08 Jul Gut Health in Children: Why Stomachaches, Moodiness, and Constant Colds Are Often Connected
Gut Health in Children
I talk to parents every week who are carrying around this quiet, exhausting worry about their child. The stomachaches that show up before school. The constipation that’s just always kind of there. The kid who gets sick constantly no matter what you do. The moodiness that feels like more than just being seven.
And often they’ve been told: it’s fine, it’s normal, some kids are just like that.
I want to offer a different perspective — because in my experience, when a child has several of these things going on at once, they’re usually not separate issues. They’re one issue showing up in different places. And in most cases, that issue comes back to gut health in children, specifically, an imbalanced gut.
“Some Kids Just Get Stomachaches” — And Other Things You’ve Probably Been Told
I hear it so often: “His pediatrician said some kids just get stomachaches,” or “We were told constipation is common at this age.” And that’s technically true — occasional GI complaints are part of childhood. But chronic symptoms that keep coming back? Recurring pain, bloating, irregular bowel habits, constipation that never really resolves? That’s your child’s body asking for help. It’s worth listening to.
When I sit down with a family dealing with this, I’m curious about everything — not just the gut symptoms, but the full picture.
How’s their sleep?
Their mood?
Their skin?
How often are they getting sick?
Is there a pattern to when the stomachaches flare — before school, after certain foods, during stressful weeks? I want to understand this specific child, not just the symptoms on the intake form.
One thing I want parents to know: gut imbalance in children doesn’t always have a clear cause. I see plenty of children who are thriving by every external measure — and their gut is still struggling. There’s nothing you did wrong. The goal is simply to figure out what’s happening and help.
The Gut-Brain Connection in Children Works Both Ways
This is the part that surprises most parents: the gut and the brain talk to each other constantly. And kids are especially good at telling us what they are feeling.
You’ve probably noticed that when your child is nervous or anxious, their stomach acts up. That’s the gut-brain connection working in one direction, and most parents recognize it. What’s less obvious is that it works the other way too. When a child’s gut is inflamed or out of balance, it sends stress signals up to the brain — and that shows up as irritability, emotional outbursts, anxiety, trouble focusing, or just seeming “off.”
So when a parent tells me their child is both emotionally dysregulated and dealing with chronic GI issues, I don’t treat those as two separate problems. I look at them together. Because in so many kids, when the gut settles down, so does the mood. It’s one of the most rewarding things I get to watch happen.
Gut Health and Your Child’s Immune System
Here’s something I love to share with parents because it genuinely changes how they see things: about 70% of the immune system lives in the gut. Which means the health of your child’s gut microbiome — the community of bacteria living in their digestive tract — has a massive impact on how well their immune system works.
When the microbiome is out of balance, it can create a frustrating cycle: poor gut health leads to a weaker immune response, more illness puts stress on the gut, and the cycle continues. This is often the story behind the child who catches everything, takes forever to recover, or seems to go from one illness to the next all winter long.
When we address gut health directly, I often see these kids turn a corner. I’ve had parents tell me their child made it through an entire school year without a single sick day — after years of the opposite. That’s the power of treating the root cause instead of each illness individually.
What Working With Me Actually Looks Like
I love working with kids. They’re often the most responsive patients I have — when you find the root cause and give their bodies what they need, the changes can be fast and dramatic. Plus, kids are just awesome.
When a family comes to me with pediatric GI concerns, here’s how I approach it:
I start by really listening. I want the whole story — birth history, early development, how symptoms have evolved, what makes things better or worse, how everything connects. Parents know their children better than anyone, and that knowledge is genuinely invaluable to me. Often the history tells me most of what I need to know.
I test when it’s useful. I’m not going to run a battery of tests on every child. But when testing will give me actionable information — a stool analysis to look at the microbiome, checks for inflammation, food sensitivity testing — I’ll use it. I want real answers, not a fishing expedition.
I make recommendations that work for real families. I’m not going to hand you a list of 30 foods to eliminate and send you home. I work with how your family actually lives, make targeted suggestions, and help you implement them in a way that’s actually doable.
Trust Your Instinct: Supporting Gut Health in Children Starts With Listening
If something tells you that your child’s symptoms are connected — that the stomachaches and the moodiness and the constant illnesses are all part of the same thing — I want you to trust that instinct. In my experience, parents are usually right.
If you’d like to talk through what your child is dealing with, I’d love to connect. I offer free 15-minute phone consultations to see if it is the right fit. Please, reach out!
Dr. Natasha Monterey
Naturopathic Doctor
(408) 357-3422
San Jose Integrative Medicine
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For more information and to discover how Dr. Natasha Monterey, ND can help your child, click here to schedule a consultation.