1 yr old vomits EVERY evening -any ideas I am getting desperate?

[beagle101]

Hello there - I'm fairly new to MN but I was wondering if anyone had any advice. My DS is 14 mths and over the last few months he has taken to vomiting almost every night after his evening milk (round about 7pm-ish) the only warning you get is a couple of little coughs and then whoosh - it goes everywhere- I have tried everything I can think of - lessening how much milk he has - feeding him in an upright position and keeping him fairly vertical for about 10 minutes or so afterwards, feeding him earlier in the evening (also feeding him in the bathroom for obvious reasons! )nothing seems to work and I am getting fairly down about every evening getting covered in sick and washing everything again.

Have taken him to the Dr's on a number of occassions and all I get is it is probably reflux he'll grow out of it - have been given Zantac (made no difference). Is this right could it just be late developing reflux? - DS was quite a sicky baby but he had outgrown it by the time he was 6 mths - this new clockwork vomiting started out of the blue (as far as I remember) when he was about 10 mths. I don't want to be paranoid or over anxious but am beginning to worry that I am being fobbed off!

Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing in their LOs and has anyone got any idea what else I can try? Thanks

Beagle (great name) does he do this solely at bedtime?

Hopefully one the MN reflux experets will be along wth more help.

Chin up

What time does he have his dinner and is it a good sized meal or just snacky?

Does he have the same type of milk at any other time of day too, and if so, is he ok after that?

The problem didn't start just after a tummy bug or anything like that did it?

(am wondering about milk intolerance by asking these questions btw)

This sounds just like my DD. She too was extremely sicky as a baby but it lessened once she started on solids. She started bringing up her night time milk 3 or 4 times a week in a spectacular fashion when she was 18 months old. On the nights she was sick she would sleep very poorly.

The doctor diagnosed reflux and put her on Gaviscon for two weeks. That seemed to settle things down and she is fine now. Sorry I don't know if that is any help as you have tried Zantac and found no difference but just wanted to say that IME reflux can suddenly appear out of the blue at a late stage.

Hi - thanks for the posts - He only throws up in the evening - the rest of the day he is absolutely fine - no problems with food or drinking - he has formula still mostly although sometimes I give him cows milk but never cows milk at bedtime.

Dinner is usually about 5pm and he usually has a decent sized bowl of squished lasagne (a favourite) or veg and rice or something followed by a bit of bread or apple or raisins (we used to give him a fromage frais for dessert but I stopped that in the hope that decreasing the dairy might help a bit). I have tried feeding him dinner a bit earlier and also a bit later (and then decreasing the bedtime milk)- neither change worked although I tried them each for a couple of weeks or so.

He doesn't seem to have any allergies or intolerances - same formula in the evening that he has all day and he is fairly good with food throughout the day - no problems with weight gain - he is about the 75 centile thingey and has remained fairly steady there.

Wow - influx of posts as I was typing my long response (apologies for the length of posts!).

Thanks for that Lubyloo - actually finding someone else has experienced this lessens the worry - no-one else I know has had this problem and TBH I have been beginning to think it must be something I am doing that makes him vomit just in the evening - maybe giving him too much food or maybe he shouldn't have bedtime milk or something? DD had evening milk until she was about 20 months with her bedtime stories and I guess I just followed the same pattern.

Is he still having him milk in a bottle a friend of mine had a similar eperience and when she swithced him to a beaker he stopped started again a year or so later and she switched the formula for water.

my DS1 used to gulp and take a heap of air in - then bounce the lot back on top of one big bubble. If GP etc are satisfied there's no obv cause, try changing to different cup or bottle? we ended up giving DS around 2oz at a time so he couldn't drink too much too fast...a total PITA doing all the refilling, but it worked!

Yes Beagle I went through exactly the same thought processes. Gave her dinner earlier, reduced the amount of milk she had, changed her cup, diluted her milk, made her drink it very slowly - nothing seemed to make a difference until she had the Gaviscon. I wasn't keen on the idea of her having it but gave it to her every evening for two weeks and it solved the problem - it hasn't flared up since. Would your doctor prescribe that for you or is Zantac basically the same as Gaviscon?

My dd, also (14mo), does the same thing if she sits up too fast after feeding, but she has been a nightmare with silent reflux since the start.... She feeds better almost horizontal, which goes against all reflux advice, but I've talked to a few people on here with reflux babies who have found this.

hope you find a solution soon, I fed dd ouside on walmer evenings to minimise the clean up so can completely relate to you feeding him in the bathroom.

Thanks everyone - hadn't thought of changing bottle to a beaker I'll will try that tomorrow - and will slow down the pace of feeding a bit - Gigglewitch 2oz at a time does indeed sound like a PITA but got to be better than being covered in sick each evening so will def give that a go (I work on the principle that it is better I get covered than the carpet!) I had switched him from a NUK bottle to one of those haberman feeders as they are supposed to be good for reflux.

DS was prescribed gaviscon in the very early days when he was refluxing - those little sachets that you mix into a paste and pop in the bottle. Not sure if zantac is the same - as gaviscon is available w/o prescription for over 1 yr old I could try some of that - I am going to see my HV on wednesday so will ask if it ok to give DS gavisocon w/o going back to drs.

I'll post again tomorrow to let you know how the beaker and slowed down feed goes - thanks everyone for the posts - it really does make a difference to not feel like you are the only one (or that you are going crazy! )

lactose intolerance with dd. but she was quite a bit older. so not sure if any help.

Have you tried giving milk before dinner and not at bed time? Do you always have bath time and what happens if you miss the bath? Maybe offer a very milky porridge rather than pure milk? That will have some weight in it. Sorry if I'm repeating others or what you've already tried!

how's it going?

My ds did the same started about 8 months and only in the evening. After 1 yr and a half they finally refered him to hosp and they couldnt find anything wrong. In the end I paid for him to have some allergy tests and he had a wheat allergy and he has been fine since he has been of the wheat.
I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

Apologies for silence - turns out that ds was actually brewing one humungous evil vomit bug this time rather than his usual regular nightly throw up session.

The poor thing was looking a bit off colour on Monday night when I put 'plan beaker' into action - I gave him his milk a bit earlier in a beaker and it worked much better - he did get a bit frustrated by not being able to drink continuously so after maybe half of his milk I switched back to the haberman feeder and gave him the rest. I actually noticed that he was drinking much slower which was great!

Problem was he was in fact ill so ended up throwing up most of the night - and most of yesterday and all of last night- hence not being able to post for the last 2 days, the poor thing got hysterical if I put him down he was so poorly.

He seems to have turned the corner this evening though - he actually wanted some milk tonight! I gave him some - again in the beaker and he went down at 7.45 and it is now 9.20 and I haven't heard a peep out of him and this is the first night he hasn't vomited within an hour of going to bed in ages so that alone makes the slow feed with the beaker worth a lot! I am going to keep up with the bedtime beaker to see if this will finally solve it but will keep the allergies thing in mind if the throwing up persists (thanks for that Orangehead - wow that must have been a horrible time for you.)

Got to say though - I am sitting here for the first time in months and it is coming up for 9.30 and I have not yet been covered in vomit so I am feeling GREAT!

fingers x'd for a sick-free time