3 Year Child Having Pain In Near Belly Botton. Passing Stool With Mucus And Blood In It. Any Advice?

Posted on Mon, 16 Jul 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 Answered on

Sat, 4 Aug 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi! I have a 3 year old who has been complaining that her tummy hurts every time she eats for the last week or two. I have disregarded it because she has never liked eating. However, it is becoming more frequent. Today, she has been saying that her stomach is really hurting right at her belly button, and a couple of times I have found her in a ball on the floor. Then, five minutes later she will be running round playing like she is fine. Tonight she passed a stool with mucus and blood in it. I managed to collect the stool, and I'm refrigerating it. I am nervous and out of state, so my insurance is no good here. Any advice? Should I take her to the emergency room tonight or can it wait until tomorrow? Thanks

Answered by Dr. Santosh Kondekar (53 minutes later)

hi there
Relax. If you think the stool was only once with blood and that too very streaky; and if the pain is settled on her own, you may relax. Do look for any danger signs like lethargy, vomiting, frequent stools, breathless XXXXXXX restlessness etc. if the stool blood is large quantity or the stools look red than yellow, its a medical emergency as some rare conditions like intussusception may present this way. get the stool tested for blood.

pain at /over belly button that is related top food and gets over in short time is often related to acidity.
If you have any antacid syrups at home, you may try giving 8 ml to tackle acidity. but pain since weeks and one episode of blood in stool may not be related to each other.

Whenever you ask a doctor online regarding "whether should i take to emergency room/" -- this sentence makes binding for a doctor to say yes.

do get back if any further queries. Thank you.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar