I don't envy your position.
OK, morning attacks. For breakfast growing up I had to hide the fact I wasn't eating in the morning, because it hurt so much when I did but my parents always forced me to. I had to get up early, grab a bowl and dirty it up. I put it in the kitchen sink to make them think I'd eaten.
Truth is, it's always killed my day when I eat in the morning. For me to have a stable morning, I stay in bed at least 40 minutes lying down while I wait for my stomach to stop churning. Then I get up slooowly, and never eat anything before about 11. By then my stomach is calm and I can put something safe in it.
Overeating is a problem for me because I feel hungry when my stomach is safe. It's like it hurts all the time, and then I just go straight from that to insatiable hunger. I'm not in pain, just hungry. I have to really monitor my portions, because if I overeat I'll have a pain attack.
My food attacks start 1/2 an hour after I start eating. Typically, I'll have eaten something unsafe (IF or dairy) or overheated while I was eating or had pressure on my stomach from jeans or a seatbelt (seatbelts are the worst!). I can set my clocks by those. Half an hour after I've started eating, if I don't have an attack, I'll know I'm ok.
My nighttime attacks start after I'm startled awake by a loud noise, or if I overheat. Heat's a major trigger. That and pressure on the stomach. I have to sleep with no elastic or drawstring whatsoever on my tummy. This means long nightshirts only. Sounds stupid, but it really works. It's an easy thing to correct too.
Don't pressure the child to eat if they're not hungry. The body needs some time to recover after an attack, and it's not uncommon to wait 3 meals before trying to have some food again.
Mealtimes go right out the window. I feel that if I wasn't forced to eat at regular intervals and completely ignore my body, I would have stabilized a lot sooner. Now I eat when it's appropriate for me. I do it on the sly so people won't Make a Big Deal Out of It. I learned this around age 10 or 11 and after getting over the fact that I wouldn't be over to my best friend's house for barbeque any time soon, I was more the better for it.
I was a skinny kid too (and tall, ugh!), but some kids are. Don't compare anything to what "normal" kids do or are. It's a special situation having IBS. We have to go with Whatever Works.
If you haven't tried these meds already, give them a go: Donatal for stomach spasms, Simethicone to control trapped gas (and therefore that ripping gut pain that comes from gas), and a low dose tricyclic antidepressant at bedtime like nortryptaline (6 mg) or amatriptyline (6mg) [more can be taken for the anti-depressant effects, but the low dose will help rewire the brain-gut reaction and cut down on the frequency, duration and severity of attacks].
Good luck. Sorry for the long post-- I hope you can find some of the information useful.
~nelly~
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