Teen nausea - Any idea?

[ThreeBeanChilli]

My daughter, 15, feels nauseous pretty much every morning and then every few weeks gets to school vomits and comes home, often vomits again.

This happened again today - I've rung the doctor and will get "a call" in a weeks time. I assume I should ask for her to be seen and bloods done? (BTW is all doctoring done by phone now?!)

She can't keep missing school. She does lean towards anxiety but she really didn't want to miss school and kept messaging me saying she'd not ask to come home and see if she can manage. She left the sick room to go to her class and then had to run back to be sick again... Similarly last time was a school trip and she wants to go.

We have noticed lack of sleep seems tk be a trigger. When she tried a scout camp and hardly slept she was sick in the morning and had to come home. Similarly with a sleepover.

However she's slept the last few nights so it isn’t that.

Does anyone have any ideas?! Or anything I should say to the Dr.

We'd been letting it rumble in as it would be several weeks between and we assumed it was sleep/anxiety etc but I hadn't realised she always feels nauseous in the morning. (Not possible to be pregnant !)

Any ideas?! Thankyou.

Not pregnant. Girls school (I know that doesn't mean she can't meet people but highly unlikely) flat stomach, been feeling like this on and off over a year but worse last couple of months so longer than 9 months- shes have had it by now if it was due to that! She's also currently happy to have a blood test as she just wants it to stop.

@Newname2308 she isn't required to go home at all she chooses to (neither of us wfh so this is becoming increasingly tricky!)

She often "tries" to stay at school but I think being in a class when you think you will vomit makes her more anxious she will vomit... it does seem to happen more than once once she starts. She came home and slept today.

There's currently a sick room with a nurse (!? Don't know if it's an actual nurse, it's a state school...) and they were happy for her to have some water and see if it passes.

Does she feel nauseous during the longer summer holidays away from school ?

How was she over the Christmas holidays, any daily nausea then ?

If not then it's school related

Is she a high achiever? Or struggling with her grades ?

Those with autistic/anxious kids with nausea/vomitting what do you do?

And the poster who suggested amitryptaline - how was that prescribed? Do I need to chase camhs/get the Dr to do so? We've not met our new Dr yet and I'm frustrated we only have a phone appointment.

It's best to let the GP talk directly to your DD without you in the room so she can be open and honest without you in the way

Unless of l course DD wants you there. But don't interfere

I use to have this as a child, and it was anxiety.

As a teen I used to feel sick in the mornings from hunger, and I was fed a healthy diet, not starved! Does she maybe need a protein snack before bed?

If it is migraines the not eating won't be helping. The women in my family are all prone to migraines with vomiting and low blood sugar seems to be a trigger, so eating regularly helps. When I feel one coming on, eating straight away (along with pain killers and fluids) before it gets bad is the only way I have a chance of staving it off. If I'm actually sick or get too queasy to eat I get into a sickness - low blood sugar - feel worse again - sick again cycle. Staying still for a while seems to help the food go down too.

When I was pregnant I found a link between waiting to eat breakfast eg showering first, and getting morning sickness / migraine, so I had to eat literally straight away on getting up. Might be worth her trying that.

Poor girl. I also suffered with gastrointestinal issues all through my teens (eventually diagnosed as Coeliac) and I got so upset by the constant badgering over whether I was pregnant. I didn’t have sex until I was 22. I was not pregnant. But no, of course all teenage girls with stomach trouble must be hiding a pregnancy.

I think there is a chance that's she’s so worried about possibly being sick that it's actually making her sick. But equally there may be a genuine health issue going on and it's just being compounded by the anxiety around the throwing up.

Helicobacter, stomach ulcers, period related issues, food related issues (Crohns, colitis, coeliac, etc), gastritis, pancreatitis... all sorts of things that may be causing it.

My daughter has this she is slightly under weight and I insisted they give her a glucose tolerance test, as she was also reacting badly with high carb and sugar foods.. turns out she has reactive hypo glycemia. The children’s hospital recommended a glass of milk or a yoghurt with corn flour in before bed. (Can’t be hot milk). This stopped the morning vomiting. They also recommended a vitamin d supplement, as they tested her and she was low in Vit d.

Yes I'm happy for her to be in the room without me but she has in the past wanted me there. Rather frustratingly it's a phone call so will be us both.

She thinks it's not just stress dyas/school days but if it's holidays and she gets up at 10/11am she can eat soon after but she can't fo that on a school day.

She overall really likes school/friends etc and doesn't wnat to believe it's anxiety but I wonder if it's underlying anxiety coupled with hunger or something.

How does she eat the rest of the time op?

Are you sure she doesn’t have an eating disorder? Teen girls can get quite clever about concealing EDs. And she wouldn’t be the first teen girl with ASD to suffer with eating issues. Your comment about her not wanting to take ADs in case she puts on weight could be a clue as it’s not the first thing that would normally spring to mind perhaps?

http://www.bcchildrens.ca/endocrinology-diabetes-site/documents/cornstarch.pdf

Try the above milk and cornstarch before bed for a week and see if it helps

The worry avout Anti-ds /weight are because she saw me absolutely balloon with mirtazapine (which I'm now off and the weights slowly coming off. Im v large).

She seems to be a healthy weight, she doesnt look under weight or overweight. I'm aware of the link between asd and eating disorders, and also that it's sometimes a texture/food thing but not sure that's it. She is a bit restrictive in terms of what she'll eat but not limited/beige/processed like her sister and eats family meals. It really is just mornings it affects, and she just can't eat when she nauseous.

We tried last term to think of anything she could tolerate in the mornings and just this week she's decided on sesame snaps (!?) So they arrived today and she's put several by her bed so she can try nibbling in the morning.

I hate seeing her dealing with this as I think she does also have quite low mood anyway.

My DC went through a stage of having migraines mid teens. They started with distorted vision, then violent vomiting, then sleep. No headache. Then wanting carbs on waking up. They stopped late teens but we did have some meds from the GP to take if it started to come on.

I myself used to fake illness for a long time because I had a fear that other kids might vomit. (Looking back, it’s obvious that it was triggered from a traumatic school bus experience and unfortunately I am still phobic now.) But I was too embarrassed to tell anyone, even my lovely parents. Maybe something is bothering her, even if it is “just” the fear that she’s going to vomit herself.

Ah well that’s good she doesn’t have an ED.

Maybe have a scan of her ovaries? Someone I know had vomiting every morning and it turns out she had a massive ovarian cyst.

Drinking anything milk based in the morning does that to me, e.g hot chocolate or milky coffee etc.

Also, taking ibuprofen on an empty stomach makes me really sick.

Oh gosh i hadnt thought of that. I think that's why I don't want the gp to just say "Oh she's anxious " if it could be a cyst/lack of iron/something vegetarian related.

We don't know the gp but she's older and a partner, locally thought of as abrupt at times but very good (!!).

I dont know what I want really. She does have very low mood at times (she can't think of any trigger for this...) and I missed that as she seemed okay most of the last year - so there could be other things I've missed 😬.

She could have ondansetron op, I take it and so does a friends DD for cyclical vomiting.

GP will prescribe.

I hope the sesame snaps work.

Has she tried anything with ginger - a ginger biscuit or two maybe? Even knowing that ginger is supposed to help with nausea may psychologically be useful.

Also, if I feel queasy I visualise freshly cut lemons. Old wives tale maybe, but it seems to help. I spray a touch of fresh perfume on my collar or on my hand sometimes too, have a discreet breathe of that if I need to. It would be good if she can build her own little “toolbox” of things she find help control the nausea, until you can rule out anything physical causing it.

My 14yo seems similar, except more stomach ache/cramps, but she does get nausea and acid reflux too. Been ongoing for a year+. GP started her on movicol thinking chronic constipation. This has helped a bit but she still gets symptoms. Ultrasound and blood tests didn't reveal anything. We now have a referral to paediatric gastroenterology. GP thinks possible slow transit or IBS. There's definitely an anxiety trigger though.

Thanks to the info on here I've just looked up abdominal migraines (as there's a family history of migraines too) and several of the listed triggers seem likely for her. Not great to self-diagnose via the internet but I'd already identified hunger as a possible trigger so we will definitely ensure she works on that and we've just talked about getting enough sleep.

Huge thank you to everyone who's contributed. It's so hard when your child is unwell with no obvious diagnosis.

Yes it's such a worry. I even drove to work wondering if I need to change jobs today. 😔.