Unexplained vomiting 5 yr old

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Bloodwork has all come back normal.

Waiting now for a referral appointment with a pediatrician.

She also has her appointment next week with the chinese medical clinic.
 
HELP! My 5 year old daughter has been throwing up only in the night or early in the morning for no known reason off and on since early fall (about 3-4 months now).

Happens almost exactly the same time in the night each time (between 2 and 3am) and she continues to throw up every 15 to 20 minutes for about 6 hours or until all contents of your tummy are gone.

I would say that in the last 3 to 4 months, we have experienced somewhere around 8 bouts of this unexplained vomitting.

Does not seem to be a bug...no one else in the 4 meraber family is getting the bug, she is fine other than, explainably tired the next day.

She has always had a modest appetite, is petite and very active. She is also what I would describe as a sensitive child.

We took her to our family doctor who could not find anything obvious wrong with her. She did ask us to keep a diary of her diet which we did for about 2 weeks during which time, of course, she did not vomit. Family GP asked us to bring her back one week later which we did not do because she did not experience any more bout of vomiting.

Since then, she has been up in the night vomiting on three separate occassions plus one occassion of early morning (on the way to the bus stop) bout of vomiting.

During the episodes, she cries and complains of stomach pain and is very clamy and lethargic.

I have a call in to our family doctor for a follow up but I thought I might get some insight from this board in the meantime.

In researching nighttime vomiting, three causes keep arising. 1-gastro-esophaugael reflux 2 - post-nasal drip and 3 - brain tumour.

Her symptoms seem consistent with GERD (hoarseness, complains sometimes about vomit coming up in her throat and she swallows it). My question is, is this something that she would develop at 5 years old or should we be looking at something else.

HELP US!!! We are soo very exhausted and missing a lot of time at work / school.
 
GERD is fairly common in children and can cause many of the symptoms you mention (nausea, vomiting, hoarseness, the acidic taste in her mouth). It can be tough to diagnose in children because they have a harder time describing how they're feeling, but her symptoms sure fit GERD. In kiRAB the acid doesn't have very far to travel from the digestive tract up the esophagus and it can usually be treated with common acid reflux medications. You might consider having her see a pediatric gastroenterologist to confirm that it's GERD.
 
My son had something similar, he would throw up in the morning. This happened for about a month and a half, they did all the tests, gave him prevacid for a couple of months and we have been ok so far.
 
I just watched a show on tv the other night called medical mysteries.

The couple had the same thing happen to their daughter every night, around the same time, vomitting. The doctors had no idea what was wrong. Next day the girl was fine and didn't remeraber the episodes.

Then one evening, the vomitting increased and they noticed the little girl was slurring her worRAB. They thought she had a stroke. Took her to the ER and they discovered she was having some kind of seizure. Maybe a neurologist should be considered in your case as well.

Anyways, hopes this helps.
 
Thanks for the reply.

You are suggesting that it could be that something like stress or anxiety could be causing her to throw up once then her body is not able to shut it off after the first time? Hmmm. Would that be accompanied by stomach pain...?
 
Hi there
I feel for you! I am now a GERD sufferer, but many years before my symptoms, my then 4 year old daughter had the same symptoms/episodes!!! WIth her, it always happened around midnight with vomiting until her gut was empty, and then she was fine the next day. After a few times, I took her to the pediatrician, who ordered a GI series of x-rays, just to rule out a few things. That was normal. She had us worried with the other possibility, but she checked out fine otherwise. I did start charting her diet on the days when it happened, and realized that she had eaten an unusually large amount that day (like yours, she was petite and not usually a big eater). My family dr. was the one who finally suggested it could be REFLUX and she was colicky as a baby (now seen as probably GERD in infants). We had some food sensitity testing done with a naturopath, and she ended up sensitive to citrus, milk, chocolate and a few other things. We drastically reduced these things for one month, gave her acidophilus for kiRAB (the good bacteria found in yoghurt--but you can get it in pill form) and she was fine. We gradually re-introduced those things and she has essentially been fine. In the last two years, she has had two episodes which I think were GERD in that she got up in the middle of the night and was sick in the toilet (she's now 11), went back to sleep, adn was fine. I might add that someone told me as well that what comes up with the stomach flu is often very thin and grose smelling where as what comes up with GERD can be thicker (I know, this is grose, but it was so true for us!) and not as foul smelling. Does that make sense? I have another friend whose daughter went through the exact same thing and it was diagnosed as GERD. SHe took medication for a few months and was fine after that. Occasionally, my daughter will now ask for a ROLAID and I give her half. I suspect she will follow in my footsteps as she gets older (though I hope for her sake that she doesn't). I really try to encourage her to watch what she eats, esp. at night (e.g. chocolate, acidy fruit, etc). HOpe this helps!
 
Hi there;

Still having the episodes of vomiting. In fact, since Feb. 5th, we are on bout nuraber 3.

She has seen a chinese medicine doctor who is also an acupuncturist and a naturopath. He identified numerous fooRAB that she is sensitive to and treated her for them.

That was in early January.

She has an appointment with a pediatrician next Tues. (Feb. 24th) really hoping that he will provide us with some hope and conduct additional tests.

We are so very worried about her.
 
DD had appointment with the pediatrician.

He has diagnosed her with Acid Reflux. Prescribed Prilosec.

Waiting on barium swallow, bloodwork.

Seeing him again in 4 months time.
 
Did the doctor mention to you to raise her bed up, so she's not flat on her back when she sleeps? Is it usually at night when this is happening?
 
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