15 month old DD is making herself sick

[ItLooksLikeRainDear]

DD is not a great sleeper. She still wakes at least twice during the night & putting her down at the beginning of the night has become a nightmare. If she doesn't want to go down she will make herself sick and she is doing it more regularly - tonight, last night & once earlier in the week.

Tonight I put her down, she stood up and cried for about 20 seconds & then made herself throw up. Then of course I have to get her back up to get her cleaned up & the bed changed etc. She ended up going down at 9.30. I really don't know what to do for the best now.

Any words of advice?

My 4 yr old did this, we treated it the same as other attention seeking behaviour (wanting water, the bathroom, a cuddle, 'I love you'). No eye contact, no chatting, withdrawal of a treat the next day.

With DD we were unsure originally what was causing the sickness, but it seemed not related to illness (i.e. bed an hour after spaghetti bolognaise, 'I've been sick' just a bit of bolognaise coloured phlegm, whereas you would xpect actual food if she was ill). Eventually got to the bottom of it when she mentioned 'magic finger'. Wen I asked what the magic finger did, she mad a gesture of putting her finger down her throat!

No TV /no stories / no colouring worked. They are what she likes doing best and she soon realised that the five minutes extra attention in the evening wasn't worth a whole day of being bored.

I'm not sure whether that helps as your DD is obviously so much younger, but didn't want to read and run / you to think you were on your own. From the Internet it seemed quite common (I googled 'preschooler making themselves sick' I think). It only lasted about a month with DD.

Thanks for the reply.

That's what DD does. She put both her index fingers down her throat. She has done it a couple of times during the day & laughs at us when we try to stop her. (She is quite a feisty little girl - very different from our very laid back DS).

She's still too little to understand taking of privileges though & starting to worry about the long term effects this may have.

My niece did this at a young age - under 2 - and could make herself sick without hands, just stomach muscles.
I babysat one night and was in a panic as she began to retch at bedtime - I said clearly to her that I wouldn't watch her be ill and that she wouldn't be clean until her parents came home, and then I left the room.
Obviously this was harsh - I didn't have kids at the time - but after 5 extremely nervous minutes alone in the kitchen she joined me as if nothing had occured - she wasn't sick - and was angelic for the rest of the night.

Her mum and dad then began to walk away - very hard for them - when she started wretching - and she soon stopped.

It's all about attention. They increased one to one time during the day. I hope this is of some help to you.

Thanks arion & chestnutblue I'm definitely going to have to try a new approach. At first when she started doing it, it was without hands but it took her a while to work up to it & I could tell when she was nearing it & told her no, I didn't want her to be sick. But then picked her up. But she's somehow worked out that by using her hands she gets the job done quicker.

She did it to our babysitter too but she Wasn't in the room with her at the time... We don't go out very often!

I'd try ignoring it and maybe change your bedtime routine a bit. What are naps like? Is she that tired? Can you put an extra sheet on the cot so when she does it you can quickly and quietly change her - use a night light and keep it dim?