Here are some concerns parents brought to me over the years, where after we dug into it (sometimes after months and months, and visit after visit), we discovered it was because their child was a victim of bullying.
- He stopped eating breakfast before school, he says his stomach hurts…
- 3 weeks ago, she all of a sudden started needing to know where we were all the time
- Does he have dyslexia? I thought he was doing fine until this year…
- Whenever he tries to play with other kids, he always takes it too far…
- She started bumping into things a lot, should we get her eyes checked?
- Her teacher said she’s not concentrating at school, she seems fine at home…
- She never seems to speak up for herself…
Less obvious signs of bullying come with the additional stress of realizing your kid was suffering in silence. It’s upsetting and disturbing, and natural to start questioning yourself. The honest truth is that I’ve also seen every one of these signs lead to something else entirely. I’ve seen many more cases where abdominal pain, even when it’s just on school days, has nothing to do with bullying. I’ve seen many cases where no one realized dyslexia was a problem until the child got to a certain grade level challenge. Certain developmental milestones will often come with kids who seem to suddenly develop separation anxiety.
I posted this for two reasons: to raise awareness of less obvious signs of bullying, but also to put this in context. Complaints like these, even when they’re not related to bullying, often lead to a series of visits with your pediatrician. Nobody’s perfect, but these kids need the type of support that keeps digging until the real problem is found.
