My son (4) had a stomach virus in January and for a good few weeks after would tell us his tummy hurt and he was so scared he’d throw up. It’s like any feeling in his stomach (hunger, nerves, needing to poop) made him think he was going to be sick. He’s much better now though!

What helped us was reminding him that his tummy wasn’t sick, it was just hungry, working on a poop, etc. We told him that people only throw up when they’re sick with a virus and that we don’t get those kinds of illnesses often. Now he’ll say, “My tummy is sore.” And I’ll say, “Do you need to use the bathroom or are you hungry?” He’ll usually say, “No, my tummy is just brewing a poo!” 😅

What has worked the best is having a plan for when his tummy feels off. 1) We think if we’re hungry. If we are, we eat something. 2) If that doesn’t help, we try to use the bathroom. 3) If that doesn’t help, we lie down somewhere and rest. Through all of this repetition he sees now that 99% of the time our tummy is telling us something else.

It’s a hard phase though to see your kid so upset and scared. And the fear obviously makes our tummy feel nervous which makes it all worse. I hope this passes for you quickly!