Frequent Nausea, Headaches And Burps. Is It Anxiety And Stress Related?

Posted on Wed, 6 Aug 2014

Question: My 14 year old daughter has had the following scenario happen 5 or 6 times in the past 2 months. She gets "burps" for a simple way to put it, they taste badly and start to happen more frequently, after this starts she knows that within the next 12 to 24 hours she will start throwing up (usually in the middle of the night), its then followed by a day or 2 of headache and nausea. Our doctor looked her over and thought it might be anxiety or stress. I disagree and think that she is having internal issues beyond the stress of a 14 year old. This scenario keeps repeating itself and then she will be fine for a day, a week or two. Any thoughts on what may be causing this??

Answered by Dr. Albana Sejdini (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Should rule out organic problems first...

Detailed Answer:
Hi there,

I have gone through the medical history of your daughter and feel sorry for the situation she is in.

The very first thing is to determine any organic cause to her symptoms :
- stomach problems: GERD/reflux, gastritis.
- hormonal changes: observe if she is having such problems prior to periods (if she already had her periods until now; if not yet, then, might be a sign of preparing for first periods)
- infection: of Uro-genital/GI tract might also be a cause. I suggest to run abdominal ultrasound, urine analysis, examination of stool for ova/parasites to determine the final diagnosis

If everything is ok with her internal organs, then, might be due to stress/anxiety and changes in her emotional state due to hormonal changes (adolescence).

Hope it helped! Let me know if I can assist you further!
Dr.Albana

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

Follow up: Dr. Albana Sejdini (12 hours later)

I forgot to mention that all of the above symptoms come with diarrhea issues.

Also what do you think about wheat and gluten food allergies. Would they cause a similar result?

Answered by Dr. Albana Sejdini (11 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Most probably,allergy tests for confirmation...

Detailed Answer:
Hi back,

Thank you for following up.

At this point, if all her scenario is associated with diarrhea and is not happening all the time but some times (5-6 times in the past 2 months); then, most probably, that is related to food intolerance/allergy.

So, I advise to observe what she eats/drinks prior to symptoms initiation. In this way, we can find out if she is having wheat and gluten food allergies.

To rest sure, you can run allergy testing and food intolerance tests if other tests (for organic problems) are fine.

Hope it answered to your queries!
Dr.Albana

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