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What Your Child’s Vomiting May Mean Vomiting is really scary for both children and parents. Talk it out. Most probably, they are terribly upset and frightened, and you probably have no idea whether it is just a tiny stomach bug or involves ringing the doctor.
“Vomiting, gross as it is, has to serve a purpose,” commented Susan Orenstein, M.D., chief of the pediatric gastroenterology division at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “It either relieves pressure or gets a toxin out of your system.” Sure enough, in some cases, throwing up will make your child feel better on the spot. Other times, vomiting is one symptom among several that provide valuable clues to the nature of your child’s illness. Do they have a fever? Diarrhea? Are they dehydrated?
Our guide to common stomach icky-inducing illnesses doesn’t actually rhyme, so we’ll just ease your mind that everything is going to be OK.
Vomiting + Diarrhea + Low-grade fever
What it might be: What it might be: Gastroenteritis, aka the stomach flu, is one of the most common stomach viruses kids between 6 and 24 months come down with, but it can affect children of all ages.
Gastroenteritis is common during childhood. This is caused among the reasons by the rotavirus that can be transmitted through another child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that Child before the year 2006 when the rotavirus vaccine was introduced in the market, nearly all of the children became infected with the virus. Now, with the aid of the vaccine, prevents serious infections; although children can still carried the rotavirus virus.
Severe gastroenteritis: worse in children > 5 years Most of the severe attacks, particularly in winter, are due to one another group of viruses- namely caliciviruses. Attacks with vomiting and diarrhea are severe and of short duration.
Quick-relief strategy: Berlin says the best way to treat any kind of upset stomach is to let the stomach rest by giving nothing to eat or drink for several hours after the last episode of vomiting, and then slowly start fluids and foods. If your child has stopped vomiting, there’s no rush to get food back into him just yet. Offer the child 1 teaspoon of fluid every few minutes.
Severe vomiting or diarrhea is the reason the child would lose body water balance, which includes electrolytes. They are unable to drink more fluids due to nausea, recurrent emesis, or because of profuse diarrhea. Treatment consists of rehydration with an over-the-counter electrolyte replacement solution such as Pedialyte in order to prevent backsliding toward dehydration. This warrants rushing them to the hospital right then, since severe complications may ensue from this one factor of dehydration. Dehydrated infants and small children are a bit tricky to treat, so they’d better avoid it.
Also Read : Soft Spots on Your Baby’s Head
Persistent Vomiting After Nursing or Bottle-Feeding
What it might be: Pyloric stenosis—a thickening of the valve muscle between the stomach and the small intestine. The normally quarter-sized valve becomes pencil-sized—too small for stomach contents to pass through. It can, however, also occur in female babies. There may also be projectile vomiting. This is different from regular bouts of spit-up, which are often nothing to worry about.
Fast-action plan: If your baby is vomiting after every meal, appearing to lose weight, and is forever hungry, you need to call your pediatrician straight away. Once the pediatrician diagnoses it, they can correct it with an uncomplicated operation called separation to extend the muscle’s opening. Generally, the infant can be discharged home within two days.
Fast-action plan: If you don’t act fast, a severe allergic reaction can be deadly. So you may want to keep an antihistamine such as Benadryl (diphenhydramine) within easy reach. (The 911 operator may instruct you to give it before help can arrive.)
To minimize the risk of allergy, introduce foods according to your pediatrician’s recommendations and timetable. Many doctors recommend that children not be fed any solids until they are 6 months old.
Fast-action plan: Call your pediatrician immediately anytime your child vomits blood. And don’t give aspirin to children or teenagers. “We recommend that parents control fever with a nonaspirin pain reliever such as acetaminophen,” Dr. Orenstein says.
Also Read : Soft Spots on Your Baby’s Head
Vibrant Greenish-Yellow Vomit
What it might be: Because of this bright-green color, your child is vomiting bile, a secretion of the liver, this might mean a gastrointestinal obstruction caused by a congenital condition, a meconium blockage, or a twisted bowel (volvulus).
Fast-action plan: Call your doctor or go to the emergency room. “Bile-stained vomiting is an emergency,” says Mike Farrell, M.D., chief of staff at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati. Surgery is often necessary to correct the problem.
Recurrent Vomiting With No Obvious Cause
What it might be: Recurrent vomiting for no apparent reason could be due to cyclic vomiting syndrome, a brain-gut disorder that affects 1 percent to 2 percent of school-age kids. Patients experience no symptoms for weeks or months before symptoms reappear.
Cyclic vomiting syndrome is much rarer than the viral stomach flu, but people often mistake it for one. Paul Hyman, M.D., director of the Pediatric Gastrointestinal Motility Center at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, in Orange, California, says that not recognizing it is a big problem because children may receive incorrect treatment for years. Some kids develop migraines as adults; others simply outgrow the condition.
Fast-action plan: If your child has repeated intense vomiting episodes, keep a log, noting how long they last and when they return. If you detect a pattern, tell your pediatrician. A number of drugs can control, though not cure, cyclic vomiting syndrome. If an episode can’t be stopped, kids are often hospitalized and sedated to ease their suffering.
Vomiting + Fever + Piercing Scream (Babies) or Stiff Neck (Older Kids)
What it could be: Vomiting with fever and other telltale signs—like a stiff neck in older kids—can mean bacterial meningitis, a potentially life-threatening infection of the lining that protects your brain. Fortunately, since the development of the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine—one of the shots on the recommended childhood immunization list— “we rarely see meningitis, compared with 10 to 15 years ago,” says Dr. Berlin.
But they can still get it. Other symptoms of meningitis in older kids include headache, stiff neck, and confusion.
Lightning-fast action plan: If your baby is vomiting, running a fever, and irritable, or if your older kid’s vomiting and complaining about a stiff neck or acting dizzy and confused—call your pediatrician pronto.
Vomiting + Severe Abdominal Pain
What it could be: Appendicitis, an inflammation of the small finger-shaped organ attached to the large intestine, could affect your kid. It is more common in children over the age of 10. At first, they might complain of mild, steady pain around the belly button, says Paul Sirbaugh, M.D., director of EMS for Texas Children’s Hospital.
A ruptured appendix: If the appendix ruptures, your child may actually appear to improve because the painful pressure is relieved. In six to eight hours, though, toxins from the bacteria start spreading through the abdominal cavity, and the child becomes ill again. A ruptured appendix rarely kills, but it is serious. “If you think somebody has ruptured, you should seek medical treatment right away,” Dr. Sirbaugh says.
