Crayons Paper Scissors

Ahhh the end of the first week of school! This has been one of the longest and fastest weeks in recent memory- and I have loved (almost) every minute of it! This week was a short week but it was also chock full of procedures and intensive training for our second graders to establish a solid foundation in classroom management. Today we did some math curriculum and started the handwriting workbook. There were several students that jumped right in and were able to complete the pages without assistance and there were other students that needed to be given step by step directions. I have learned to predict which ones will need additional assistance and have started to check them first before looking at the other students' work. 
I have a new frustration though. I feel like I should have taken a class in how to respond to students who are complaining of ailments. "My tummy hurts" is very common from one particular little guy and another student complains of headaches every day several times. Having a child that gets migraines, I am indeed sensitive to a child needing pain medication if they have a headache. However I have a feeling this child is using a headache as a way to get out of class for a few minutes. But then again, who am I to suggest I know if a child is truly in pain or not? The reason I suspect he isn't truly having a headache is his mood will change depending on who is paying attention to him and what the class is doing. If we are doing something "fun" he will be all smiles and not seem to be in pain. But as soon as his eyes meet with mine, he has these sunken eyes and it really does look like he is in pain. So I don't know. I just refer him to RM. He doesn't always tell her he has a headache- which also suggests he may not have a genuine headache. 
The child that complains of a tummy ache often seems to do this when we are doing something challenging and he doesn't want to do it. I have sent him to the bathroom suggesting he try to go. Twice this has worked and once a few minutes later he came back and said his tummy still hurt. Luckily we were near the end of the day and he agreed that he could wait until dismissal. 
So what is the response when little ones come up and say they don't feel good? As a parent with a child who should NEVER wait for medication when having a headache I feel teachers should not hesitate if a child is complaining. HOWEVER (and this is a big however!) as a parent of a dramatic child who exaggerates nearly every bend of the way, I would want a teacher to be cautious of a complaint like this before sending to the office and calling a parent to come get them. I think this all boils down to individual students. I don't know them well enough at this point to know if they are really not feeling well or if they just want to get out of school. At this point I'm following my instinct about half the time- and referring them to RM the other half!