Vomiting when laying down

[siberianwarcat]

The 2 year 2 month boy is not too well. He keeps being sick whenever he lays down.

It is a strange thing. No fever. Not apparently ill. Running about like a lunatic. During the day, we can feed him - no problem. He can drink goats milk formula (he used to vomit on cows), fruit juice or water - all no problem during the day.

Lay him down in the after noon and as he goes to sleep, he will start coughing, retching and vomit, for thee days now.

At night, each time, I lift him up as he starts to cough and he stops. We used pillows last night to try to get him to sleep sitting up.

If anyone has any ideas, it would good to hear.

I live and work in Thailand so doctors are prohibitively expensive here.

Mum and I work at home so we are both here to take care.

Hello,

I’ve been having the same issues with my 2 year and 3 month boy. This has been going on since March now. Sporadic bouts of vomiting when laid down asleep-usually between the hours of 2-3am. His appetite isn’t great at the minute. We haven’t had any sickness for a week now. He was sick last week Monday-Thursday every night, coincidently he went back to nursery on Monday morning after the Easter break. The doctor has put him on reflux meds to see if this helps and I’ve been propping him up on a night. I’ve now asked for him to be referred to a paediatrician as I’m worried about him. He’s still breastfed but only twice a day, he’s fully weaned and has three meals a day plus snacks. He’s never had a huge appetite however so doesn’t eat loads. He also had chicken pox in February and this all seemed to coincide with this and him starting nursery. He’s too young to tell me if his head/tummy hurt so I’m playing a guessing game. Anyone else’s child suffered from this? Thanks.

The protein of goats milk is very similar to cows milk: I would swap to soya or oat milk.

It could be reflux related, or allergy related.

I think a Dr is best though, but certainly try and swap milk and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks Linda66,

Our clinic nurse has suggested we try probiotic drink (eg Yakult). She suggested three doses per day breakfast, lunch and dinner time - I hope he likes the taste or else I can see a nightmare.

I am interested to know what your doc says.

Best of luck!

Hey ElyElyOy,

We have started giving him more water between milks and also reduced the amount of formula in each bottle.

This seems to have reduced the the ‘volume’ of actual vomit, but he is still retching every night.

I will review his food tomorrow (we make and freeze food for the week).

Last weeks batch had:

Pumpkin, cabbage, carrot, sweet potato, onion, lentils, broccoli and potato.

He has ad hoc fruit each day such as melon, mango.

Every other day he will have either meat or fish.

Any ideas?

Could be anything - honestly but if it persists I would get it checked out. Persistent vomiting is one of the signs of brain tumours in kids... Sorry, they are super rare, but I'm mother of a child who had a brain tumour which went undiagnosed for a long time. Just check out the other symptoms in case you recognise any
www.headsmart.org.uk

The thing with vomiting is, it can be caused by increased pressure on the brain when lying down/with hydrocephalus...

Sorry to hear ur little one is going through this the best thing would be a gp appointment or if ur really wanting answers call nhs 111 for advice

My daughter was doing this when we first discovered she had hay fever . Build up when she laid down caused vomiting . Any other symptoms. ?

Hello, thanks for coming back to me. We’re in the middle of an episode of what we think is gastroenteritis. The A&E docs are at a loss. He’s been referred to a paediatrician who saw him on Friday evening and couldn’t come up with any answers. He said to persevere with the referral to the NHS Paediatrician. I feel like I’m getting passed from pillar to post with no idea what is wrong. The private paediatrician said he couldn’t see it being related to food allergies or reflux. I’ll post when I know more.

Hello,

I have mentioned this to all of the doctors and they have all said that they don’t believe it is it as he’s not showing any of the other symptoms. I’m sorry to hear your child had a BT. I’ve checked out the HeadSmart website on several occasions. What we’re the other symptoms that your child was displaying? How did you finally get a referral?

Hi Linds66 - my son had a head-shake, and a very mild nystagmus & strabismus (visual issues). The head-shake was entirely disregarded by the doctors though it progressively got worse. He was seen by an ophthalmologist from the age of 3 months & it was at 2.5 years that he was given a visual field test for babies & was shown to have problems with his peripheral vision. That triggered concern because when there is a tumour in the part of the brain where the optic nerves cross over, it impacts the visual field first. So he was sent for an MRI at 2.5. Unfortunately the scan was reported incorrectly, because the tumour was small hidden by his pituitary gland. We were told he was fine, but then over the course of the next year his head-shake got worse. I shopped him around to various specialists (privately... I'm certain they thought I was neurotic) and eventually the scan was reviewed & concerns raised that the pituitary didn't look normal. The MRI was repeated at 3.5 and the tumour was bigger.

So don't get fobbed off when you aren't given answers that you're satisfied with. Hopefully and likely not a BT but there are many many medical issues that affect kids & which defy easy diagnosis.

It was only at 3.5, after correct diagnosis, that he started getting headaches. No vomiting. No other signs.

I suggest you take him to an optician at first instance and to an ophthalmologist if there's any issues at all. Because these things are rare, but the risks are then high. An ophthalmologist can tell if there's pressure on the optic nerve. I hope you get some answers whatever it is, and that he improves. x