Sharp pains in stomach, what could they be?

What could be causing sharp stomach pains?

• My 12 yr old daughter has had sharp stomach pains and dizziness last year, no fever or throwing up - her doc gave her heartburn meds which she took for 2 weeks They may or may not have helped. Her symptoms totally disappeared after a few months. Late Aug her symptoms slowly returned and now this week she has been in pain all week. X-ray was fine. Her doc put her bk on heartburn pills and she is taking gas pills too. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? She has only taken the new HB pills for 2 days but today she has the sharp, bad pains again. Lactose Intol and IBS have been ruled out.

• Answer:

  she could have the helicobactor pylori bacteria. these are jellybean shaped bacteria that latch onto the stomach lining... basically what they do is make the stomach a more acidic enviroment, and this can cause peptic ulscers in the stomach causing sharp pains especially at night (this is because there is no food in the stomach to soak up the acid, which aggrivates the ulscer). 1 in 2 people have it. Most dont know it, they just think that they suffer from heartburn for no reason. some people dont have any symptoms at all. Ask for her to be tested. This can be done by testing her stool or breath (the stool is cheaper, but the breath one is a nicer option I think...). It can also be tested by a procedure where she's given anasthetic and they put a scope down to her stomach and have a look through a camera, but it's not a very nice experience and she may even have a reaction to the anasthetic. If she does have it, a course of antibiotics should get rid of it.