Dd randomly wakes up, throws up several times, and then is fine by 12?

[Treehuggermama5]

I can think of about 7 times in the past couple of years that dd has eaten very little or nothing at all for dinner, wakes up and pukes several times, and then feels back to her old self by early afternoon. I cannot out my finger on it, but I feel like I need to figure put what is causing this. I had a friend suggest allergies, but she has dairy and wheat frequently so wouldn't she be waking up throwing up everyday if it were that? In general she rarely gets sick and when she does we marvel at how quickly she gets better. I'm so confused but the throwing up thing has happened twice in the past two-three months so... I just don't know but I don't want her to go through this anymore if she doesn't have to.

[sbgrace]

Well, morning nausea can be from low blood sugar. Is that possible? That has happened to my son at times. If this is pretty rare it could be some sort of stomach bug. It could also be swallowing either "snot" or refluxing at night could be irritating her stomach. One of mine almost always does that when he has a cold at least once. Allergies could do it as well if there is a lot of drainage. Reflux does make my "GI sensitive" child vomit. He also has h. pylori which seems to sometimes cause nausea and vomiting for him. On the far end, not likely, and I think you'd be seeing "more" morning nausea can be a sign of brain stuff like tumors. I feel silly and sort of mean saying it as I know it's highly, highly unlikely based on what you wrote. However, because I've seen that with some kids here over the years I want to mention it so you've got the information if you see other stuff or whatever.

[EviesMom]

How old is she? Could it be migraines? Nausea/vomiting, loss of appetite, time frame... some get them starting at 8-9, and it could be hormonal if shes nearing puberty. The headache isn't be the worst part of a migraine for some people. I would start tracking it and see the dr.

[carfreemama]

I'm thinking migraines. This used to happen to me when I was a kid and I was diagnosed with migraines by the time I was 8 years old.

I would be fast asleep and by the time I was conscious of being awake, I'd be vomiting all over the bed. I had zero warning it was about to happen; no time to get a bucket or call my mom, or get to the bathroom. Just a sudden awareness that I was awake and vomiting.

For me, this also came a time of huge emotional trauma; but migraine was the diagnosis. I had no headaches at first, that I remember; it started with my stomach. By a year or so later, I had the classic migraines with aura and have had them since. I have heard that migraines often begin this way in children. And I was exactly as you describe, fine by the next afternoon or sometimes even the morning. My mom says she couldn't believe someone could be that sick and then want to go to school after lunch.

I don't remember the not-eating part, but it could have been that way. Lack of appetite/touchy stomach is now a warning sign for a migraine for me as an adult.

[sbgrace]

Migraines! I never knew that stomach could be the sign in kids. I'm really wondering if that's my son's issue rather than his h. pylori. OP, sounds like that's the strongest possibility for your child.

[homemademom]

Supposedly excess bile in the stomach is what makes pregnant women feel so nauseous. Could it be that she has an excess? It could be related to her diet. I'm pretty sure you can google to see what the dietary (or other) causes are.

[JollyGG]

We just got a diagnosis of migraines for my 4 year old daughter for almost the exact same thing (started at age 3).

She wakes up in the morning vomiting and is completely fine by noon, often after falling asleep for a bit after exhausting herself with the vomiting.

After 6 months of this happening every 2-3 weeks we went to the doctor. It took a year to actually get a diagnosis but we just got it and she has pediatric migraines. We were told that while migraines in girls her age are rare her symptoms are a classical presentation of them when they happen.

She is now on cyproheptadine, an antihistamine that studies have been shown helps with pediatric migraines and is doing much better.

[Liquesce]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

Well, morning nausea can be from low blood sugar. Is that possible?

: If my son wouldn't eat enough before bed it's been a guarantee that he would get a bit hypoglycemic and be vomiting related to that in the morning; he seems to be outgrowing it as he gets a little more body mass on him, but it still happens from time to time.

ETA: I guess the question is if she's not eating because she feels off or if she feels off because she's not eaten.

[neetling]

My daughter has Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. It took a while to figure it out. It's linked to migraines. There are also such things as abdominal migraines.

Because of an online group I belong to, I was able to trace back her first episode (that I recorded) when she was 18 months old, she's 6 now. For a while she was cycling every 3 months. Now it's spacing out some thank goodness. Stress, excitement and illness are all triggers for her.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cyc...ndrome/DS00835

A family history of migraines is a hallmark of this. We're treating her episodes individually right now. We're typically able to keep her out of the hospital with Zofran and phenergan, although she does need to be admitted sometimes to rehydrate her or when her usual meds don't work.

It's sad and scary how sick she gets and how quickly it happens.

[Llyra]

Chiming in here-- my 3 year old DD2 also has cyclic vomiting syndrome. We've been fortunate, because she seems to suffer from a relatively mild case of it. Her episodes generally begin about 5 am, and she's usually fallen back asleep by 10 or 11 am, and is fine when she wakes. The vomiting is frequent during that time-- she throws up at least four or five times an hour, and then dry heaves until she's able to sleep again. But we're experiencing episodes very infrequently at this point, since we've been able to identify her triggers, and can avoid most of them. I think we've only had one in the last six months, actually, where before we understood what was happening, she was up to having five in one month.

She was 34 months old when we diagnosed this.

I would urge you to look into it, to see if the symptoms match what you're seeing in your LO.

[Treehuggermama5]

Wow. She matches the cyclic vomiting/ pediatric migraine symptoms exactly. I never in a million years would have guessed that! Those of you who have found your Children's triggers - how did you do it? Did you keep a journal? Try different diets? I'm going to be calling our doctor about this Monday morning for sure. A y one have idler children with this? I've been reading that it can manifest itself as actual migraines nearing age 8. I'm so sad she has this but so glad I know what it is so I can take the next step to help her!

[neetling]

I keep a journal when she has an episode so I can remember what's going on in our lives when it happens. If the other kids are sick, if it's near a birthday or holiday, anything stressful. My daughter's doesn't seem to be linked to any kind of food. I also keep a log while it's going on of fevers (she runs a low grade fever) and medications so my husband and I don't accidentally give her too much medicine.

It's kind of a disease that's diagnosed by eliminating other things.

Her pediatric gastroenterologist ordered an upper GI and a ultrasound of her abdomen. He was going to scope her, but decided against it with the history I had documented and the fact that the other tests were normal (well, she had a tiny bit of reflux) When we saw him she had just come off of a huge cycle that ended up with her in the hospital so he elected not to traumatize her further.

There are daily meds that can be used but I don't want to do it at this point.

For now, whenever she feels the slightest bit ill in her stomach, she gets her meds. If we can get the meds in her before the vomiting really ramps up, we can keep it under control better. In the height of an episode, she's vomiting every 10 minutes or so. If that goes on for longer than an hour or 2 she has to go in for fluids.

When she was cycling every 3 months I could sometimes tell it was going to happen the night before. She gets an odd look in her eyes.

When she's in the throws of a cycle, her eyes are glassy, she's very listless and she almost cannot speak. It's really awful for all of us.

Here's a message board that has some good info too. http://cvsa.websitetoolbox.com/

I would try to get her in to see a pediatric gastroenterologist.

Not all doctors have heard of it. When she was very little her ped just kept giving her shots of phenergan and saying that a GI bug was going around. It was really frustrating and scary. Even though it's hard to deal with, I'm glad to have a diagnosis.

[Llyra]

I also kept a journal. The triggers we've identified are cinnamon, chocolate, poor sleep, caffeine, and serious emotional upset. Most of those are fairly easy to avoid-- the cinnamon, chocolate, and caffeine in general. But try avoiding emotional upset, with a three year old. Or poor sleep.

I often have some warning the night before, though. She gets this look where she's kind of gray in the face-- like ashen, you know? And she gets dark circles under her eyes. I have anti-nausea meds, and when she gets that look, I try and wake her about an hour before I know the episode is likely to begin, to get them into her. Often, that's enough to cut the episode short.

We went through a battery of diagnostics-- GI scopes, and a neurological examination, and an MRI. Not to frighten you-- but early morning vomiting can be an early sign of pressure inside the skull, from tumors or growths. So ruling out a tumor was our first priority. Once we'd gone through all that, then we worked on trying to identify allergies. She is technically allergic to cinnamon, but that wasn't enough to explain what we were seeing. So we started looking for other patterns.

We opted against daily meds, because her episodes have gotten so rare, and because they were never so severe to begin with. She's never needed fluids, for instance, because her episodes are usually over within a few hours, and she recovers so easily from them. I would consider daily meds if we were unable to prevent episodes by avoiding triggers.

We have no family history of migraines. She's the only one.

[JollyGG]

Originally Posted by Treehuggermama5

Wow. She matches the cyclic vomiting/ pediatric migraine symptoms exactly. I never in a million years would have guessed that! Those of you who have found your Children's triggers - how did you do it? Did you keep a journal? Try different diets? I'm going to be calling our doctor about this Monday morning for sure. A y one have idler children with this? I've been reading that it can manifest itself as actual migraines nearing age 8. I'm so sad she has this but so glad I know what it is so I can take the next step to help her!

We are still working on identifying triggers. Stress was a big one for my daughter. We keep a journal of when she has the episodes and from that have identified Pizza as a trigger (we believe it is the pepperoni and the nitrates and so are currently avoiding all processed meats high in nitrates). We are still zeroing in on other triggers. My husband also just took a new job that requires less travel to reduce one of her big stress triggers. And as I said earlier, her prescription helps.

It was a long process to an actual diagnosis but I'm glad we did it. It takes so long to diagnose because they need to rule out other conditions so she was tested for acid reflux (which slowed diagnosis down because we had to control that before moving on and had insurance issues with drug coverage), we also did an abdominal ultrasound and an MRI and a neurological exam before finally getting the diagnosis. They considered a gastric scope but decided that she fit the diagnosis of pediatric migraines/cyclic vomiting syndrome so well they decided not to. (Our doctors prefer to just use the diagnosis of pediatric migraines but have said both that and cyclic vomiting syndrome would be correct but it's not worth it in our case to differentiate between the two. As she's starting to experience headaches with the vomiting they diagnosed it as pediatric migraines.). Her diagnosis and medication was discussed between her gastrointerlogist, her neurologist and her allergist.

My child will be attending public school next year and the official diagnosis will allow us to deal with the schools rather strict attendance policy without issues. Therefore the diagnosis was worth it.

In our case the medication we were prescribed seems to be helping so was worth the diagnosis. She was having episodes approximately every other week. She was already on a daily antihistamine so switching to the antihistamine that she's on to help with the migraines wasn't really an issue for us. The medication does make her sleepy and increases her appetite some. But healthy food options have us relatively unworried about the appetite. She had given up her naps and has now resumed those. But naps for a 4 year old are not unusual (her big brother still napped until shortly after age 5) If the sleepiness is still an issue next year when she starts kindergarten we will look at what the public school can do for accommodations or look at private school 1/2 day options. But I don't think it will be a real problem.