Unexplained vomiting 5yr old

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 member 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. 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 made an appointment with a naturopath for Friday morning (two days from now) 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.

HELP US!!! We are soo very exhausted and missing a lot of time at work / school.
 
Your daughter may have an overacid stomach and needs something for the acid to chew on during the night.

A peditrician had our son to take 1 tablespoon smooth peanutbutter at bedtime. This gave something for the acid to work on during the night.

We also realized that he was under stress, all his own making. Maybe your daughter is trying too hard to perfect something, expecting too much of herself in some area.
 
Thanks Misty for your feedback.

It's funny you mention Acid Reflux. In researching on-line, I became suspicious of the same.

As for anxiety, I can see her vomiting once or twice from anxiety but she is vomiting until all contents of her belly are emptied. Seems more likely to be something going on in her tummy than in her head given that she is vomiting every 20 minutes or so for 6 to 8 hours.

You went through a similar situation with your son and it turned out to be an acidic stomach?
 
has she had her kidney and liver labs run at her doc at all? this would really be something to just take a look at and either rule out or in a possible issue. also having that full hands on physical,with special emphasis on that abdomen palpation would be a good idea too. since she is complaining of stomach pain along with the vomiting,it just needs checking out too. you just need to be very thorough and rule out ALL possibilities here. has she had any nosebleeds at all? FB
 
As of yet, she has not had any testing done aside from a physical exam by our GP which included stomach palpation.

Why the liver and kidney function testing?
 
If I remember right, the liver could be not functioning right and possibly dumping too much bile causing nausea.

If the kidney does not function properly the impurities in the body are not being filtered out. A backup of impurities can cause the same problems.

Your daughter needs a complete blood tests to determine what her problem is. At least weed out some of the possible problems and then focus on what it is.

Yes, my son had what was called a "nervous stomach with too much acid".
 
If I remember right, the liver could be malfunctioning and dumping too much bile which could cause the nausea.

If I remember right, the kindey could be malfunctioning and impurities building up in the system. This could also cause nausea.

To answer your question, our son was diagnosed with a "nervous stomach with over-acid".

Your daughter may have an over active gag reflex that keeps her vomiting until there is nothing left to vomit.
 
there are just some conditions/diseases that can effect the liver and sometimes the kidneys too that have the very same symptoms as your daughter is showing. they just need to be ruled out. my son would vomit when he was much younger(4-10?)at very bizzarre times and for no apparent reason,he also complained of ongoing stomach aches. we had no clue til things got really bad at age 12 that he had been suffering with a particular form of kidney and liver disease since birth. his very amazingly well known knowledgable ped(this woman was actually one of the top peds for Dxing childhood illnesses in our area) for some reason,never caught this at all. but our son never once had any bloodwork done either that would have at least shown something was up.

honestly,as far as we knew,we had a totally completley healthy normal kid,til the beginning of his 7th grade year when everything kind of hit the fan. just having those labs run is simply a precautionary thing. if this continues,i would ask for at least an ultrasound to be done on that abdominal area. it could reveal an underlying issue(could simply be a congenital defect that makes her more prone to vomiting) that has not even shown itself with any real lab changes yet either. the one big thing about how our labs change and what actually shows upon getting any organ tested is the actual damage to any given organ just HAS TO be to a certain point to hit that threshold level or it wont show with any real changes. just getting that more in depth look at those organs and checking bloodflow with that doppler would rule out alot or rule something in as a possible issue. one ultrasoud done on my son at any time would have at least shown alot of cystic damage going on,enlargement of his liver and these heavy fibers that were overtaking his liver. this is just a precautionary thing that your daughter can have done that would rule out things or rule something in,thats all. when it comes to our kids,you want to be certain,and US would give you some certainty,along with just checking out her labs.

there is just "something' that is causing her stomach pain and the vomiting that needs testing to rule things in or out as possible culprits. we never had a clue til my son was sick til age 12. is she having any nosebleeds at all? or any other symptoms besides the stomach pain and vomiting? FB
 
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