Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Could school make a child ill

We actually went through this last year with stomach aches too, but that one was really because he thought he could go home. He went home once and then his teacher caught on quickly and just had him stay at his desk when he complained. It stopped quickly.

His teacher this year also just lets him hang out at his desk instead of calling us for every little complaint. We've received calls a couple times, but only once did he go home. Another odd thing is that it is always in the afternoon. Lunchtime or after and never in the morning. I think what he is feeling is real, but he's either very sensitive or making the symptoms seem much worse than they really are.

We have tried really hard to engage him in things outside of school. We have him in a lot of enriching activities like chess, piano, karate and swimming. We have tried the "more challenging" approach to get him something to do in class. When he finishes early, he has extra challenge math worksheets to do. He frequently grabs those or reads. His teacher just recently let us determine his homework too.

I keep telling him that there's only about 10 weeks left of school. Spring Break is in a couple of weeks and he'll have an awesome engineering camp to look forward to. I think that's the hardest to deal with. If it really is stress, then it's too late in the year to change schools. We've done what we can to help him, but it's just that 6 hours a day that we can't change for him. He is HG+ and it seems like no matter what we've tried, the educational mismatch is affecting him in ways I didn't think it would.

It's comforting to hear that other kids have done well by changing the learning environment. I'd withdraw him and homeschool in a heartbeat if I could. I'd just like him to finish out the school year. Next year, things have to change.

For an alternate thought... does he eat the same things at school as he eats at home?

That's a great question. I was just reading a similar thread on another site in which many of the comments were about food. He usually takes his lunch, so I will have to see if these issues are popping up then eats the school food. I hadn't thought of that. I will definitely keep track now.

Something else to consider is environmental factors. Lots of scented products kids sometimes go crazy for, poor ventilation in a portable classroom, florescent lighting, etc? Just another thing to consider (as a teacher I've heard stories from colleagues about getting very sick transferring into a new school with mold problems and I personally felt sick in my Spanish class in high school at the edge of school and I finally figured out kids were smoking behind it). But it does sound like stress and possibly diet.