Vomiting when upset

[Sradev]

My ds is five years old and has recently been referred to be tested for ASD. Ever since he was 2 years old he has been throwing up when his normal routine is upset. Every time we go on holiday or just away for a couple of days he throws up - usually waking himself up at night vomiting. He recenly threw up when we tried to introduce some new food to his extremely limited diet. It doesn't necessarily happen when he's actually having a meltdown, he can be quite calm or even asleep at the time. Its more of an additional sign that he is deeply unsettled.

Yesturday I went to London for the day with my mum to have a much needed day off. I left before ds went to school in the morning and returned after he was in bed so we weren't able to do our usual bedtime routine. At about 12.00 he woke up screaming and was violently ill. He then continued to throw up every hour for the rest of the night and every couple of hours through the morning. He has been perfeclty fine in between throwing up and has had no temperature or other signs of being ill. Although I suspected it was probably psycological I took him to the doctor just to be safe, but he couldn't find any other signs that he was unwell. He has now made a complete recovery. It definately wasn't something he ate.

This was by far the most prolonged episode of vomiting we have had to date. Has anyone else had similar experiences? Does anyone have any advice?

No advice I am afraid but my Dd3 does this, she is 9 and has ASD.

When she is really upset about something she vomits, she was really bad when she first started school but has recently been doing it because of changes at home.

Much of Dd3's problem is around separation anxiety and she is now finally getting some help at school.

You are not alone but that doesn't really help, sorry.

Poor thing - has reflux been ruled out? (just made me wonder with the vomiting at night or when your DS is calm).

My DS has reflux diesease and had surgery when he was 2 years-old to try and strengthen his sphincter muscle. It means he can't actually vomit now, but when he's distressed he'll retch and retch so I know that if he hadn't had the op, he'd be sick during these episodes.

I'm afraid I have no advice, sorry but wanted you to know that as Ineedalife says, you are not alone.

my ds did this too, his issue was phobias (worst was a phobia of tomatoes which developed into a terror of anything red). We did lots of desensitization work & it has improved hugely, although if he's very anxious he might still retch.

DS used to vomit at times of anxiety. Hes not ASD but is brain damaged and used to have a lot of sensory issues. Things like dolls or model "people", even plydough would set him off. Sometimes we would get a warning as he started to retch, other times it was sudden. Oddly, it didn't seem to bother him - he would throw up and be fine. (Reflux was ruled out btw)
I can't really offer any advice - we just coped, avoided any known triggers when we could angrew out of it eventually;

Actually it might be biological, DS (asd,4) has suffered from reflux intermittently since birth. Sometimes it can be really bad to the extent of projectile vomitting (particular if he has been ill or eating rich foods) sometimes he just t's comparatively minor and you don't notice except when his swishing it round in his mouth. He also get bad stomach ache with it (or so we guess )

Gaviscon and Osteopathy help.

But I guess the discomfort would be enough to make anyone grumpy

Yikes I cant spell tonight!!

incidentally a dose of d&v would set the reflux off worse for weeks. Could your on have had a dose of D&V?

Also if you think about it the changes of routine that you mention would also have been accompanied with a change in diet....

My spelling's also gone out of the window

Definitely rule out the possibility of reflux - although DS has had his surgery and should be reflux free, he's definitely not and despite taking medication, it's set off with stomach bugs and foods such as dairy (which he was intolerant to for years and is only able to eat them in small amounts).