6 Year Old with Sensitive Stomach

One of my son's is like this. He would go to my in-laws and they'd have candy and junk, and he's come home and puke every time. Birthday parties - he'd come home after - same thing.

I used to throw up every time I went on rides. I had a very sensitive tummy. Grew out of it.

My son is healthy otherwise. He is more sensitive to milk - we discovered this because he had a lot of gas. So we switched him off milk to lactose free and it helped.

Also he got sinusitis in the winter months as a kid, and we think the post nasal drip didn't help.

He's pretty much grown out of it now (young teen).

Added:
Ask MIL to not give her candy - and remind child what happens when she eats it. That's what we did. My MIL would forget because she doesn't like to say "no" so it was on me to remind my kid that he felt awful when he ate too much. So it's likely that he hasn't so much grown out of it, he just doesn't eat much.

if you know the cause is too much candy, i don't know that a trip to the doctor would be helpful in this particular case.

she's too young to take total control of her own issues, but she's old enough to start. it's time to work with her on understanding the limits and peculiarities of her own digestive system and to start exercising good judgment.

i mean, i assume she doesn't enjoy vomiting.

but it's also on you to keep other folks clued in. if you know your daughter who has a sensitive stomach and vomits reliably when she eats too much candy is going to be at a friend's house the day after halloween, you know what's going to happen, right? it's only sensible to have a quiet conversation with the mother beforehand.

you, or your dh if your MIL is sticky, need to have a talk with her. it's lovely that she's kid-friendly, but i can't imagine any loving grandmother would be hunky dory with making her granddaughter puke.

since this is your child's modus operandi from babyhood, why is this blindsiding you?
khairete
S.

Too much candy will make lots of people throw up - some adults too.
We just learn our limits and eventually stop trying to go beyond them in the digestive department.
If you think that's bad - my sister and I use to climb apple trees and eat green apples.
That made us throw up AND gave us diarrhea - but being kids we liked green apples anyway and took us awhile to quit doing that.

Sure you can visit the doctor but it'll go like this:
You: "Doctor doctor! It hurts when I do this!".
Doctor: "Well then - Don't do that!".

Does she eat anything that's sugar-free, "diet", or sweetened with artificial sweeteners? My dd cannot tolerate sorbitol, mannitol, erythritol, or any of the "diet" sweeteners like Equal, aspertame, Splenda, etc. It gives her terrible digestive problems.

And I don't think this requires medical intervention, since you know what the problem is, and candy isn't a necessity, and no doctor will try to help your daughter tolerate M&Ms or help her be able to consume more chocolate bars.

When she goes to your MIL's house, send a snack bag. Your daughter is old enough and presumably intellectually capable of understanding that candy = vomiting, and that sugar is hard on some people's digestive systems. Send a fun bag of apple slices, baby carrots, crackers, raisins, cheese sticks, and help your daughter monitor her own snacking. Try everything possible to get your MIL on board, too.

my daughter is 4, she will wake up about an hour after bedtime screaming in pain if she has ranch dressing, ketchup, broccoli or anything with onion in it with dinner. she is learning whats ok and whats not. shes 4 shes learning. by the time shes 6 and inkinder she will know what not to eat, and will be ok with minimal reminding.
my point is that you can teach her that too much junk food =puking and teach her a safe amount to eat. as for the sick on planes and cars, i have found that having ziplock baggis (vor catching vomit) and mints with real peppermint oil in them help my son from being car sick so much. there is also childrens dramamine which helps with motion sickness.
for the colds, i would make her blow her nose every 5-10 minutes as its the extra mucus thats upsetting her gut so have her blow it out and you may see less vomiting from that. (my 6 yr old has to be constantly reminded to blow.. hes got allergies bad and will cough till he vomitsif we are not consistently reminding him to blow it out his nose.

Many kids throw up when they eat too much candy or junk. That's not a medical problem, but you should let other people know that she has to be limited.

As for the motion sickness, my kids are teenagers and we still keep buckets in the backseat of the car. It got *much* better at age 12+ but not entirely gone. They take after me in that regard. Sea Bands and gum (mint or ginger) helps. We're not fond of Dramamine because being sleeping is often counter productive to doing what we're driving to do.

L.,

Plane and car rides? I doubt it's a sensitive stomach - she could have inner ear problems.

Sugar? She might be diabetic. have you had her blood sugar tested? Her body could be ridding itself of things that will make it sick.

Take her to the doctor. Have a full blood panel done, to ensure her A1C and blood sugar is done (fasting). Rule out anything medical.

Good luck!

I'm just seeing this question, L..

I was that kid who threw up on trips, in the back seat of a car, incessantly. And on boats. STILL on boats if I don't take a pill. I'll never forget throwing up on a church lady on the way across town one night to a church service. Poor lady...

You know and your daughter knows what candy does to her. (That does sound like something different than motion sickness.) I would have a real talk with your MIL about this. Tell her that until your daughter grows out of this, you do not want her giving her candy. When you MIL forgets, then she will need to be the one taking care of your daughter when she is throwing up from all the candy her grandmother continues to give her. At some point your daughter will not eat it and at some point, your MIL won't give it to her. They both need the consequences.

Meanwhile, I'd do some searching to see what could be causing this sugar issue, because that's just not quite normal...

It sounds like different things to me. For planes and car rides people tend to throw up because of motion sickness. This has to do with your inner ear and it really sucks because you feel very nauseated and bad. I can get motion sickness and it helps for me to be the driver. Looking out the window at the horizon helps. They say eating ginger helps...I find a glass of ginger ale makes me feel a little better. My 12 yr old son is like this. He cannot ride the metro because he gets so sick. He also cannot read in the car or look down at a cell phone and play on an app. My mom is the same way...they are very prone to motion sickness and then throwing up. Vomiting after eating a ton of candy probably means she ate too much and yes, she probably has more of a sensitive stomach. Vomiting over night and for a couple days means a stomach virus to me...my kids have gotten stomach viruses that last 3 days. It sucks. Yes you can go to the doctor for this...the biggest thing is you need to make sure she does not get dehydrated when she gets a stomach bug like this. On a side note, my daughter used to be a vomiter but it always happened any time she was really upset. If she got super upset and was crying she would start vomiting everywhere. The doctor told us she had a sensitive gag reflex and she would out grow it. She did.

Here's what I would do. Little kiddo stays at grandma's house overnight when she goes over there so that grandma can experience the results of what she is allowing the kiddo to eat.

As for the motion sickness stuff you need to get a prescription for a medication to handle that. Lots of people have this issue. I got sick to my stomach when I would ride those swing rides at amusement parks, where you go get strapped into an individual swing then the whole thing is raised up. It starts turning around spinning everyone out and around. There's also one where it's for smaller kids. It has airplanes and other things instead.

I got sick on that ride every time. The centrifugal and centripetal forces on my body were such that it upset my stomach.

Some get sick like this on water and even in larger boats it happens. It might not happen on shipboard because they have huge stabilizers to counter the motion.

There's medicine for that. They can take some orally but most use a patch behind their ears.

My kids did not but I do. It's not as bad as when I was younger. My mom just figured out that I would usually throw up before going on trips or when I wasaw nervous about something. Nowe I have problems with acid reflux. I also now sometimes have take zophran. That helps.