My eight year old daughter has been getting a stomach ache where she complains of her stomach hurting than a few minutes’ later vomits and then she's fine. Her vomit is watery like just stomach acid. Me and my husband thought it was acid reflux or something to that nature, but I'm not so sure. We took her to her family doctor and they did her blood work and it all came back normal...but at least three times a week she'll get sick. I woke up the other morning at 2am to find her standing over the toilet in pain. Her stools look normal, diet has not changed, and after she vomits she is fine, hungry, alert, and it only happens at night or early morning. This has been happening for at least the past two months now, at first I thought maybe she’s overeating or eating to late at night, I have tried everything, Tums do seems to work but I’m scared I may only be masking the real problem. Please any advice would be helpful; I am currently waiting for a referral to a specialist in pediatrics GI. She has no food allergies that I know of, not allergic to anything to my knowledge.
Well when this first started happening I took her to the ER, she was complaining of burning and that she just didn't feel right, the doctor said he had a sinus infection and the same thing about the mucus, but no more than a week later the same thing started happening. What are symptoms of a sinus infection?? No seasonal allergies..she's healthy besides this, no coughing before she gets sick, no runny nose, no fever
Janet, What kind of parasites did your daughter have, my daughter was recently around a child that had pin worms, but wouldn't a blood test show something, I haven't seem any worms in her stools..
Shira, yes school started in August, teacher is nice that's what she tells me, she has good grades,she does get in trouble for talking to her friends alot, she plays,runs and is normal acting until the middle of the night than she just gets sick, she'll be sound asleep and have to get up to puke. Yes it has happened on the weekend as well.
When my son has a lot of nasal drip--he coughs to the point of gagging, then vomiting. Is she coughing like that?
Also, sinus drainage can make you sick at the stomach, too.
Poor little thing. Hope she's better fast.
Added in response to your additional info: You can still get sinus congestion and drainage without fever or runny nose. But she would feel the sinus pressure behind her eyes and the back of her throat and down into her esophagus would be sore if this is what is happening. Since she was recently sick, she may have caught a secondary virus or just messed up her digestive track with antibiotics if the doctor prescribed those when she was sick. I know I just got over strep and my antibiotics made me sick in the middle of the night for days after I was off them.
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If you are already waiting for a GI referral then, keep using the Tums for now if they help. If tums do help, then probiotic yogurt should help as well. Vomiting is not always a GI problem though.
A couple of questions:
Has she had a sinus infection or seasonal allergies? If this happens after laying down for a period of time, her sinuses may be draining into the back of her throat and she could be swallowing it which would be why she is throwing up late at night or early morning. Tums take a long time to digest and coat your tummy so they may be protecting her stomach lining from the mucus drainage.
Has she seemed stressed out or high strung lately? Nerves can play a big part in the digestive process and can cause vomiting long before ulcers or other medical "problems" actually manifest.
I would try to make nighttime as stress free and relaxing as you can for her, put a humidifier on, and give her pre and probiotic yogurt as a pre bedtime snack just to be on the safe side until the GI dr can sort out the issues.
My son has done this since he was a baby (he's now 8 as well). The culprit has always been post nasal drip hits his gag reflex when he lays down. As soon as he starts a round of it, pseudoephedrine hcl decongests his sinuses and he's fine.
have you considered that this may have nothing at all to do with her stomach and everything to do with something that is stressing her to the max? Have you asked her what is happening at school? (Bullying, being left , etc?)_
I am so sorry that you all have to go through this. I went through the exact same thing when I was younger & still do if I don't do some certain things. My son is 6 years old & he experiences the exact same symptoms that your DD is experiencing.
What happened when I was younger (this was almost 25 years ago) there wasn't that much emphasis placed on this stuff, but luckily my mom looked at my diet very closely. It ended up being more of a food combining issue that a medical issue. My body (& DS's body) just can't break down food like everyone else. For instance, I can not eat too much protein and starches together. My DS is the exact same way but also can't eat proteins and fruit together. If he does, his stool has the same sort of watery consistency you spoke of and he also vomits and experiences severe gas as well.
As I got older, I visited a nutritionist to get my diet under control. My DS sees a pediatric nutritionist as well. It also helps us to try to eat as much gluten free as possible.
With all that said, this is just the journey that we have been on. You will find what is right for your DD. I hope that she gets to feelings better very soon. Good luck to you!!
Cheers!
H.,
Could it be seasonal allergies are causing her to have sinus drainage and then that all mixes with the stomach acid and causes her vomit? I know my kids and I are all terribly affected by the Autumn seasonal allergens...the leaf molds and such, and we have constant headaches, sore throats, mild upset stomach, etc from the beginning of the change of season from Summer to Fall until it gets cold enough for a good frost that kills off those pesky allergens. Maybe try her on some good old benadryl and sudafed for a few days and see if that will help her. Don't be fooled by the fact she doesn't have a runny nose or watery eyes or any of those "typical outward" signs of allergies...we never do...allergens affect all of us with the inward, cannot be seen symptoms. Worth a try, but what you are describing sounds like that. However, if you are waiting on a referral and your mommy instinct thinks it could be something...there is no harm in getting your daughter checked....I PRAY that it will turn out to be something like allergies.
Blessings to you and your family
T.
This just started a couple of months ago?
Did school start a couple of months ago?
Third grade?
Demanding curriculum?
Tough(er) teacher?
Does she do this only on school nights?
Or on weekends?
Is she drinking too much water?
If there can be such a thing as too much water . . . I don't know.
Does she talk to you about school, teacher, curriculum?
Does she have energy, interest in playing with her friends?
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I wrote the above before I saw the postnasal drip suggestions.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Also, perhaps, tilt her bed a little,
so her head is somewhat higher than the rest of her.
My son use to have this as a little kid - about 2 yrs old. He is now 4 1/2. He is on a large dose of GERD meds because his is hard to control. However, my daughter just started with symptoms of a stomach ache and then complained of throwup burps. I started her on Zantac. My 4 yr old son can have 75 mg a day of Zantac, so my 7 yr old daughter should be allowed the same (they weigh the same). I started splitting a 75 mg adult pill and giving her one-half in the morning and evening and it stopped the symptoms. I also give her tums to take to school for lunch. Since my daughter is new to swallowing pills, I put it in a bite of jello and down it goes. It has really helped. I have started to keep track of what foods may bother her to limit her intake, but so far I have found no foods that bother her over and over. Good Luck
Hi H.,
I'm sorry to hear your daughter is going through this. We had a similar experience with my daughter, 2 years ago. We did your usual testing and the seemingly never ending appointments with her ped and GI specialist but never had any answers. It was stressful...my husband was deployed and I was taking care of 3 kiddos alone. It was heartbreaking to see my daughter in pain daily and with no consistent pattern.
It wasn't our path crossed with a certified nutritionist that we got answers and relief. My daughter had parasites! Nasty and gross, I know and it was difficult to hear but since that day I've researched parasites and 85-95% of the population has parasites and doesn't know it.
We gently detoxed my daughter with a product called Cell Food. It's a liquid supplement and she got 10 drops 2x a day. You can mix them with juice or water, she preferred them in juice. I encourage you to try this for your daughter. It's safe for kids and there are no side effects. Within 4 days of starting this supplement, my daughter was pain and vomit free. Her GI specialist was truly amazed at the results and had no reason to scope our daughter once all her symptoms were gone.
Here is a link for cell food and this site offers free shipping.
http://www.vitaminsupplyusa.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=2928...
Here is the link for the certified nutritionist I took my daughter to see. My testimonial is the first one in her testimonial section if you'd like to read about my daughter's healing.
http://www.breathoflifeonline.com/index.htm
One thing I encourage you to do and you may already be doing so but for my daughter I kept a food and a pain journal. Two separate journals and I documented everything that she ate to see if I could find a pattern for a food intolerance. I also used a 5 smiley face scale for her since she was younger. The pediatrician and GI specialist found the journals to be helpful as we worked together to determine what was causing her pain.
Our scale was:
BIG frown/sad eyes = Lots of Pain
Small frown/regular eyes = Mild Pain
Straight face/regular eyes = Okay
Small smile/happy eyes = Good
BIG smile/happy eyes = Great/No Pain
I will tell you that when we visited the GI specialist for her follow up, this was 8-10 weeks after I started her on the cell food, the GI specialist couldn't believe the results. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. The specialist looked at me like I had a third eye and had grown horns when I told her about the results with the supplement but once I showed her the pain/food journal, she couldn't deny anything. My daughter went from having pain and frowning faces 2-3x a day for months and then within a 4 day span, everything changed for her. She's been pain free since.
Best of luck to you. I hope your daughter finds some relief. Email me if you have any questions or want to know more about our experience.
Peace,
J.
Here's a good website to tell you how to find out if she has pinworms http://www.livestrong.com/article/198190-how-to-know-if-y...
My eight year old son has a condition called GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease. He does the same thing when he is not taking his medicine. However, he would often have serious pain in his stomach, so much so that we took him to the hospital because we were unsure of what was wrong. First of all, try elevating the head of her bead about six inches. Also try not letting her eat 2-3 hours before going to bed. This has helped my son a lot in addition the the medication he has to take. If the docter determines that she has GERD or reflux, then you may want to ask him Zegerid. This is the only medication that has helped my son and it made an umbelievable difference in him.
Sorry for the late reply. I agree that it could be allergies, and post-nasal drip. If you try some things to help w/ allergies and that doesn't, then consider transitioning her off gluten. Not part of the way, all the way. If she gets off gluten and stays off for 6 - 8 and it stops, then it's an worth keeping her off, and transitioning the family off as well, since it's genetic. Even if a doctor says she doesn't have Celiac Disease. Most doctors (even GI MD's) know very little about CD, and even less about an "intolerance to Gluten." Millions have an intolerance to gluten, and think various health issues are just happening to them. Most American have a sensitivity to it, and never know it.
At the very least, try getting off all PROCESSED foods, and stick to whole foods.
I hate that your family is having to deal with this. I hope you all find a solution soon. Once you do, please share w/ us what helped your daughter.
