Help! 15 month old making herself throw up.

[Marissamom]

for the past month or so, my dd has had a fascination with sticking her hand in her mouth, often deep enough to make herself gag a little. in the past three days she's shoved her hand so far down her throat that she's made herself throw up. she only really does this when she's drinking water from her sippy cup. any ideas why she would be doing this or how I can get her to stop?

[nextcommercial]

Try getting her some take and toss straw cups.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-Le..._bxgy_ba_img_c

http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-Le...color_name=4-1

Even my 12 month old kids use these, and they work well. The sippy cup may be tickling her throat when she drinks out of it. (remember squirting squirt guns into your mouth... it tickles)

Or she may just like how it feels to gag herself. Older kids figure out there's something hanging back there, and they try to touch it because they think it shouldn't be there. But, at 15 months, I doubt she's noticed that yet.

[Marissamom]

That's a good idea. we need to replace her sippy cups anyway, she's chewed up most of the spouts.

[shnitzel]

DD did that for a bit. She loved watching me get all freaked out when she gagged. I started completely ignoring it and the behaviour disappeared for the most part.

[karika]

dd1 was always fascinated with putting her fingers down her throat and the subsequent gag reflex. dd2 does it too, and has actually made herself vomit a bit. I think it is about teething for dd2. She is trying to get her fingers in the right place to bite on while her molars are coming in. dd1 liked it for reaction, though she didnt ever actually upchuck...

First things that come to mind
-Is your sippy cup BPA free? Strive for as natural as possible. I use glass jelly jars to drink from a lot of the time.
-Do you allow liquids other than water in them? If anything other than water is allowed in the sippy cup, I believe it is a breeding ground for bad bacteria. Try to have only water in them.
- Is the water pure? If it is tap water, is it fluoridated? The additive they are putting in city water across the country is a registered poison. It is a byproduct of making fertilizer. If the water is fluoridated, do not drink it. I think some of the purification systems remove fluoride and other stuff...

That's all I got. And, like i said, we used glass jars not sippys and no additives in the water and my girls gagged themselves too... maybe in their past lives they were bulemic... idk

not making a deal of it is the way to go though, whatever behavior you give reaction to or focus on,, they will repeat. I reacted to dd1 when she did it and she would do it for my reaction after that. With dd2 I ignore it mostly and it has only happened a few times.

[Marissamom]

yeah, only water and BPA free. we do just give her tap water, but ours isn't fluoridated. and it's from an aquifer, so it's as pure as any tap water gets. It may be an attention getting thing. we were trying to ignore it, until she actually started vomiting from it.

[Brittee]

Is the water very cold? Sometimes when I drink water, or maybe a milk shake, it can make me cough because it is so cold.

[Devaskyla]

Some kids just seem to like gagging themselves. I think most of them at least go through a stage of trying it, though. All of mine have. Ds3 did it for the longest, but I think he's over it, finally.

[Marsupialmom]

The best thing to do is not to respond to much. At this age your response is half of what she is looking for.

[curious&eager]

My DS loves to do this too. He's 13 months. Crazy thing is, it almost seems like he does it for comfort. He'll do it often at nap time. I have noticed though since I ignore it figuring, if you want to make yourself gag and puke, that's your problem not mine, but DH tells him no and tries to make him stop, that DS does it more often around DH than with me. DS has been at it for months now, and I don't see him stopping anytime soon.