can your child make themselves sick?

[LadyVictoriaOfCake]

dd2 can. she hadnt done for so long, over a year now, untill today when she did it in the car. she wasn't travel sick, just didnt want to take the joyride (travel sickness tablet) i'd given her before we went to harfielf. so she made herself sick. she is 5 soon.

i know she did it on purpose as when she does it, you can hear this nouise she makes, hard to describe, but like a forced gagging in her throat.


how do you deal with it when it happens? i told her off for it, and told her it wasnt a nice thing to do. i do worry about this, and it has been something that has gone on since she was a baby. she has seen the paedatrician about it and other issues as well.

[Nemo2007]

DS used to do this to avoid eating. I was told by HV to just clean it up and ignore it.

[LadyVictoriaOfCake]

i think that was the advice i was given as well. but today just shocked me as she hadnt done it in so long.

[Nemo2007]

could it be stress though aswell? With everything you have going on maybe she is playing up a little.

[LadyVictoriaOfCake]

could be, but also damn stubbornness on her part lol. i wonder where she gets that from

[southeastastra]

supernanny did this this week a young girl who said she had foot cramps. supernanny just confronted her. but it's easier said than done. have your girls got onto any schemes this summer?

[Nemo2007]

pmsl DS was stubborness in an attempt to say I wont eat and you cant make me, after about 3wks of no response he started eating again...well most of the time.

[mankyscotslass]

Dd aged 3 1/2 does this to avoid eating or when she cries she can make herself do it to.
We just clean up and get on with it if possible, but i find it very distressing.

[foxinsocks]

yes, both mine can do this - I think it's a hangover from the reflux (did your dd2 have reflux?).

It's very hard to deal with - the standard advice is to ignore, ignore, ignore - tidy them up without saying anything or making a comment and eventually it stops but it is VERY annoying.

Ds sometimes tries it on now (he's nearly 6) but we now remove him from whatever he's doing and make him stand away from us all. He doesn't like that so soon stops doing it!

[Trinityrhino]

I find it hard to beleive that anyone can choose to vomit. How is it even possible???

[Trinityrhino]

I'm genuinely interested btw

[flossie64]

My DD does this aswell. I find it awful,esp as I don't deal with vomiting very well.
interestingly my dd had reflux ,but the forced vomiting got much worse after a bout of rotavirus

[mankyscotslass]

DD never had reflux, but does tend to get the vomiting side of a D & V bug worse. She last made herself sick about 6 weeks ago....(all down me)! Doctors and HV say nothing wrong, and to ignore....

[LadyVictoriaOfCake]

yes she had reflux as well. could projectile vomit across a room.

i have no idea how she does it trinity i am guessing she can just get that gag reflex going easily. the other two dont do it, and never have. it honestly doesnt bother her when she makes herself sick, if its not on purpose then she gets very upset.

[Nymphadora]

dd2 does, she is also sick when she coughs a lot or cries a lot

[clumsymum]

Yep, ds used to think himself into being sick when he didn't want to do something, when he was 4 - 5 y.o.
I simply would clean it up, but then deny him food or drink (other than basic water and buttered toast type stuff) for the rest of the day, on the grounds that his tummy was poorly. One day we had planned his favourite meal for tea. He did a sickie tantrum in the morning, just got toast for tea.
That seemed to put an end to it.

[alison222]

My DS too used to work himself up about things until he was sick - it still happens very occasionally now. He went through a phase of doing it at dinner time if he didn't like the look of what was on his plate.

I cleared it up for a long time, but one day I snapped and put him to bed telling him if he was sick he must be ill and needed go to bed to get better. Not the recommended reaction I know but he more or less stopped doing it after this.

[mankyscotslass]

DD seems to have a really strong gag reflex too. The other two never did it, so I was really frightened the first few times she did it, as she had no other symptoms of an infection or bug, and I thought ther must be something serious going on....18 mths later is still happens on occasion, but it is getting less often.

[foxinsocks]

aah I thought she had had reflux misdee!

Trinity I too get reflux (like both my children) and we can all vomit at the drop of a hat .

It's not that hard really - not that I would choose to do it (and in fact, I hate being sick) but it's only recently that dd has started not liking the sensation of being sick and she's now 7. Ds is still not that bothered.

I think, hopefully, as they get older and they start throwing up less frequently, they start disliking it more iyswim.

[mimsum]

My dd had bad reflux - went on till she was nearly 18 months and it left her with the legacy of being able to vomit at will - she used to make herself sick at bedtime cos she didn't want to go to bed - she'd be sick within 1 minute of starting to cry (we timed it once!) - it drove me up the wall, especially as she had (not very well) stripped floorboards in her room and bits of vomit got trapped under the floor yeuch. We just cleared it up and carried on regardless - and gradually she stopped doing it - hasn't done it for nearly a year now (she's almost 5)

[chonky]

Yep - my dd does it. Apparently she does it as an 'attentional device' - we're off to see a pyschologist about it soon (bit different as she has severe learning diabilities and CP too). She did have/ still has very bad reflux. I wish I knew what the strategy for dealing with it is, hopefully the psych. will help.