Vomiting
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Vomiting
Children Vomiting
Cleaning Up Vomit
May 2005
i have a 21 month old who has been throwing up everyday
sometimes twice for the last few days.
he shows no other sign of illness except a snotty nose (clear)
he has a 5 week old sister and I strongly suspect its an
emotional reaction to her presence.
he's generally a very sweet, easy going kid and has shown no
signs of regression that you expect with a new sibling. he has
the normal moments of frustration, hitting, whining that are
hard to differientiate what's about his sister and what is just
his age.
we try to give him as much positive attention, reassurance and
mommy time as possible. he does seem to be curious about the
baby and likes to kiss her and point out her body parts which
he's recently learned to say.
he's generally a fun kid, but the throwing up is getting really
old, really fast. often in the evening around bath and bed time
which he does not have to share with the baby but sometimes
hears her crying in the background while someone else holds her.
any ideas?
mom of a throw-up kid
My daughter also went through an odd throw-up period when she was a toddler.
Her symptoms were very similar -- no sign of fever or even a runny nose, but she
tended to barf in the evening, especially after dinner. At first I thought she was
just
trying to demonstrate how very much she didn't like her dinner . . . but after a few
days of this I took her into the doctor. We're with Kaiser and fortunately the
pediatrician knew what it was right away -- she was severely constipated!! She had
been pooping but I guess not enough, and over a period of weeks had basically
backed up to the point where there was not enough room in her tummy for a full
dinner -- hence the vomiting. He confirmed this diagnosis with an x-ray and we
had to give her an enema (yuk) but it was all over in a day.
My daughter is now an older teenager but to this day she tends to get constipated
whenever she is under stress, particularly when we are traveling. Perhaps your
toddler is having a similar response to the stress of a new baby?
In the interests of protecting my teenager's identlty I will just sign myself as . . .
been there, done that
stomach virus. my daughter has had it too.
deb
We have the same problem with our 26 month old. If he has a full
stomach AND gets upset usually he'll throw up. In our case it
appears to be an emotional issue and not a digestive issue. He
wants attention, you can't give it to him, he throws up and then
the whole world stops and he gets his attention.
Although this is probably emotional you can reduce the chances of
him doing this.
1) Try not to have your toddler eat too late at night right
before bed. If he goes to day care find out what his eating was
like that day and plan accordingly. It's not good for them (or
us) to lie down with a full stomach, it leads to indigestion,
heart burn and nausea.
2) Do not to give them too much milk before or in bed. Milk is
hard to digest, and whole milk has a lot of fat, which
babies/toddler's need, but it is hard to digest.
3) Try to keep them from getting upset after eating. If they are
really cranky you need to try calm them down, stop what you are
doing, include them into your activities, get down on your knees
and look them in the eye. (Maybe you can give him little task to
help with his sister when you are doing something with her ''get
mommy sister's shirt. good boy'').
Of course if it continues see a doctor, we did and we were told
it's not uncommon for babies and toddlers to do this. Medication
exist to help toddlers digest but only put them on medication if
you know for sure it is not an emotional problem or it's getting
otu of hand.
Joe G
Jan 2005
Hi,
My 16-month-old is vomiting almost every 2-3 days, mostly in
the car, and mostly in the mornings. I've taken her to the
pediatrician, who thinks it is either GERD, sinusitis, or
carsickness. If it's carsickness or GERD, those require
medications to be given regularly. I hate the idea of giving
my child medication every day. Has anyone else been in this
position? What have you done to minimize nausea?
I'm desperate for ideas...!
Thanks for your help.
Sandra
I was a carsick kid. What made me sick was the smell of vinyl,
especially in newer cars, so we rolled the windows down, which
helped. I also did better in cars with cloth seating. The
smell of tar also made me ill. If your child suffers because of
the motion, they may want you to give her medication, but you
might try pepermint tea with a little sugar first to settle her
stomach before putting her in the car (fresh pepermint boiled,
strained, then served with a little sugar and ice cubes).
Peppermint helps with stomach ailments, but it sounds like you
may be forced to use the medication.
anon
May 2004
My happy healthy 4-year-old daughter has started randomly
vomiting. It's happened about 6 times in the last couple of
months. It's not a bid for attention, as sometimes it happens
in the middle of the night, then she just wants to go back to
bed. Nor is it a ploy to avoid something she doesn't want to
do, as it has occured before a day at the beach, or before
preschool, which she loves. She lies down for half an hour
afterward, then is fine. There have also been several episodes
of just general stomach upset, which is new for her. I'm
asking about this here rather than taking her to the doctor
because I can't imagine that a doctor could find anything wrong
with her based on these symptoms. She is always fine soon
after, and there's only a little bit of vomit, usually. She
never has a fever or any other symptoms. Anybody else had this
situation?
concerned
It sounds to me like she might be slightly lactose intolerant or
have some other type of food allergy. On the days she threw up
did she drink more milk than usual? The slightly lactose
intolerant members of my family can drink about 4 ounces of
milk at a time without cramps and/or vomiting. Your daughter
could have had this condition for a long time but only now if
she is drinking increased amounts of milk is it becoming a
problem.
liz
call the doctor. That's what they are there for. They can look
for things that you wouldn't think of, and do blood tests, etc.
Don't delay.
janet
I would take your child in to see the doctor, or at least call
the doctor and describe the symptoms and see if s/he can give
you some guidelines or advice. You say that you ''can't imagine
that a doctor could find anything wrong with her based on these
symptoms,'' but the doctor (hopefully) is trained to look at a
constellation of symptoms and come up with a diagnosis. The
symptoms may seem perplexing to you, if you are not medically
trained, but it may seem clear to the MD. In any case, at least
the doctor could check your child out and rule out some
problems.
May as well ask
July 2003
My 16 month old son just started daycare 2 weeks ago. Its a home
day care where hes the only child until sepetember. Hes been
throwing up everyday at the daycare so far.
The care provider says this happens when she feeds him- he seems
to gag and eventually throws up whats in his stomach. I cant see
a pattern in the triggers. Once it was rice, once it was milk,
another time it was the yoghurt he ate successfully the previous
4 days. I started grinding his lunch, but that didnt help either.
Have currently regressed to sending jar food with him, but he
threw that up 1 day too.
The strange thing is - at home he will eat anything that catches
his fancy ( mostly stuff he sees his elder sister eating)- fruit
( that I peel & make into pieces), rice, bread... without a
problem..
Any insight into whats going on is much appreciated.
My daughter threw up often in a home daycare, too. Always right
at nap time. I never figured out exactly why, but it might have
been that she was eating too much lunch and then being told to
lay down right away for nap, when she wasn't really tired yet.
She stayed in daycare for only six months (starting at 14 months
old) and really didn't like it much toward the end. It seems
she found the home daycare too boring. She has been in
preschool for over a year and only threw up when she was really
ill.
LC
Sounds like a psychological thing. I think he's traumatized by
the new daycare situation.
First and foremost see a gastrointerologist
(stomach/liver/intestine doctor) to make sure everything is
working properly. However I have been a childcare provider for
years. It does not sound like a food allergy but nerves,
anxiety, basically stress related to his being separated from
his primary caretaker (you) for extended periods of time.
Children who are in day care tend to have elevated levels of
Cortisone (stress hormone) as opposed to children who are at
home. This could cause the child to throw up (almost like stage
fright.) Learning problems such as ''ADHD'' (I put it in
parenthesis because I think it is sometimes over or mis-
diagnosed) are more prevalent in children who have been placed
in daycare for many years. And as an elementary teacher, I can
usually tell by the first day of school which children are latch-
key (meaning they go to daycare after school, or go home to an
empty house) and which go home to parents, because of behavioral
differences. It is up to you what decision you make in regards
to keeping you child in his current situation
anon
I didn't see the original question... on how many different
days and times within one day did the child vomit at the
daycare? After evaluating possible reaction to food or food-
borne illness, you may want to check if pesticides are used in
the childcare facility. Ask several sources because sometimes
teachers or even Directors can mistakenly assume that pesticides
are not sprayed. For example, if the building is being rented,there
is often little communication of such info from landowner who
contracts out the work to the contractor, and the teachers/director.
I've seen it happen many times.
A common acute symptom of organophosphate pesticide
poisoning is vomitting. Diazinon and Dursban are two common and very
toxic pesticides used for ants and termites. Genetic makeup
can render more susceptibility to organophosphate poisoning
to a signficicant percentage of the population. A damaged form
of an enzyme which breaks down the neurotransmitter,
acetylcholine renders 4% of the population more susceptible to
organophosphate poisoning. In addition, yet another
enzyme,paraoxonase, which acts to deactivate organophosphate,
has been found in about 35% of the population to be less
functional according to the literature.
Persons who may have genetic susceptibility as well as being
exposed to organophosphate pesticides may exhibit symptoms
whereas other around them may not. Dursban and Diazinon have
been banned by US EPA in 2000 for use in residential structures
but still legal to sell/buy/spray by contractors until 2004.
So watch out for them on sale! Fetus & children are much more
susceptible to the neurological damage these pesticides are
known to cause, particularly under the age of 5-6.
An intruiging report on toxic threats to children's
development written by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social
Responsibility and the Clean Water Fund can be found at:
www.igc.org/psr/.
If pesticides are ruled out, you may want to find out what
they are using to clean the facility. Both during school, and
after school. For more info on safer alternative cleaning
methods, you can look at www.pfse.net. For info on industrial
cleaning products recommended by Green Seal, see their Sept-
Oct '99 and March '98 issues on line.
Susan
May 2003
Our otherwise normal and healthy 21-month-old has been having
some trouble chewing and swallowing his food properly. About
once a week, on average, he gags on some food and throws up.
Usually the offending food is something soft and innocuous that
he's eaten successfully other times, such as pasta. (For
example, twice it was on Annie's shells, which are tiny, the size
of your pinky.)
I have talked to his peditrician several times about this.
Basically, because our son is happy and healthy, she's not really
interested in seeing him. She said some kids just gag easily,
and they tend to get better as they get older. She offered the
hypothesis that he has reflux, and said we could have a test done
where he swallows barium and they Xray him, but it seems like a
lot to put him through when the results would not be that
helpful. If we seriously thought he had reflux, we could put him
on (relatively innocuous) anti-reflux drugs without the test, but
given the relative infrequency of the problem and the
circumstances in which it occurs (almost always when he's eating,
although he has thrown up a few times when he wasn't eating
anything (and he wasn't sick)) we don't think it's reflux.
There are several mysteries about the situation. One is that he
was pretty good at eating food from about 12-18 months; this
problem started around 18 months. Another is that, as far as we
can determine, he has never gagged on food while he's with his
nanny. I've quizzed her about what she feeds him, and it's
pretty much identical to what we offer him; she doesn't cut his
food in smaller pieces or anything. He shares his nanny with
another toddler who's a voracious eater; if anything, you'd think
that would make our son more likely to gulp down his food without
chewing it well. But although DH and I have considered, many
times, the possibility that our son is gagging for attention, it
really doesn't seem that way.
Someone I talked to knew a kid with a similar problem who was
helped by speech therapy. This seemed like a weird idea to me,
especially since my son is quite a good talker, but apparently
the speech therapist enabled him to use his mouth more
effectively.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a Chewing Therapist, or
other advice on helping our son get over this yucky problem?
Barfy in Berkeley
I would love to talk to you about this, and will be interested
to see what others say. My daughter, almost two, also just
started this. (She even starts gagging when we put a bib on her!)
Melissa
March 2003
My 14 month old did a strange thing at breakfast this
morning - he put his finger down his throat so far that he
gagged and threw up. He had a normal breakfast of
bananas and cereal, didn't seem at all sick either before or
after this, and didn't even seem very bothered by throwing
up. It seemed more like he was kind of interested in what
would happen if he did this. Later that morning he seemed
to be doing the same thing with his toothbrush (which I give
him while I brush my teeth in the interest of getting him
familiar with it), but I quickly took the toothbrush away. Has
anyone else's child ever done this? Is this normal or should
I be worried?
puzzled
I'm curious what any ''experts'' would say about this, but, as the
mother of a toddler, I can recount a similar thing with my boy. I
was aware that I wanted to discourage him from doing it (he just
made himself gag), but I primarily did NOT want to put a big
charge on the issue. I just gently asked him not to do it, and
moved on to the next thing. I remember being somewhat worried, but
was also aware that he was experimenting with his body. He stopped
doing it, and I was glad not to have fretted.
anonymous
Sept 2005
My daughter recently threw up and my husband just grabbed her
comforter and put in the washing machine. Shouldn't you try to
wipe most of it off into the toilet or the garbage? I mean
putting partially digested food in the washing machine doesn't
seem right! But anyways, we have been lucky so far our child
hasn't ever gotten sick before, so this was our first
experience. So we were wondering, how do you clean up throw-up
effectively? The smell still seems to be lingering in her room
on the rug..... and oh my gosh how would you get the smell out
of a car?
Julie
Kid barf is way grosser than adult barf, as kid's bile is more
concentrated and smellier than adults! Sorry if that offends anyone, but
it is the truth. Actually, who has time and presence of mind to start
spraying and washing at 2 in the morning when your child is ill? Wad up
the whole mess of sheets and blankets and leave it outside or someplace
where the smell won't bother anyone and come back to it the next day if
you can't get to it then. The only thing, don't let is get hot by baking
in the sun, then you will have a problem. Yes, when you can stomach it,
put your gloves on and scrape the solid parts into the trash or toilet.
The important part is wetting the stains and soaking them. I wet them
with water, squirt on some Spray and Wash, and come back in an hour or
longer. Then, I rinse the stained area in cold water, and rub the area
with a soap bar (not a natural or glycerin type, just good old white
soap- Ivory or Dove will work too.) Scrub the stained parts of the cloth
together and let the soap lather, rinse in cold water, if it still looks
bad, repeat with the soap, let it sit longer, then more rinsing and
scrubbing. When is just a faint outline or less, then throw it in the
washer for a washer cleaning with detergent. I have been able to even
get blueberry barf stains out of a pale white 100% cotton sheet this
way. As for barf on carpet, I know how to deal with that from our dog,
who was a professional barfer. There is an enzyme cleaner targeted for
kids, I forget the name of it if you buy it a Babies R us store, but if
you buy it in the pet stores it is called Nature's Miracle. They are the
same products, probably the one for kids costs more though. It is a
clear liquid that you squirt on the stain and it breaks down the smelly
enzymes in barf. The directions are on the bottle.
One last thing, I used to have a cartoon posted on the fridge that made
me laugh everytime I looked at it: it showed a toddler, a dog and a cat
standing in front of a wheel with a spinner on it. The title of the
spinning wheel was ''Who will Barf Today.'' Best wishes!
barf veteran
I don't know if it was the proper way, but we dealt with a
middle-of-the-night, all-over-the-bed barf by just throwing everything
in the washer with lots of soap and hot water. As for barf in the car,
we tried a number of things and the only one that worked was a full
detailing at Touchless Car Wash (I think that's the name) on Oxford in
downtown Berkeley, across from the Cal campus. They cleaned the whole
car thoroughly (a much better job than the first car wash we tried),
then sprayed on some orange scent to cover up anything that was left.
breathing free
April 2004
Help! My 12 month old daughter threw up in her car seat and I
am having the hardest time removing the smell. Does anyone know
of any product or home remedy to remove the odor of vomit? We
have a Britax Roundabout, and removed and hand-washed the car
seat cover (the instructions advised against machine washing),
but it still smells. Also, she managed to completely soak the
harness straps, which are not removeable. The foam underneath
the cover smells too. Should I dry clean the car seat cover?
But then what about the straps and foam? Any adivse would be
appreciated!
Felicia
I have successfully used baking soda to remove vomit smell and many
other odors. You could try sprinkling it onto anything that isn't easily
washable. You can dissolve it in water - I would use about a teaspoon
full per cup of water - and wash the object. My favorite use - I have a
little long haired dog that likes to eat grass and vomit. I mix some
baking soda in a cup, dip a washcloth in it. put a corner in her mouth
and leave it there for a moment, and use the rest of rag to wipe her
face. All traces of the smell are gone immediately. I'm sure it would
work on kids too.
karen
Try BacOut. You can get it at WholeFoods and sometimes Safeway,
etc. It is a natural enzyme eater and has a pleasant clean
smell. It will remove the smell from the foam and the straps
(it's goiod for pee too)! My son vomited in the carseat a few
months ago and we used BacOut on the straps, ect.
FYI, I did remove the carseat cover and I washed it in the
washing machine on a gentle cycle and hung dry it without any
problems. I know of at least two other moms who have washed
their Britax car seat covers in the washer successfully as
well!! Just wash it, it beats the stink and if you think it's
bad for you, imagine your poor child sitting right in it!!
LogicalMama
We've used ''Nature's Miracle'' (liquid form) for many years now.
It's worked for us on all manner of infant and childhood bodily
fluids/solids. First clean the area as well as possible, then
douse/soak with Nature's Miracle. It has natural enzymes in it
and is available at pet stores (we go to Pet Food Express). Good
luck!
Family of Vomitters
I'm sorry, but I have no good advice for this problem. I had to
laugh, though, because it reminded me of my old car. I bought it
from a family with two young kids. These kids must have puked on
not just their car seat, but also the car's seats, too (maybe
this also happend to you?). I took the car to a detailer. He
ended up cleaning the interior three times. When I asked him
why, he said ''I couldn't get rid of that funky smell''. Over
time (i.e. years, not days) the smell diminished, except when it
rained. The moisture in the air must have activated the old,
dried vomit. A single guy at the time, I can't tell you how much
grief my friends gave me for driving a car that smelled like
baby puke. So my advice is wash it the best you can, keep it out
of the rain, and live with it as the smell will fade with time.
Either that, or get a new seat.
Bob
I machine washed a Britex Roundabout seat cover with no problem.
I didnt put it in the dryer though... You can also order a new
cover for the roundabout on Britex.com, or whatever the company
website is. They are about $50. Also, I forget how I did it,
but I also removed the straps and washed those by hand as
well....
aud
You can totally run the Roundabout seat cover through the
washing machine. I had this exact problem with extreme amounts
of vomit and I just removed it and ran it through the washer.
It takes a long time to dry so you should plan for that. For
the straps I used baking soda mixed with water and it worked for
the most part. Also, a salesperson at Rockridge Kids suggested
using Mother's Little Helper if it happens again.
-No more smelly seat!
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