My 8-year-old son started complaining of
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My 8-year-old son started complaining of belly pain around his belly button early this afternoon. Over the past 3 hours, the pain has clearly migrated down to his lower right abdomen.
He has a low fever (37.9°C / 100.2°F), threw up a small amount once, and is walking hunched over holding his right side. When I asked him to stand on his tiptoes and drop onto his heels, he cried out in sharp pain.
He feels miserable and doesn't want dinner. Can we give him ibuprofen and let him sleep till morning to see our pediatrician, or should we take him to the Emergency oom right now? We live in the United States (Boston, MA).
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I'll help you with this. Let me pull the right cards and verify the local emergency door before answering.
Go to the nearest Emergency Department now — or call 911 if driving would take longer than an ambulance. Don't wait until morning.
What you described — belly-button pain that moved to the lower right, low fever, vomiting once, walking hunched over, and sharp pain when he dropped onto his heels — is the textbook picture of acute appendicitis in a child. The "heel-drop" jolt reproducing pain is a sign the lining of his abdomen is irritated. An untreated appendix can perforate within 24–48 hours of those signs appearing, and once it does, recovery is longer and riskier. His pediatrician in the morning would be too late.
**Tonight, while you get to the door**
| Do | Don't |
| --- | --- |
| Nothing to eat or drink — if he needs surgery, an empty stomach is safer | No ibuprofen, no acetaminophen, no pain medicine "to let him sleep" — pain relief before the surgeon sees him can mask worsening |
| Let him stay in whatever position is most comfortable (often curled on his side) | No food, no heating pad on the belly |
| Bring: a list of when symptoms started, how they changed, his temperature, any medicines he's taken, allergies, past surgery | Don't wait to see if the pain settles overnight |
**At the door, they'll want to know**
His age (8), that the pain started around the belly button early this afternoon and has migrated to the right lower side, the low fever (37.9 °C / 100.2 °F), the one vomit, that he walks hunched holding his right side, and that the heel-drop test caused sharp pain. They'll also want any past abdominal surgery and whether he's had a recent viral illness.
I can't diagnose or order tests — that's the surgeon's job tonight — but I'm preparing a one-page summary you can hand them at triage so nothing gets lost in the rush out the door.
er-visit-sheet-appendicitis-2026-09-17-87cfcb53.pdf
Take him now. The next few hours matter more than the next few questions.