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.

My son has cyclic vomiting syndrome and I think this is sometimes called abdominal migraine. Did the neurologist say why this was ruled out as it seems to be a possibility especially as you are saying that it is usually at a similar time of day and on an empty stomach. My son is always sick in the morning and it usually lasts 3 to 4 hours. He was diagnosed by a paediatric gastroenterologist. What tests did the neurologist do?

Random vomiting, often in the morning, in my DS's case was eventually tracked down to a sesame allergy. It definitely sounds to me (lots of food issues in our family and most things usually fixed by food exclusion) like a food issue.

If the paed and the neuro scratched their heads and sent you away... well, then I'm a bit disgruntled for you and your kids. It definitely needs sorting, whatever it is causing it: vomiting that much is not good for anyone, especially not the person doing all the midnight washing ;)

I agree about the food diary. My other thought was some sort of reflux. This is often quite bad on an empty stomach and can cause sleep disturbance, but not usually middle-of-the-night vomiting IME. Ach, I don't know, just want you to find an answer.

MistyB, that's interesting as my son is also allergic to sesame. I'm sure the vomitting is still caused by cyclical vomitting syndrome as he never has sesame now but was sick after having sesame buns before this was diagnosed. Just out of interest, if your son was sick in the morning, was it due to sesame he had eaten the night before or would it happen immediately?
Thanks

Oh no poor you.
Two of my three have been the same, so much sick.
I have tried allergy route, eliminating foods but it didn't change. Luckily my 11 year old seems to have finally grown out of it.
I sometimes wondered if the more they were sick the easier it became and maybe the valve at the top of the stomach wasn't as strong but this is just my theory.
This Christmas we saw a lot of different groups of people and a lot of them had suffered from sickness bugs and yet we didn't catch it. Maybe we now have built up a really thorough immune system.
If I were you I would encourage good hand washing, good diet and lots of fresh air.
Good luck.

What could be in the pipes that makes children vomit? Genuinely interested.

PJ My son used to vomit once every two to three days then not for a week perhaps. It was only in hindsight, having a repeat RAST test for sesame (had been clear on skin prick before) that we removed sesame from his diet and then linked the two. He was having sesame in granola at weekends plus the ocassional snack bar with sesame in during the week but sometime the vomiting would not be until Monday or Tuesday, either in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning so up to 72 hours after possible ingestion. As I didn't keep a diary, this might not be 100% accurate but it's not far off.

DS 18 has sesame allergy (as well as treenuts), he vomits instantly he has eaten it, but it does actually tend to be more his mouth filling with saliva, although occasionally stomach related. He very rarely gets vomiting bugs, and neither does my dd 16. It has to be less than 10 times between them. Half the school have been out and my two have been fine. The last time DS has a bug he had spent the day river jumping and bbq sausages, so its not surprising that he came home with something.

Ds1 has cyclical vomiting syndrome. His episodes always start early in the day and always on an empty stomach. He will then spend up to a week retching and sleeping and then suddenly snap out of it. Fortunately for us, the Consultant diagnosed him quickly. Up until then I thought my house was unhygienic and it was my fault he was ill. His episodes are brought on by stress or exposure to other infections (it's almost as if it is the only way his body knows how to be poorly).
I would suggest keeping a diary of moods, stresses and insecurities as well to see if this has an impact. Also note whether vomiting occurs when they have been in contact with other sick children to see if it is a bug or not.

Being an academic myself I would always take the opinions of a professor with a pinch of salt unless they can show actual research to back up their pet theory ! That's not to say he isn't correct, of course. Just to add to his theory, I wonder if lead pipes actually killed some of the pathogens in the old days (note - I know nothing about biology).

Fuckwittery, seems plausible enough - thanks for sharing . I guess perhaps that is why we are supposed to boil tap water for very young babies, if for some reason they're having drinking water.

Was it the same before you lived in your current house? Could it be something there making them ill? Poor you, sounds awful.

Daft question. You do have a carbon monoxide alarm haven't you?

I had intermittent vomiting over the space of 6 months and realised it was when I had forgotten to leave my bedroom window open. Thought it was due to getting stuffy and giving me a headache which causes me to be sick but it turned out my boiler was trying to kill me.

That certainly sounds excessive. Poor all of you. Repeat above suggestions of food diary and chasing a further paeds referral. FWIW my son had a phase last year of recurrent stomach ache and vomming episodes, following what we thought was a Norovirus infection last November. I tried cutting out most lactose (basically just swapped to Lactofree milk, but left in cheese and yoghurt) as an experiment while awaiting his paeds referral and it worked wonders.

…when his paeds referral finally came through, probably because the lactose-free diet had worked so well, the paediatrician diagnosed "probable post-viral syndrome with secondary lactose intolerance". Apparently some bugs can leave you with temporary, or longer-term intolerance to lactose or fructose or a general gut microflora imbalance.

loads of interesting ideas here - thank you.

I will look at the food diary thing although my gut (!) instict tells me this is a series of bugs rather than an intolerance. I have no evidence for that to be honest - they just seem like bugs iyswim. But certainly my son struggled with milk as a baby so maybe he still has some residual lactose issues going on. He also spent an entire year (literally) every day on antibiotics for ear infections until he got his grommets so he may not have the right bacteria in his stomach. I do try to give them probiotic tablets although haven't done it recently as we've run out.

It does coincide with us being in our new house - as babies neither of them were sick. I never knew what muslins were for to be honest! Everyone swore by them and I had piles of them that didn't get used! So it's definitely been since we moved in, but that's also when at least one of them was at school so there's also all those germs to consider.

Mrsantithetic thanks for thinking of carbon monoxide and awful that this happened to you. I am a bit paranoid about this since those two poor children died in their holiday villa so we have detectors, plus a brand new boiler, plus serviced every year so it's not that.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I'm noting them all down!

Hang on, he struggled with milk as a baby...... What happened when you gave him milk?

I am thinking that there is a very definite possibility there is something allergy-related going on. The allergy/ intolerance to milk is usually to the protein and not lactose. Cow's milk protein allergy/ intolerance (CMPA/I) often causes secondary lactose intolerance as the body's ability to manufacture lactase enzyme is impaied by damage to the digestive system. CMPI does not always resolve with age, and definitely does not always make itself known through skin rashes or other atopic reactions. Sometimes the only signs are digestive ones.

Glue ear and ear infections are also widely believed by many to be related to CMPI or other allergies.

Honestly, it is just not normal for children to have that many infections and vomiting bugs, unless they are drinking contaminated water or have immune system issues. I would investigate the allergy issue, and also the abdo migraines/ CVS suggestions.

"as babies neither of them were sick" - did you EBF them, with no formula? That might be why.

Neither was ebf. DD was mixed fed (bit premature so very hard to feed) and DS was ebf but only for 3 months and then a bit of both. They were never sick. But DS had some digestive problems (I think they call it toddler diarrhoea but he used to do the most horrendous pooing, several times a day requiring a complete change of clothes and sometimes a hairwash ). Then he started with his terrible ear infections and possibly an existing sensitivity combined with bucketloads of antibiotics made it much much worse. So I put him on goats milk for a year and he got a lot better.

He is fine with milk now (DD doesn't really drink it at all) but his tummy does still go up and down like a balloon. In the morning it's flat as a pancake and by the evening he looks really quite tubby. This doesn't happen to DD. So perhaps he still has some digestive issues that don't show in many other ways.

Very, very grateful for all the thought!

My money's on the milk in your DS's case.

Has anyone suggested coeliac upthread?

My other DS had lots of ear infections and 'toddler diahorrea', or in other terms, gluten and dairy intolerence. We excluded both half heartedly for a while, then fully for about 18 months with partial reintroduction. He is only truly more healthy 6 months without any illness, since we excluded all grains, dairy and yeast. I have also supplimented with probiotics, fish oils, and some vitamin c/d but I have also stepped this up in the last 6 months.

My 'perfectly healthy, never ill' but small for her age, daughter has also benefitted from being on this diet on the advice of our immunologist, she has grown!!

It Sounds like a nightmare you poor things.
As it is since you moved to the house is it worth testing your gas appliances?

i was quite queasy myself and we had a very low level gas leak.First time it was checked we were given an ok. Then later we did some work on the house, lifted carpets and gas leak went over the 'acceptable tolerance' as you are allowed to have a bit coming out but not so that you can smell the gas. it was news to me! We had ancient pipes
We moved in few months ago and i think there had been a low level leak for a long time hiding under the carpet. Thought is was worth mentioning to you..... but of course could be something else entirely!

Sounds awful OP poor you, poor DCs.

On the milk thing, I have a 2yo DS with cows milk intolerance - luckily breast fed till 18m and weaned onto goats milk (I had an intolerance as a child but it was mucus/temperatures etc, so I just thought it better to avoid it). However he had cows milk in cereal at nursery. When we went away for the weekend he had cows milk, and it was like it built up - 2nd day of EVERY weekend break/visiting family he would wake up sleepy and then be sick all morning. Took us 4 weekends away in 5 months to click! So it wasn't immediate and it was a delayed reaction/ from a build up of milk. Ice cream does that too (particularly Mr Whippy type things) but nothing else. Formula didn't seem to cause any problems, though possibly he didn't drink enough.

Good luck OP I hope you can get some proper help. I agree different children have different points of weakness but that sounds excessive.