Question
My son, who is 5 years old, was found to have involuntary stomach and abdominal spasms yesterday, with no apparent cause! It doesn’t affect his eating, sleeping, playing, or seem to cause him pain! But please tell me what could be happening? It looks a bit like hiccups, but he’s not actually hiccuping! I hope you can help me figure this out, as the spasms are quite frequent. Thank you very much!!!
Answer
In cases like this with children, it could be due to gastrointestinal cramps. However, if the baby does not have any obvious abdominal pain symptoms but experiences frequent muscle spasms in the abdomen, it would be best to take the child to the hospital to rule out the possibility of spasms. This generally requires a visit to the pediatric neurology department of the children’s hospital, where an MRI of the brain and EEG (electroencephalogram) may be performed to rule out other diseases of the brain and nervous system. If there are no such issues, it might be considered a case of spasms.