Is it too much to ask?

For DS it was 6.25 yo. He also vomits when he has a cold - based on experience alone he's achieved "professional" level in the vomit olympics .

Wow, when I was a kid and feeling pukey, my mom always brought me a large pan to have near me in bed or wherever.

The only time I've puked in a toilet was when I was pregnant, and did my morning puke ritual before work

But, yuk, when I feel like puking, I don't feel like running to the bathroom. I'm just concentrating on keeping myself together! Puking is so awful. Is there some reason a sick kid can't have a pan or something handy so they don't have to exert that kind of effort?

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Each of my kids have had it by age two. Sometimes sooner. I feel very lucky.

The type that comes with coughing is less predictable though. You don't feel it building like with the stomach flu.

ETA: Even though they have been able to tell, I still keep a trash can near them. My now 10 year old is the only one expected to make it to the toilet now. We started that this past winter (while she was 9) when we all got sick. My 7 year old and 3 year old get the little trash can still.

DS is three. Last week he woke me up at some ungodly hour of the morning (5:30, I think), and said "Mommy, my belly hurts." I mumbled something through my sleep-fogged mind. Then he said those magic words: "I fink I'm gonna frow up." Man, I was up out of bed with my shirt whipped off and in front of his mouth so fast! He did throw up a little, onto the shirt I was planning on throwing away anyway (lucky!), and I was thrilled to have that warning. Otherwise it would have been a much more unpleasant morning, digging puke out of the cracks in our wood floor.

It wasn't exactly a getting-to-the toilet warning, but our bedroom is upstairs and our only bathroom is downstairs, so I guess that's understandable.

The last time he threw up, about four months ago at a restaurant after drinking too much chocolate milk too fast, he crawled onto my lap and threw up all over himself and me with no warning. That was the very opposite of unpleasant, especially since we had no extra clothes for him and it was snowy outside. So we're definitely making progress on the throwing-up front.

DD is four and probably hasn't thrown up in two years, so I'm not sure about her. I'd hope she'd be able to give me a warning. I hope even more that I don't have to find out anytime soon!

Throwing up into a toilet makes throwing up even grosser, especially if the toilet isn't clean. Ugh.
When I'm sick I use a big bowl or pan and just empty it and clean if after.
I do the same thing with ds. I also pad his bed with those bedwetting pads if he's sick and it's possible he may throw up. And put a towel over his pillow.

I would never make a sick child clean up their own vomit. I remember not making it to the toilet as a child, and throwing up all over the bathroom floor. And my mother yelling at me for it. It's not like you have much control over it. :

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Yep, forgot about that. Bedwetting pads, lifesavers. Even though dd is 8 I still held on to those for sickness purposes. Makes cleaning up a oops SO much easier. Especially with this last sickness a month ago when dd threw up on herself TWICE and slept threw it.

What I got from the OP was she's wondering if there's a developmental norm on this.

DS threw up A LOT from infant-preschool age, and still throws up every time he gets a cold. He used to pace, stop and vomit where he stood. I have turned him at me when there's no solid floor around, as I'm easier to clean than upholstery. When he gets sick, I put towels on the likely hot spots and things I value. I always accepted that this was his vomiting "style," but was thrilled during his last cold when he threw up in the barf bowl, rather than on the carpet beside it.

OP - I highly recommend owning your own steam cleaner.

My children are gold medal pukers, well my girls are, my son has only missed once since he was three, but the one when he was three was disgusting! Cinnabon smells the same coming back up, that's all I'm saying.

My girls have puked in the car (my in-laws third row may never be the same), in bed, the floor, the sink, the bathtub, and my fave the clean laundry basket.

We had a trip to France where my older daughter spent two of the four weeks we were there throwing up on everything, just when we thought she was better she'd start again. : She turned into a puke fountain one evening too, straight up into the air, all over the bed, the floor, her brother cried over that one - he's five years older and was very much not impressed!

I do not deal with puke as a rule so it's very important that they all have a containment unit if not using the toilet. So they all got their own bucket from Dollar Tree and keep it in an easily accessible spot in their rooms.

So from my experience, who knows when they'll make it! I wish there was an easier way.

I posted to this thread already, but also wanted to share this.

I have a very clear memory as a child of being sick and puking into my pan. My parents were both there, and my dad was the one to take the puke pan out to wash it this time. He brought back the clean pan and I asked him how he could stand to wash it. He smiled and shrugged and said that I was his potato (their pet name for me) and when it's your kid, it's different. He said I'd find out someday, their puke and pee and poop just isn't so bad, because we love our children and we want to take care of them. Boy, that made me feel really loved and cared-for, and that's why I remember it to this day.

When I was pregnant, DH was sort of wondering how horrible it would be to change diapers, and I told him about that incident. I told him with all confidence, "You'll see, it's all ok when it's your kid." And indeed we've also found my dad's observation to be true.

I've never had to clean my own puke as a child (though I only remember once not puking into the pan - I blew my cookies in my dad's car ) and don't plan on making my kid ever clean her own puke either. I do think adults should clean their own puke under most circumstances though!