Why do my children throw up so much?

[Quangle]

They are 7 and 4 and are both currently upstairs, sleeping off the latest vomiting bug. The last time this happened was the end of November when my son got gastroenteritis and threw up non stop for 5 days. Before that it was September. Before that it was August. And so on. And this has actually been a good phase.

We had one period earlier in the year where one of them was throwing up every weekend for 7 weeks. At a rough guess I'd say we've probably had 200 vomiting episodes in the four years we've lived in this house (one hundred of those were the gastroenteritis! but the rest is just random throwing up). We've lost numerous holidays, Christmases, parties, school trips to vomiting...

We're really good at it now - buckets at the ready, mattress protectors, disinfectant, the lot. But I think we do get an awful lot of these illnesses (not particularly other illnesses). Is there anything I can do? Is my hygiene not good enough? My house is reasonably clean (bathrooms cleaned properly, usual precautions in the kitchen around meat etc, no pets) I would have thought and we wash hands properly and all that stuff but it would be good to know if anyone has any ideas.

Gosh 200 in four years. I would look into a food diary, to see if there is a pattern.

Dietary intolerance?
Food allergy?
Is there a pattern?
Maybe keep a vom diary and see if anything is a trigger?

That's what I was going to say Rip.

I have 3 DCs eldest 14 and I think he's been sick less than 5 times ever. I was sick a lot when I was a child my mum doesn't believe in germs. I think there must be some sort of intolerance to something here.

2 of my 3 children vomit whenever their temperature goes high. So a normal cold virus has them vomiting.

Could it be psychosomatic? One of my earliest memories is throwing up after eating baked beans that I thought I shouldn't have eaten- ie there was nothing wrong with them. As toddlers my DCs would spectacularly barf whenever babysat ( thanks kids) and we could never say 'you'll be sick...' to discourage them from greediness.
Because they then would be!

Just this weekend DD2 has been white as a sheet and vomiting copiously as she has Mocks starting today. They're not faking it, and once you've started it's hard not to feel sick.

That said, I'm more scrupulous than comes naturally about wiping down surfaces with disinfectant, tissues on the fire or down the loo, washing after the loo and daily bleached loo etc.

I think my two dcs have been sick maybe 5 times between them, ever, they are 16 and 12. I would go with the diary idea to see if you can spot a pattern - delayed motion sickness maybe, so sick after a journey rather than during? When I was a child fluorescent lights made me feel sick, I think it was linked to migraine. Sounds awful, whatever is causing it.

Were they weaned early?

I have a child that is prone to vomitting (when he's got a cough, high temperature, travel sickness etc) but he doesn't have many actual stomach bugs.

I think between the 5 of us (dc 13, 10 and 6) we've had not more than 20 D&V episodes since dd1 was born-so in 13 years.
Dd2 has had the most, and ds was once hospitalised (just after grommet op) but it's very rare to pass between us as a family.

I did get morning sickness 24/7 throughout all pregnancies though.

poor you. F88king hell. SERIOUSLY.
I have been sick a few times, in the last 10 years. Ds1 has been sick once in the last 10 years and ds2 has been since once, in the last 5 years.
And when I say sick once, I mean sick ONCE.
I have no idea what is going on with your family, but it is not normal, is it?

Have school not said anything about attendance?

Ds1 has missed 2 days in 7 years. Surely your kids are off all the time?

Thanks for all the replies. Yes DD had 87pc attendance last year but school didn't make a big scene about it. She always desperately wants to go to school so they know it's all proper illnesses. And DS, who's a little bit chubby normally, lost so much weight when he had gastroenteritis that it was pretty obvious why he was off

I think they are like jellybabies DCs in that they throw up whenever their temp goes slightly up. And like lilyaldrin in that they also throw up with a cold. But no they weren't weaned early. And sometimes, like today - they don't have a cold or a fever - they just throw up.

I'm so used to it now that I can't imagine your situations with children who never throw up or who are never off sick. Oblomov, that's an amazing record!

I've wracked my brains to see a pattern but I can't. The only common feature is that they will throw up on an empty stomach iyswim (which actually makes it slightly more bearable domestically!) One of them will wake up and be sick when they wake up (rarely starts later in the day). DS woke this morning at 7 and immediately started throwing up and carried on for about 6 hours then stopped. Nothing in his stomach so just water and bile. They don't usually do it together but that's just a special feature for today

They didn't leave the house yesterday because of the weather and ate all ordinary, regular food (cereal, toast, baked beans type stuff). But I think I'd better keep a diary and see if there's any intolerance going on.

Oh and we even went to see a neurologist to see if it was some sort of stomach migraine and she thought not. I tend to think it's actually all bugs they pick up somewhere but I don't know how. Could it be as simple as my doing more cleaning? I don't live in a pigsty, honestly!

No OP my 2 ds's happen to be the norm in their class. Ds1 gas 15 children out if 60 who have 100 % attendance. And ds 1 is not one if them!!
And they have 3 children who are off from time to time. And the other 42 have high 90's%. Just one if those schools, one if those years. Kids who are never sick.

And my house us not that clean and I regularly eat crisis / food off the floor. So no logic as to why my kids don't get sick more often.
Maybe there isn't with yours either!!
But I would be chasing my gp for a referral, tbh.

I know my ds2 throws up if he gets a temp/sore throat/headache sometimes.
It may by that your dc throw up as a symptom of lots of common illnesses and then also from d and v.
Sounds horrendous!
I agree with Ob Though I would be chasing my go for a referral to a gastro paed.

Quangle..... one point that you said struck a cord with me..... toast and beans...... as a child I could eat toast no trouble at all.....beans also.... but if I ever ate them together or even one shortly after the other .. I vomited for the rest of the day and had a headache

The doctor told my mother this was just co-incidental but she simply made sure I never had both items on the same day and the problem disappeared immediately.
She was a senior nurse and had always felt that food had a lot to do with migraine and tummy migraine in children , so she kept a diary rigidly until she could identify the culprits.
I would strongly recommend that you do the same...
Good luck ..

Has the GP not offered any advice?? This is surely not normal.

My child is 6 and has never had a D&V bug, ever. Even me & DH get them sometimes but she seems immune. I've no idea why.

She does get other bugs like colds and chicken pox.

Our house isn't especially clean, we have pets and our 6 yo is a bit of a scumbag who needs reminding about personal hygiene so that isn't a factor.

We have actually seen a paed via the GP - he was the one who sent us to the neurologist. They both seem to be perfectly healthy and robust - apart from this.

Poor you, that sounds horrendous.

I'd echo food intolerance,you can get temporary dairy intollerance after d&v too,could they be sensitive to it?
Also give loads (daily) of probiotics too to build the gut back up - even after 'normal' sickness things take a while to recover

Do you do too much cleaning?

My kids have never had D & V (only aged 5 & 7 so still plenty of time). Or any other illness actually (the odd cold, one instance of tonsillitis).

My house is lived-in and we've done a lot of camping ever since they were babies so they've eaten bushels of dirt. I believe this is why their immune system is so robust.

DD is 5 and currently in Reception. She has had numerous tummy bugs since starting nursery just over a year ago. I remember having them regularly as a child. I'm a teacher and STILL average one or two tummy bugs every year! Even after 15 years of teaching!!??

Have they had blood tests to rule out intolerances or allergies? A food diary is a bit late now - its been going on so long, I'd be demanding them.

Sounds like a bug this time. Usually symptoms are around 48 hrs after infection, so Sunday where were they?

Hope they are better soon

Some children are just prone to sickness viruses- one of my sons was. Tons and tons of sick bugs. It's just their weakness, like other kids might get repeated ear infections or tonsillitis. It will get better, honest.