anxiety

A kid faking sick to avoid going to school usually means that something bigger is going on with them. One might assume that a kid would do this because they’re lazy and avoidant by nature, but that’s not usually the case. If a kid is constantly saying they have a stomachache, despite there being no medical evidence that they have the stomach flu or kidney stones, it might mean that the kid is suffering from pretty severe anxiety. I have a friend who would stay home from school sick all the time with no obvious illness, only to figure out later that she had Lyme Disease the whole time. It’s very common for more chronic illnesses to slip through the cracks and symptoms to appear to be symptoms of viral or bacterial infections instead of the more severe problems that they are. Most kids are not lying about being sick for attention.