When kids have stomach aches, they can ease their discomfort by using a little imagination. Credit: Getty Images

"Picture yourself on a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies."

If that doesn't work, you can always try Tums.

However, according to a new study, children's imaginations can go a long way to relieving upset tummies.

The study took 34 children, ages 6 to 15, who have persistent abdominal pain for no apparent medical reason. All the children received standard medical attention, but 19 of them also received eight weeks of guided imagery therapy similar to self-hypnosis.

In other words, they got help visualizing calm stomachs. Children were told, for example, to imagine a shiny object melting in their hands that they could place on their stomachs and make the pain go away.

What do you know? It worked. The children using their imaginations as medication were three times likely to feel better than the kids just getting regular treatment.

Miranda van Tilburg, an assistant professor in the gastroenterology and hepatology division of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and a member of the university's Center for Functional GI and Motility Disorders, lead the study.

This study is good news, she told US News and World Report.

"What is especially exciting about our study is that children can clearly reduce their abdominal pain a lot on their own with guidance from audio recordings, and they get much better that way than through medical care," she told the magazine.

Plus, imagination is about the cheapest drug on the market, she said.

"Such self-administered treatment is, of course, very inexpensive and can be used in addition to other treatments, which potentially opens the door for easily enhancing treatment outcomes for a lot of children suffering from frequent stomach aches," she said.

Possible side effects from imagination include increased creativity and intellectual insight as well as general playfulness.

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