My Son Is Throwing Up

Updated on July 24, 2010
D.G. asks from Celeste, TX
26 answers

I know that it is nothing unusual for a child to get sick but here is my concern and maybe you can tell me if I am being weird or not. Okay about a week and a half ago my son started acting very tired about 4:00 pm ish he went to sleep and he was very difficult to wake, I thought that he was starting to get sick. I took him temp, no temp and no diarrhea. Later he started throwing up. He threw up for about 4 to 5 hours. Then he stoped about 3 oclock in the morning. Woke up and he was fine, ate fine, played fine and drank fine. Well, last night he did the exact same thing but this time it threw up for about 11 hours every 20 to 30 minutes. And was virtually lifeless all he wanted to do was sleep, he even threw up without opening his eyes. This morning he was fine ate great, drank great, and played great. I feel like something is very wrong but I don't want to be a hypercondrite, you know. Your advice and opinions would be very helpful. Thank you

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V.T.

answers from Dallas on

Could he be having an allergic reaction of some sort that's making him sick? Any similarities in foods or meds taken on the occasions he got sick?

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Y.H.

answers from Dallas on

Please seek medical help right away.This baby could dehydrate if not already.Along with there has got to be a reason for this.

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R.F.

answers from Dallas on

My advice would be to always trust your feelings. Esp. when it comes to your children. I have 3 children and learned this from experiance. Call his doctor asap.

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C.M.

answers from Amarillo on

If this was happening in my family I would take my child to the doctor. Good luck!!

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F.G.

answers from Dallas on

I agree with this rest definatly call the doctor asap. But if you can I would try to recall what he ate each day and maybe what he was doing before all of this started do he do anything the same each day? There is definatly something up and I would stress that to the nurse. Good luck!

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A.C.

answers from Dallas on

My son who is 2 1/2 started throwing up a week before Christmas. At first we thought it was a stomach bug, and that's how we treated it for a couple of days. After giving it 48 hours, we decided to take him to the doctor since he wasn't getting better on his own. Come to find out, it was simply and ear infection. The doctor said that the ear infection was messing with his equilibrium which was causing him to throw up. So anytime he sat straight up or laid down flat on the bed, it would make him throw up. To keep him from throwing up, we had to prop him up at a slant on the couch. He wanted to eat, but the poor thing couldn't hold anything down. It took another 48 hours after getting the antibiotic to bring him back to normal.

I'm pretty sure that's what your son has. See a doctor ASAP!

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K.F.

answers from Dallas on

I have three children, 9, 13 and 16 and a stepson that just turned 30. My stepson and daughter both tend to throw up at the slightest provocation, the boys very rarely. I have never had any of my kids throw up for 4-5 hours. All usually make 2-3 trips to the bathroom and then sleep for a good while before they are up again. The 11 hours, I would have taken him to the ER to rule out anything more than a stomach bug or allergic reaction to food or meds. As another woman said, each exposure to what one is allergic to has a worse reaction than the time before which would potentially include everything the vomit comes into contact with would be inflamed and possibly make breathing difficult or a flat out anaphylactic reaction.

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G.G.

answers from Dallas on

Again ... not to scare you ... but my daughter has a seizure disorder, and after a seizure, all she wants to do is sleep. Depending on the severity of the seizure, she might vomit afterward, even in her sleep. I'm not saying this is your son's case, but it is SO worth calling the doctor about. Start with the pediatrician; he may then refer you to a neurologist. Or he may know more than I know (very likely!), and give you some other explanation. But you need to know what's going on, and today would be a good day to find out. Blessings to all of you!

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R.H.

answers from Dallas on

He probably has that stomach virus, which can sometimes take a few days to go away. Make sure he is drinking as much fluid as possible so that he doesnt get dehydrated. When he is throwing up, dont give him anything to drink, it only makes the throwing up last longer. It's really hard to watch them when they are so little to dry heave, but it's better than throwing up every 30 minutes. If he is lethargic and has not had a wet diaper in at least eight hours, I'm not trying to scare you, but you may want to take him in to the ER to have fluids put in. I have experienced this with my son when he was around 18 months old and he got very sleepy and didnt move because he was dehydrated. Good luck.

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K.K.

answers from Dallas on

Definitely have this checked out...it could be something or not, but I would have it looked at....anything from food intolerance or seizures, who knows, but listen to your gut and check it out. I hope he is okay.

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K.G.

answers from Dallas on

goto your pedi in the am or tonight goto acute kids pedi. urgent care

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K.V.

answers from Dallas on

I am a mom with two daughters 17 and 20. Anytime a child is throwing up constantly that means that they are dehydrated. Dehydration leads to lethargy and could cause other issues with their blood flow and oxygen flow. Take your son to Childrens Hospital. If insurance is an issue, that's not a problem. They will treat him regardless. Give him pedialite and check his diapers. Do not let this just pass. Children obtain all kinds of illnesses and they are not always thought to be serious but sometime can be. I don't mean to scare you but a few years ago a family at my church was experincing the same symptoms and they went to the local hospital and they said it was a virus and he would be fine. They took their 3 year old son home and a week later he was worse, they returned to the local hospital and then he was care flighted to Childrens, the doctor said that he had an unsual virus (from dirt) in his intestins and that they would need to remove part of his intestins to save his life. THIS DID NOT WORK. HE IS NO LONGER WITH US. Please take your son to Childrens Hospital! Your are not alone with these types of questions.

Your sister in Christ.

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A.K.

answers from Dallas on

I don't want to alarm you at all and it's probably not this, but I googled "vomiting episodes" and this thing called "cyclic vomiting syndrome" came up. Kinda looks like what you're describing. You might google it yourself, or don't if you don't want to scare yourself. I would definitely suggest calling your pediatrician, at the least. Can't be good for him to be vomiting like this. It is definitely unusual, aside from a stomach bug, but it doesn't sound like what your son has.

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T.L.

answers from Dallas on

If I were you, I'd call the doctor. Better to be safe, than sorry.

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C.A.

answers from Dallas on

I have a recurring issue with my daughter that sounds a lot like this.

If this happens again, call the Dr. and ask for the earliest appointment they can give you and take him in.

We've had these episodes for almost two years now and finally made it into the Dr. about 3 months ago WHILE it was happening. Exact same symptoms, patterns etc.

Basically, she's happy and fine one minute, then gets quiet, goes pale, and cries out, then vomits. And does it over and over and looks like death warmed over. It usually lasts for several hours but after she gets some sleep, wakes up and we are able to get her to start eating/drinking again, she's fine.

When we were at the Dr. during our episode, he discovered that my daughter gets these chunks of mucous stuck right back behind her nose that press on her gag reflex. So we do saline and nasal aspiration to help with it. Once the mucous clears she feels better.

But that's just my kid. There's no way to know until your doctor sees this while it's going on.

Good luck!!

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M.E.

answers from Dallas on

This is your child. Take him to the doctor or the ER. Don't try to second guess when it comes to your child's health!

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D.N.

answers from Dallas on

I would definitely take the baby in because that doesn't sound good at all. For him to be throwing up for that long you are in danger of him being severely dehydrated. Who knows what could be causing this so he needs to be checked.

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P.S.

answers from Dallas on

I would take him to the doctor but do it during the time he is throwing up. I know it means the emergency room or a minor emergency place at best but this doesn't sound right. Are you sure he's not getting into anything toxic? He might be eating something toxic which his body then tries to get rid of by throwing up for 11 hours. That also would explain the lethargic state. At the very least call your pediatrician and have a long talk with the nurse. The nurse will consult with the Dr. if she can't field the call and call you back. You're not being a hypochondriac, and don't feel bad about at least calling the Dr. office. It's part of their job, that's exactly why they have all those emergency numbers on their answering machine.

Good luck to you and your little boy.

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J.N.

answers from Lubbock on

Dear D.:

This answer may be "out in left field", but it sounds like the reaction I had to some medicine. I took some and just got sick as a dog. My doctor thought it was just "co-incidence" - the medicine had never caused that reaction. Once I recovered, I went back on it and the reaction was even worse. I went off the medicine for good, once your body reacts to something, each time it comes in contact with that substance, the reaction is worse. Does this ring any bells? I would look for some kind of sensitivity to food, etc. You may want to have a doctor check him out. In my opinion, you are better off over-reacting rather than under-reacting.
Jen

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K.H.

answers from Dallas on

Hi D., I don't want to scare you but when it comes to children, you never know. My 2 yr old grandson did the same thing last week. He went to the doctor on the 4th day. He had R.S.V., pneumonia, strep and dehydration. I would get your little one to the doctor, better to be safe than sorry. My grandson was in the hospital for 4 days. He is just now starting to act like himself again it's been 15 days. Hope you little guy is ok and doesn't have any of this but I would certainly check it out.
God Bless You & Yours.

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E.C.

answers from Dallas on

I would take mine to the pedi if I were in your shoes.

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M.M.

answers from Dallas on

Um... as a nurse, I would recommend taking him to the pediatrician. Even if it is nothing, it's better safe than sorry. A hypochondriac you are not. Your child is displaying some symptoms that are not normal, so you are merely being a concerned mom.

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K.M.

answers from Dallas on

Not to scare you, but I saw something like this on Mystery Diagonsis. I cant remember what the oucome was, but I would call your doctor and to be seen. It could be nothing but its better to be safe than sorry, espically with your kids. I hope everything is ok though.

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M.C.

answers from Amarillo on

I don't think you are over reacting, did he eat or drink anything unual? Maybe played with something that had some kind of poison on it. Paint or who knows what. Something triggered this. I pray you find out what.

Blessings M.

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T.D.

answers from Dallas on

Listen to your gut feeling - my son's first symtoms of his brain tumor were vomit and headaches - but only once a day...now a mere 4 months later he's allready recurred and is fighting for his life.

www.carepages.com/carepages/johnathondoerr

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S.L.

answers from Asheville on

Go to discoveryhealth.com now!!! This is serious, and could be fatal, if it is the same disease as the child on a t.v. show called mystery diagnosis. The disease is called epilepsy,this kind of seizure is rare, so almost no doctors think to look for it. What they did is do an EEG at night wile your child is sleeping.They need to get the vomiting to happen on the EEG, so a sleep study is best. She was diagnoses with epilepsy two days afterward. Yes, some people with this form of epilepsy only do this at night in there sleep, and is the rarest type of seizures there is, which is the throwing up only at night time in the sleep. Mostly the vomiting starts as the child is asleep and sometimes they don't remember it all. Please if you get this in a timely manner, as I have no idea when you posted your question, seek professional help, if your PCP will not listen to you. This is very important that you see a doctor very soon and have them check for this problem, it will get worse as time goes on, if no help is found! Please up date this and let me know if you receive this, if he spends the night with someone who doesn't know how to deal with this happening then it could prove to be fatal for him.

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