DS making himself sick for attention - v worried.

[Picante]

DS is 2.9 - for the last 6 months or so when he has a tantrum he gags like he's going to be sick until he calms down. I wasn't too worried as he'd never actually been sick.

Last night before dinner he was very tired and got incredibly cross when I wouldn't let him eat an uncooked chicken nugget . He started gagging and made himself sick.

I try to ignore it but also try to calm him down so he stops. I've seen children on supernanny doing it every hour or so for attention and I want to nip it in the bud!

Any advice welcome.

then ignore it. By trying to calm him down you are giving him attention. I don't mean to sound harsh but he is getting mixed messages. By fussing over him and trying to calm him down, you are reinforcing the behaviour. i know it's not easy to ignore it, they know which buttons to press! But if you stop giving him attention he will learn to stop the behaviour as it is having no effect. So he might actually be sick. He might find it's not that pleasant!

Don't give him attention. I agree with purepurple about not fussing in any way. Even if he does make himself sick, just clean him up in a really matter of fact way, and do not be sympathetic or give in to his demands! If anything, leave the room, but keep an ear open for signs of genuine choking. My son used to breath hold when upset. After the initial worry, we just ignored it. It went away after a while.

My dd is 3 and she does this all the time, always when she has been told off she will go into a massive screaming tantrum and then starts gagging, she has been sick on many occassions, in fact she did it yesterday, i always ignore it and walk away, she is doing it alot less now a days than she used too but it has not totally stopped yet, you have to totally ignore him, walk away and give no attention at all.

My DD, 2, does this on occasion and i agree just ignore. She went through a phase of doing it at bedtime when DS came along and for 3 nights we just ignored it and went back and cleared her up once she was asleep - was horrid but she stopped doing it once she realised we didnt come back. She still tries to do it when very cross but a firm but calm stop dont be silly qnd ignoring it usually does the trick. I think its very easy for them to do when young as they have a higher gag reflex dont they?

Thanks guys, I thought that was the right thing to do but I'm not going to find it easy.

All those things you thought you'd never do as a parent eh?

Dd did this all the time, particularly in supermarket queues , but one day she did throw up, got absolutely no sympathy from us, just indifference, and obviously found the whole thing unpleasant- never did it again.