Anyone with Experience with Ulcers in Children

To confirm a diagnosis of ulcers, he really needs to be scoped. I would
want to rule out something else. I would think the docs would too.

Go to a pediatric gastroenterologist and ask for blood tests to check for other conditions & h pylori bacteria which is known to cause ulcers/gastritis. To confirm an ulcer he will need to get an endoscopy and get biopsies to check for anything else. I have gone through this with my own daughter who has severe chronic gastritis. If it is an ulcer I highly recommend Manuka Honey 16+ it eradicates h pylori and heals ulcers. I've had firsthand experience through my daughter that it works. I recommend looking it up just to check it out and see if you're willing to try it. Good luck and please update!

He needs to be scoped and tested for H. Pylori. The IGG blood test is not recommened to medical professionals any more (not for the last 3.5 years, only 75% accurrate), he is too young for the breath test so a stool test it will have to be. If he is positive, after treatment, it is really important that he be re-tested to make sure it is gone. Standard treatment is antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors.

He sounds like his stomach is pretty sensitive to a few things. Whats the chance the pain meds are making his stomach hurt? So many things make mine hurt if taken on an empty stomach it makes me wonder if its getting to him too. Even baby asprin hurts me if I dont eat crackers or toast and drink a lot of water. And a lot of meds can cause constipation too. Have you googled the side effects of everything he is taking especially now with the broken leg.. Have you tried feeding him when it hurts to see if that helps? When my daughter was in kindergarten, theyd have circle time on the rug and one group at a time was asked to go wash hands and get their snacks,, Shed be doubled over in pain if she had to wait too long. Her brain would start thinking about snack and start the stomach acids in her tummy and would hurt. The Dr recomended we ask the teacher to let her be in the first group or two for a while to see if that helped,,and it did. All she needed was food. Maybe thats part of the problem.

I agree he needs to be tested for H. Pylori, though high use of NSAIDS can also cause ulcers, and since he was on lots of pain meds, you need to confirm the H. Pylori diagnosis first because treatment modalities differ. Left untreated (over the course of years), H. Pylori is a major risk factor for gastric (stomach) cancers (though much of the world has H. Pylori and gastric cancers are pretty rare, so don't freak out.) Here is a link to some info on pediatric ulcers.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/digestive/peptic_ulc...#

One of the health issues from being born early, was my son having a hiatal hernia causing major reflux (he was vertical his first 18mos and still projectiled 10-12x/day). He started solids later than most because of his constant sore throat. According to Children's Hospital, he will forever have a 'sensitive stomach' (most likely vomiting every time he's upset) and will have ulcers whenever he's sick. He had his first cold at 22mos, which went away pretty quickly, but he refused to eat for 3mos (one week he had 1/2 a nectarine for the whole week), losing weight and back to writhing in pain during sleep (like when his reflux was at its worst). I ignored the peed who said this was a typical eating strike and got a referral to CHoP from my son's developmentalist.

CHoP diagnosed him with ulcers, put him on Axid twice/day for 3mos and told me to check back after those 3mos. After 3mos, to the exact day, my son went back to eating and less misery. CHoP said this will most likely happen every time he is sick and just use our best judgement, calling them if necessary.

We've given my son probiotics since birth (in my diet and on my nipples when I nursed, emptied from capsules in his formula, then in his morning milk, now in his multi-vitamin). When he was on antibiotics for an ear infection, we doubled the probiotics. He's now 38mos, has had one other illness since the cold and he needed Axid for 2wks to help his tummy.

I would see a GI specialist for sure. Good luck!!

Yes I'm going through this now with my son. Same symptoms, he would be doubled over but mainly at night time and then vomit, chills, etc. Gastro peds. specialist has him on 40 mg of Prilosec right now and then he goes for an endoscopy to see what is going on. Dr.'s thought constipation @ 1st also and put him on Mirlax but problem still persisted so they ruled that out. It does seem to be that when he worries it does act up more for a few days. There are days he cannot even eat dinner as he describes it as "heat shocks going thru my stomach". Dr. is convinced it is severe reflux or ulcers so we'll see. So far, he seems to be doing better on Prilosec (adult dose is 20 mg 1x/day) but dr. has doubled it for him. Good luck I know what your going through!