My daughters attendance is 88%

[MrsGradyOldLady]

Since September ALL her absence has been due to vomiting. At first school insisted on me keeping her off for 48 hours after but lately they have been really flexible and have only called me to pick her up if it's been repeated vomiting. She's 8.

I'm so worried - both about her health and her obviously poor attendance.

We paid privately to take her for blood tests as the wait for pediatric bloods at the local hospital was 5 weeks plus another 1-2 weeks for results. We took her last Friday and they tested her for 8 things. I can't remember exactly what but it included liver function, kidney function, diabetes, coeliac, full blood count, something to do with electrolytes? And a couple of other things. They all came back clear.

I'm taking her for allergy testing on Saturday.

She's worse at school than at home. In the past 17 days she's been sick once at home (just a mouthful ) but every day bar 2 at school.

She's spoken to me, her teacher and the school councillor and none of us can find anything that appears to be worrying her. There are no other symptoms and she looks healthy and eats a good diet.

She's always been sensitive to bad smells and other people chewing with their mouth open has made her sick in the past.

Her attendance has never been great - she's only had a 100% attendance certificate once (they're given out termly) but in her end of year report it tends to be between 92-95%. It's never been as bad as this though.

I think I'm asking 2 things:
What the hell could be making her so much sicker the "average" child, and secondly what's going to happen with the attendance officer?

If the allergy tests come back clear I'm not really sure where else to go. I did try making an appointment with my gp this morning as the results came in yesterday, but as is often the case after pressing "redial on my phone for 55 minutes all the appointments were gone.

I vomited constantly at school. It was a kind of migraine without the headache diagnosed with some kind of test using electrodes on my head and flashing lights. It was stress related in my case.

Well we went for the allergy test and she was tested for 150 known allegens and it came back clear. The woman doing it seemed surprised as apparently most people show sensitivity to one or two things but there was absolutely nothing.

She did say her diet wasn't great and we needed to cut down on her sugar intake but that wouldn't be causing her sickness. We'll follow her advice on the sugar but really couldn't stick to the diet she advised as she wanted her to limit tuna to once a week and cut out serrano ham completely which as we're going to the home of serrano on Wednesday just ain't gonna happen!

She thought most likely to be sensory and high gag reflex - which is what we thought right back when it started. She will probably grow out of it but some people never do.

So a bit disappointing. It would have been easier if she could have just been allergic to something easy to cut out (like strawberries which she eats most days for example ).

It might also be worth asking the school for a copy of her attendance certificate so you can look for any patterns.

Make sure you give the school any evidence from appointments etc, and if you are sending her in and she is having to go home, she should be ok.

There is a child at our school who regularly vomits (several times a week), but I'm not sure of the cause. When he is sick he reports to the medical room until he feels better (usually an hour tops) then returns to lesson. This is secondary, but could something similar work? Does she feel ill enough to warrant going home or does she recover quickly?

The school are being very good and I've been keeping them updated on the tests she's been having. They've not asked for evidence so I think they do believe me - well they must as they're the one's witnessing the vomiting!

There is no pattern at all. They've already looked into this. Generally she recovers immediately so they now keep her in school. Sometimes she's repeatedly sick which is when they call me to collect her buy they no longer make me abide by the 48 hour rule unless I think she's still unwell.

She's been fine since we broke up from school so I'm really wondering if it's the dyslexia making her nauseous from the words swimming. She hasnt done any reading at all as she says it's making her feel sick so i have to read to her instead. She may be trying it on though!

I cancelled her original optometrist appointment and have made another one for Monday with someone that seems to specialise more in this area so fingers crossed this will help.

I do think it may be this as it would explain why her attendance is getting worse and worse. She reads more now and had progressed to books with smaller fonts and more words on the page.

I hope it's this anyway!