Vomiting over Foods/medicine - Help!!

I agree with Annie A. Both my daughter and my granddaughter, as a toddler, vomited easily. It's a physiological and a psychological thing that they cannot control. We have to work around it.

I first suggest that you accept that it happens and pay as little attention to it as possible. It certainly does help that she runs to the bathroom.

Then, I found it helps to have a somewhat of a ho hum attitude about the medicine. Again making it no big deal. Pharmacies will flavor medicine but my daughter could still taste the medicine. I would give her a choice, which sounds like what you're doing. The choices I allowed were to put it in juice or not; take it now or 15 minutes from now; use a spoon held by me or a medicine tube held by her. We talked briefly about being a big girl and how this medicine helps her be healthy. But I found that any long discussion did not help. I adopted a this medicine is absolutely necessary and there will be no discussion other than what is necessary to make the choices.

If she didn't take the medicine, there was not TV, no toys, no desert, nothing until the medicine was swallowed. The whole exchange was calm and matter of fact. I had to work on developing this attitude and didn't actually have consistent success until I used it with my granddaughter. My mind tended to say, "this medicine is important and must be taken right now! which then led to a slowly building panic when it didn't happen. At first, I had to take a break when I realized my mind was working overtime or my feelings were rising. Now I can just stand or sit there and say it's now or the TV goes off, the book/toy goes away, or there will be no dessert/snack until this is done. I tried to inject humor. Sometimes I was able to and that also helped.

I forgot to add the suggestion that it might be easier for her to take a pill instead of liquid medicine. It was around this age that my granddaughter started taking pills. She made the request which surprised the doctor. She had no difficulty swallowing pills.

We have not had anything as bad as that, but my daughter vomited a few times at the table when she was asked to not eat something. Our immediate response (by the time we realized it was all attention seeking, not physiological) was to clean her up and then proceed as if nothing had happened - with as little emotion as possible. This got her to stop. If you are sure this is attention seeking, you could do the same thing.

Our long term response, for food, was to do some research about how to handle food issues. The useful rule that we learned was, 'we supply the food, she decides whether to eat it'. Because she is now in control of whether she eats the 'bad' thing, and how much and how quickly, we are having much calmer dinner periods. (Tricky part - supply food that both challenges and feeds her, when we know she's unlikely to eat some of it.)

Good luck. Thats frustrating.

I feel your pain, my son does this but he is only 15 months. We have to hide it in whatever we can. My niece who is 3 also does this and she just can't help it. They have tried to hide it in food, milkshakes, juice, etc and nothing works. It got so bad that they had to go to the chemist and have them specially make up gummy bears with the medicine in it. Some doctors/pharmacists are now doing case studies on it and are trying to make the gummy bears a more mainstream option for all the kids who won't/can't take their medicine the usual way.

So, I know I'm no real help, just wanted to let you know there are other people out there like your daughter. I don't really think they can help it. I think it is partly a taste thing and partly a mental thing. (they KNOW there's something in there even if they can't taste it) Can you just try sneaking the medicine in without telling her? Good luck!

I can't help but wonder whether she might not actually be doing this on purpose? It is possible to experience such an intense sense of anxiety or emotional upset that it can make you vomit. She may need help learning to regulate her emotions. It might be worth exploring that possibility just to give her the benefit of the doubt. Seems like you're off to a great start with helping her take deep breaths, etc.
It sounds like she is lucky to have such a patient and empathetic mom... Your support and love are the most important thing to help her work through any challenges that she may be facing. I hope you find answers that can help you feel sure that you know your decisions are the right ones for both of you.

Also, after reading some of the other answers below, just wanted to echo what some of the people said.. it could be sensory-related.... or physiological in some other way. I also vomited easily as a child and was an extremely picky eater. I remember feeling very upset that adults didn't believe me that I just couldn't eat certain things or I would throw up. For some things it was the texture, with others it was smells. I also vomited spontaneously from any bad smell at all when I was a kid. It caused me a lot of embarrassment and sadness, as I remember. I only wish my Mom had been as patient with me as it sounds like you are with her.. but that is a whole other story. But the good news is: I grew out of it!! I love food and eat pretty much anything.. love to try new foods.. sort of have an iron stomach, really. Just wanted to corroborate what folks were saying below. Hope it helps. Good luck!

This sounds like a sensory issue. There are a couple of books that may be helpful. I'm currently reading Just Take a Bite. And I've previously read The Out-of-Sync Child. Both may be helpful in understanding your daughter's issues with medicine and food.

This is something that cannot be controlled by discipline or any of our usual parental methods. Take her to a really good homeopath. It is very likely caused by a Miasm in the homeopathic defination of the word. She was born with it and it is curable but not by allopathic medicine.
Don't waste time. She is suffering more than you ever can imagine from the vomiting syndrome.

My son was like this as well. He would gag so easily and over food, medicine, smells, etc. If he smelled anything he did not like, he would vomit. He was so bad with medicines, that the doctor gave him suppositories when he could. If he tasted or saw any food that did not sound good to him, he would vomit. He was extremely fussy at that age and often did not eat much due to this. He eventually outgrew it, but it is not the most pleasant thing to go through at the time. Today he is a healthy 14 year old and has no traces of the gagging and vomiting anymore. He always was healthy and the doctor said there were no problems, so for him it was just a phase during a time he was particularly sensitive for some reason.

This is not an answer to the overall problem, but in the case that you really need to get medicine in her, my pediatrician gave me a special bottle called the ReliaDose which was invented by a mom. When my just turned 4 year old daughter got bitten by a dog she had to have this really strong and disgusting antibiotic and she HAD to take it. She would gag and spit/throw it up. I tried everything I could think of and the Doc's bottle worked like a charm. It is made so that the juice is in the exterior part of the small bottle, and there is a medicine child type syringe in the middle. So while they are sucking the liquid, you push down and release the medicine. the sucking and juice help keep the medicine down. I didn't think it would fool my daughter, but she thought it was a treat getting a bottle again.

Don't pay her any attention when it comes to her food selection. It is an attention getter. Fix her plate, sit her up to the table and remind her that she needs to clean her plate. I know this may not set well with some folks, but give her very small portions of the foods that you are fixing for the meal, allowing her to ask for more of the things she enjoys. She can't leave the table until her meal is finished. It may get cold, but if she doesn't eat after 30-45 minutes alone at the table, after you have finished your meals, then take her plate, cover it and let her know that's what will be what she's having for the next meal. Again, this is very small portions of food.

When it comes to her medicines, that's difficult and it may come down to holding her on your lap and squirting the liquid medicine in the cheek of her mouth with a medicine stopper or syringe. She will swallow the medicine and she stays on your lap until she swallows it. If it's a tablet, crush it and mix it with applesauce and don't let her know it's medicine. If not applesauce, ice cream, pudding, etc. Medicine is not something you want a war over, it needs to be taken and quite often on schedule to maximize it's effectiveness. This is a stage. Realizing that she can have control over you and her body. Don't let her eat or graze on other foods because she's hungry after she didn't clean her plate. If she complains she's hungry, take her plate out, reheat the 'warm' foods and serve her that. It's important to be consistent and not back down, otherwise she has succeeded.

I wish you well.