Is this anxiety or something else?

[MomOBrien]

My daughter is ten and very bright. She thinks and seems to reason like an adult. Her first grade teacher told me that she is like a forty year old women inside a six year olds body and all of her teachers since then have said similar things.
Since March she has been having stomach aches, that wake her up in the middle of the night. I tried taking her off of dairy, not letting her eat before bed, no spicy foods, etc. In May we lost our nephew to a tragic car accident. I brought all of my children to the funeral home the first night, but because the accident was so bad and they were having an open casket, I made them wait outside until I went in first to make sure he looked ok for my kids to see. They did a really nice job with him, but I decided not to let my ten year old go up to the casket. I took her to the back of the room and had her sit with my brother while I comforted my niece. A few minutes later she came running into the room I was in crying and then throwing up. Needless to say, I did not bring her back for the funeral.
Since then we can not take her anywhere. WE took her to the zoo, she threw up three times, We took her to a street fair, she threw up. Her teacher had to have the bus driver pull over during a field trip so she could throw up. My husband took her and my youngest out for an ice cream. About ten minutes after they left a storm blew in, so I jumped in the car and went for them. They were running back and happy to see me, but when we go back home, she threw up.
We have tried talking to her, but she doesn't know why this is happening. It sounds like anxiety to me and I'm thinking she need some therapy. I just want her to be happy and have fun and just be ten. Ten is such a great age, but she just seems to worry too much.
Any thoughts?

[A&A]

Perhaps she needs some grief counseling.

[whalemilk]

Uh, have you checked to see if there might be a physical reason for the constant vomiting??

[MomOBrien]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I forgot to mention that I did take her to the ped. He gave her something for acid. I am going to make another appt. for her on Monday. The stomach aches started before her cousins death, and the vomiting came after. I think I'm going to ask the ped for a referral for counseling. Whenever we try to take her somewhere, she asks a million questions, like who is going, how far is it, how long will we be gone,etc, and then she won't eat anything. I think she won't eat because she knows that she's going to throw up.It seems like she gets herself all worked up, but for what?

[ma_vie_en_rose]

My DSD is bipolar/ADHD and has suffered from anxiety issues that always manifest itself as stomach aches and vomitting. Since you have tried to rule out other causes and it did follow a traumatic event, I would consider taking her to a psychiatrist if you want to look to help her through mild medication for a bit or a psychologist/therapist if you want to go the talking it out route. She could be suffering from PTSD or plain anxiety. I would seek an evaluation, though. I hope it is something you can solve easily.

[2shy2post]

I'm not saying you did the wrong thing with your DD. However, often times what a child (or adult for that matter) makes up in their mind can be worse than the reality. It could be that she has heard enough to know that his injuries were disfiguring and she is imagining things. I agree that a counselor may help her work through these things. Also, do you have pictures/movies of her cousin (it was her cousin, right?) that she can see to help put happy/positive memories about him in her mind?

Now, you mention that the stomach aches started before the accident... that would make me think that it MIGHT be something besides stress. Chronic stomach aches in children can be an indicator of diabetes ~ often in the early stages. Your ped can do an A1C to determine whether blood sugar is an issue.

Trust your instincts, if you think it's a "medical" thing ~ have a complete work-up/physical done. If you think it's stress/psychological ~ get her to a therapist.

mama!

[MomOBrien]

Thank You for your comments. This accident was very public. It was all over the news for three days and her class mates knew about it before she did. They had already seen it on the news.
Thank you again! I think I'm going to have a physical done, but I also think that there are some anxiety issues going on.