What is my five-year-old's problem and why is he hiding it?

[overlyverbose]

@Frylock

Update:

It appears there were two different sources of the crying.

On the day when he didn’t want to talk about it, it appears that what had happened was he had been scolded by a teacher for talking in line and been made to go to the back, when he insists that he wasn’t actually talking. I remember clearly the first time I was punished for something I didn’t do by a teacher, and yeah, I cried pretty hard, so this is understandable. (I also remember crying when I was punished for things I did do, so that would explain things as well… )

<snip>

Meanwhile, I think he must really have been having headaches for the ensuing three days (he just isn’t the type, as far as we and his teacher can tell, to let the incident I described ruin his lunch for the following three days). Over the weekend he got some kind of sniffly illness, so that may be related. We are prepared to go to the doctor soon–but yesterday he was fine so we’ll just keep a watch on it.

I’m glad things worked out well for you. Your situation actually reminded me of one I had with my son earlier. He misbehaved one day and therefore didn’t get to go to the local Pirate Festival. Days later, I was putting him to bed and suddenly he started sobbing uncontrollably. He wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.

The day after, I put him to bed. Same thing happened. Finally on the third night, “Mommy! I want to go to the Pirate Fest-ibal!” He kept right on crying, then said he had a pickle in his ear. Turns out the “pickle” was a bad ear infection made worse by impacted ear wax and he has a way longer memory than I’d bargained for.

[CandidGamera]

@Skammer

My kindergartener started complaining last week that his cheeks hurt. We thought it was dry skin, so my wife put some lotion on his face. Same thing happened a few days later. About six days after the first incident, my wife’s sister (a nurse) was visiting, looked at him and said “Did you realize he has a fairly severe sinus infection?” Bad parents!

My parents failed to notice a broken arm for three days when I was a wee lad.
… I still haven’t let them live it down, and I only know about it because they told me.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

My son had pretty advanced Lyme disease… that went unnoticed and we got on his case for not going to sleep well and being tired. No duh, his joints were killing him.

Felt pretty bad about that one…

At least I believed him about the broken arm and the osteomyelitis in his left ankle!

[jjimm]

@CandidGamera

My parents failed to notice a broken arm for three days when I was a wee lad.

My mother told me to shut up and stop crying when I came home aged three with a snapped collar-bone. I lay on the sofa and howled for another four or five hours before she conceded there might actually be something wrong.

[StGermain]

My brother broke his arm and came home crying. My grandmother made him scrub the kitchen floor before she realized something really was wrong.

StG