Bleeding is the leakage of blood from blood vessels.  This may be due to injury or illness.  Bleeding after a minor injury is typically quickly controlled with the normal process of blood clotting and constriction of blood vessels.  There are disorders of blood clotting that can lead to excessive bleeding from even minor injuries.  Mild clotting disorders may actually be helpful later in adulthood when strokes and heart attacks result from blood vessel damage and blood clots.  Clotting is a complex process which involves multiple proteins in the blood and tissues as well as platelets.  Platelets are formed in the bone marrow and act as first responders to sites of blood vessel injury.  Platelets help plug blood vessel holes by sticking to the damaged areas and "spinning" a fibrin web to keep blood cells from leaking out.  Hemophilia and Von Willebrand disease are blood clotting disorders that some children are born with.

Abdominal migraines are a type of abdominal pain that occur most frequently in children with a personal history of migraine headaches or with multiple family members with migraine headaches.  The diagnosis of "abdominal migraines" is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning there is no other explanation for the pain.  It is considered a functional disorder and all tests or imaging studies are normal.  The pain may develop quickly and is often severe.  Pain is often associated with nausea, vomiting, light sensitivity, paleness, sweating and loss of appetite.  Pain may last 1 hour or several days.  Episodes occur at least twice per year.  Between episodes, which can be several weeks or months, the child has no symptoms.  Not all children with abdominal migraines have headaches.  Treatment with migraine headache medications tends to help with abdominal pain but the symptoms often develop too quickly to be prevented.  The cause of abdominal migraines is not fully understood.

All abdominal masses should be evaluated by your doctor.  However, it is helpful to know some basic facts about what are normal and abnormal bumps in the belly.  Many normal organs can be felt from the outside of your child's belly.  Some bumps are more obvious in special situations, such as when the colon is full of poop (especially when your child is constipated), or when your child has a full bladder.  Infants have soft bellies which makes some normal abdominal contents more easy to feel.  Older children and adults have thick abdominal muscles that make it difficult to feel inside.