Hmmm. Perhaps. I work at one of the largest children's hospitals in the US. Let's just say we see all sorts of things, and over the past 35-40 years, I've seen a lot. Here's the deal, at least from my perspective. Most children are not "drama queens". In other words, they generally are not in it for the attention, as opposed to say a few of these adults who come in with 40 years of emotional baggage and frankly, just need some psych meds. Another story. Children, for the most part, especially small children, are more likely to be honest about their situation. They DON'T want to see a doctor, and certainly DON'T want to be in the hospital, most especially small children with an ASD, which we see frequently. ASD, often enough, is not an isolated condition, but rather can be associated with other medically complex conditions like Down's Syndrome, congenital heart diseases, etc. So we see quite a few medically complex kids, that we are treating for those issues, who also have an ASD.
Children who swallow things, get things lodged in ears and noses, all of that business, this is extremely common. The esophagus is soft and we see things get stuck in there all the time, especially things that are sharp like pins, pieces of chicken or pork bone, paper clips, anything with a sharp edge can penetrate the tissues and get stuck in there and can cause cuts in the tissue. If there is a scrape or cut in the tissue, it will very much feel as if there is "something in there", when there might not be. Sometimes a chest X-ray will show highly dense things like metal or bone pieces, but if it is plastic, wood, finger nail, its not going to show up at all. You need to go down there with an endoscope and take a look and pull it out. Can something get stuck and then dislodge itself with say, fluids? Sure.
1. I wasn't there. 2. All of what they have diagnosed may be true. 3. Given what I've seen over the years, this throws up some "red flags". 4. I have seen many physicians "bark up the wrong tree", allowing their cognitive bias (he has an ASD, so let's run with that narrative) run amok and go down paths they shouldn't. They're human beings, after all.
