did the same. His fever continued for 3 days with severe stomach pain. Though I gave him gas tablets, his stomach pain reduced a bit only for one hour and came back again. I tried every home remedy to make my kid feel comfortable. I was very tense and scared to see him suffering. Since the pain was not unbearable we didn’t go to the hospital to take injections. I searched Google and asked my friends, doctors, and parents to suggest any home remedy or medication to reduce stomach pain in my kid. But no one gave a correct answer. I was trying to search for the root cause of his stomach pain. I didn’t understand why he got stomach suddenly. I thought maybe it was my mistake as I gave him appe for breakfast which had baking soda in it. Though baking soda is not bad for health, I heard that a large quantity of baking soda can cause health problems. I didn’t put more baking soda in appe too. We need just half a tablespoon of baking soda to make appe. If he didn’t get stomach pain due to appe, he might have got stomach pain and fever after eating outside snacks. I was very confused at that time. But I decided that I will not make appe again or give him outside oily food till he becomes a little big or till his immunity gets stronger.

His fever went down after 3 days but his stomach pain didn’t and he again got a fever along with cold, cough, and stomach pain on the 5th day. This time we didn’t go to the same doctor. We went to our family doctor and told him everything. He checked my kid’s chest, throat, stomach, and weight. His weight was 19.2 kgs at that time and he had a severe throat infection too along with stomach pain. He gave me many medications and told me to start my kid’s antibiotics now.

Those medicines were:-

1. Syrup Moxikind – 5ml twice daily for 5 days. (This is an antibiotic).
2. Syrup Sinarest for cold – 6 ml thrice daily for 3 days.
3. Syrup Kufkol for cough – 6ml thrice daily for 3 days.
4. Syrup Mefkind for fever – 6 ml thrice daily for 2 days.
5. Syrup Cyclopam for stomach pain – 5 ml only once a day if he gets stomach pain.
6. Syrup Nutramite for immunity – 5 ml twice daily for one month. ( this should be taken only after your fever comes down).
7. Syrup Bandy Plus to kill bugs in the stomach – 10ml only once a day. This syrup should be taken after every 6 months till your kid turns 5 years old.

After taking the antibiotic course and stomach pain syrup he got completely cured within 2 days. But still, I continued the antibiotic course for 5 days. According to me the medicines that this doctor gave worked like magic to my kid. Every time we go to our family doctor, my kids feel good within 2 to 3 days. Though he gives so many medicines, his medicines are very powerful and we get them only in his hospital. they are not available in other medical stores.

Home remedies can work a little bit for your kids but your kids need proper medical treatment to identify the root cause of the stomach pain and kill the bacteria or virus inside their stomach. So whenever your kid gets severe stomach pain, don’t just stick to home treatment. I always advise you to take a doctor’s advice or suggestions when it comes to the health of your kids.