My lo just turned 3 and for about 6 months now we've been dealing with regular bouts of asking to go to the Doctor, saying her tummy hurts, etc. Usually we ignore it if she's not running a fever and she stops asking. But I worry every time that we're going to ignore her when she really needs it! Any tricks for when to take a faker seriously?
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@SteelerGirl: Do you know what motivates her to fake sick? My kids say they are sick to stay home and/or watch TV. And they say they need hair cuts to get lollipops. Does she get something like that at the doctor?
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@Corduroy: now that I think about it, it nearly always starts while she’s at school, so I bet they react with a lot of attention. I mean they kind of have to, right? At pickup the teachers will tell me she’s complaining her tummy hurts and I feel like a bad Mom for shrugging it off! I don’t want them to think I’m sending my sick kid to school!
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@SteelerGirl: is something happening at school? i read somewhere that if a kid is having anxiety about something, they usually say their stomach hurts because they don't know how else to describe it. you know how when adults are anxious or nervous we get butterflies in our stomachs? wondering if that's what she's trying to describe?
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@Meso: I hadn’t considered that! It’s definitely possible!
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@Meso: I agree with this suggestion. My 3 year old fakes being sick too but it’s SUPER obvious he’s making it up because he wants to stay home and play. He can never be more specific than “ummm yeah sick! That’s it!” Lol. If she says her stomach hurts repeatedly I would also assume nerves, fear, anxiety - something like that.
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So my son has pretty bad anxiety at school and before he had the proper words to say he was nervous or anxious, he would say he was “barfy”. Probably that!
Also sometimes when I know they are faking I tell them I have an app on my phone to scan them to see if it’s real. They usually opt to not be scanned.
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@Mrs. Champagne: That's very clever! I'm going to try that!
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I worried about this too at the same age. Now at 4 my kid is terrified of the doctor from getting her shots at her 4 year appointment and I'm worried she's going to lie that she's not sick when she is so she won't have to go!
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@Mrs. Champagne: this is genius
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9 comments