Vomiting phobia

[Flaya]

For some reason I have a serious vomiting phobia. Don’t know how it even started but I remember being anxious about it even as a child. I’ve heard from many parents that as soon as baby go to nursery they start to bring home all sorts of viruses including norovirus 😫 I’m thinking way ahead as my girl is only 11 weeks, but this is how scared I already am ! Anyone else living in similar fear?

Me too

But when your own child is poorly and vomiting. I promise you, that all you will be thinking is “ok let’s get you cleaned up and comfortable my love”

Exactly what about the vomiting scares you? Choking on it? The smell? If you can pinpoint the problem, it may help solve it.

It is common and known as emetophobia
contact your gp and ask for a referral

I was lucky, mine were very rarely sick. DD1 aged about a year as she ate some earth then nothing till they were about 7 then that was it. You may be very lucky like I was. But honestly I was able to cope - just - if my DH wasn't around to take over. Rubber gloves and disinfectant (alkali so neutralises the acid smell) are your friends here.

Yes I did and I always had to fight the overwhelming urge to run away when the kids were sick. I used to starve myself for days so I didn't catch it (how stupid is that!). I had CBT (twice) and second time round it worked.

I’ve been emetophobic since I was a child, diagnosed in 2019 and had talking therapies/online phobia support.

Weirdly I’m ok with my own kids’ vomit, it’s myself and DH I panic about if we ever feel sick

@BasicB did the therapy help?

@bloodywhitecat how did the CBT help?

After one particularly bad winter with noro doing the rounds I shut myself in the house and was terrified to leave in case I caught it. CBT helped me manage my fear, I am now able to manage my fear rather than the phobia managing me.

I'm also emetaphobic. My daughter went to a childminder then pre-school at 3 and school at 4 and has only had three bugs. She's 6 now. My husband dealt with most of it but I had to do some clean up and I survived. I didn't catch it. I have had two unrelated bugs in that time and during the second one I called the GP in a panic and got anti-emetics prescribed. A friend collected them and they worked to stop the vomiting.

I have emetephobia & 2 kids. It’s fine 99% of the time. But it’s a major struggle when they are sick. We’ve had the stomach bug recently & it was a tough 7 days. My anxiety was through the roof. My OH is brilliant, he deals with all the vom. Clears it up, holds hair back etc. I just sweep in for cuddles once it feels ‘safe’. I did catch the most recent bug but had some anti-emetics left over from morning sickness & it stopped the vomiting. But I felt dreadful.. I just tried to sleep.

We’ve been lucky, DD1 is 4 & has had 3 sick bugs. DD2 has had one.

It’s tough. But you’ll cope! & def speak to your GP. Mine was very kind.

How are you coping so far with the baby posetting? Surely this has happened several times by 11 weeks?

What treatment/therapy have you had so far? Did you due anything when you had morning sickness? If you haven't had any therapies, speak to your GP or inquire about private CBT.

Not the OP but baby sick never remotely bothered me. It’s contagious sick that’s the problem. Anything that could in turn make me sick. While you won’t find me helping with friends vomming from alcohol (they all know I’m not being a terrible friend 😂), I don’t feel anxious about it as I can’t catch it. I just try block out the sound! If my kids were sick & I 100% wouldn’t catch it a bug, I’d be fine. The fear is vomiting myself.

@Bobholll
I’m the same ! Obviously seeing or hearing someone else vomit is far from pleasant but for me it’s the fear of being sick myself, so catching norovirus or eating something raw/spoiled.
I found very interesting post about it on mumsnet from few years ago with some info about sick preventing medication.