One schoolchild in every seven suffers from recurrent abdominal pain yet, in most cases, no specific disease can be found.
Many of these children were in the past, suspected of suffering from appendicitis and had their appendices removed. It was often embarrassing for the doctor when, after an interval, the pains recurred.
A significant number of these children have mothers who suffer from migraine and who have suffered from recurrent abdominal pains in their own childhood. Singling out mothers is not sexist, as migraine is much more common in women than men.
Many of these children will later go on to develop migraine themselves. Food allergy is also a popular diagnosis to account for these episodes of pain. As it is now realised that food allergy is a common cause of migraine, the link between the two becomes more obvious.
Recurrent abdominal pains in childhood or the periodic syndrome may respond to a variety of treatments, reassurance, elimination diets, sedatives and anti-migraine drugs.
Surgery should be reserved for cases of definite appendicitis.
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