Toddlers who vomit form crying!

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I am curious who else out there may have to deal with this. Let me first say, he does not do it intentionally, that is very obvious. But if he gets hurt or gets extremely upset about something, he usually cries so hard, he vomits. I can usually tell when it’s going to happen because of the way that he is crying and most of the time if we distract him quickly enough, we can prevent it. However, it is frustating nonetheless. I have asked his pediatrician about it and he said he should grow out of it by the time he’s 4! Great, only 2 years to go!!! Has anyone had a child who did this and stopped at some point? It is obvious Broide has a sensitive system, he used to throw up just from coughing or laughing too hard, but luckily that has stopped. My biggest frustration is with discipline or not letting him get his way, we have to be careful that he will get too upset and puke. His pediatrician said well, let him puke. Easy for him to say, when I’m the one that has to clean it up, give him another bath, do additional laundry and possibly change the bed linens. It’s always something isn’t it???

[Anonymous]

my step-daughter used to puke at the drop of a hat—-and i suspect she may have used it to her advantage.

[Anonymous]

Matthew is one of those kids and he is only 1 year old…. for him, it is all due to the gagging reflex and how sensitive he is. The second he laughs hard or gets too excited (and i ugess that saliva goes the wrong way) or he cries, there goes the puke. He used to puke a lot for attention too but that is gone. Now, he only does it in certain situations and usually when he is crying violently. Unfortunately, i have no idea when he will outgrow it but i know the feelilng. We try to be careful because if Matthew throws up once, we are unable to feed him for a few days and have to use the tube… i hope we are over this by the time we need to discipline him!

[Anonymous]

We are in the same position with Hailey at 16 months. For her any form of crying and violent puking went hand in hand. She couldn’t cry without vomitting and the more severe the crying the more severe the vomitting- If she was hysterical it would come out of her nose and then all heck broke loose!!! The tiniest cough would cause her to lose her meals, a sneeze would cause her to reflux, a hiccup for her to spit up. As far as I’ve known, she’s never done it for attention. But it has certainly impacted our ability to teach her things, like sleeping. And for her puking is directly related to days or longer of not eating, which is why I have a child who is up all night and doesn’t nap. We have spoken to all of our doctors about it, and no one was able to give me a magic age where they’ll outgrow it. I’ve basically been told by everyone that if they have a sensitive sytem and a hypersensitive gag, even when the gag desensitizes, they can still be a puker. Our doc says that he knows 10 year olds who still have this problem (not to depress you). I do think that as they get older they can use these things to their advantage. So if the only issue about the puking is the annoyance of it and if it’s mostly a laundry problem (and believe me my intent is not to minimize that, because I know how annoying it is!!!!) then I’d say to discipline however you would if he wasn’t throwing up from crying. If he does vomit, just clean it up and try not to pay too much attention to it. My older daughter didn’t have the puking, but had another frustrating issue. She was a breath holder which meant that when she cried she held her breath to the point where she turned blue and almost passed out. We were so scared of her passing out and having a seizure that we would adjust our discipline to stop the breath holding, which she eventually clued into. I know that your son isn’t doing it on purpose, but I’d say that teaching him right from wrong the way you want to is more important than the fear of vomitting. I hope that he outgrows it soon. I have to say that Hailey sounds a lot like what you describe and it drives me insane… especially because I fight so hard to get food into her only to have her puke it up. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

This happened only once with Henry. It was projectile puking! It really freaked me out-and him. I cried like Lucile Ball afterward.

It’s sad when that happens. On the flip side, I have a friend whose dd passes out from crying so hard. I’d rather have the vomiting I think.

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