Well that's not exactly how I said it.
My son (now 22 months) had chronic vomiting since he was born. Since he was born he's had reflux, spitting up half of what he nursed all over us, and his clothes. He spent the first few months of his life with a cloth diaper tied around his neck because bibs just weren't enough with what came back up.
He started solids and still spit up half of what he ate, now it was just orange or green depending on what baby food he just had. Then since he was 15 months till last month he was vomiting 3 to 4 times a week, and vomiting was for any and all reasons, he didn't chew his food, he over stuffed his mouth, he didn't like the food, it was too hot, too cold, he cried too much, he was afraid of the doctor, getting his vaccinations, and so on and so on.
He did get a stomach bug a few times, so vomiting then is understandable, but it was becoming too much. It was so much that for my birthday, my mom bought me a carpet washer due to all the time I spent on my knees scrubbing the carpets. People kept telling me all children are like that, he can't help it, it will take time and such advice. Not ALL children are like that, how many children do you know vomit 3-4 times a week, where the parents are keeping food diaries of what actually stayed in, who were spending lots on carpet cleaners and washing detergents.
I had a feeling that he forced himself to vomit most times because of a certain cough that preceded the vomiting. Take time! How much time? It's been almost 2 years!
So one day he asked for yougurt but he wasn't really hungry, so he took a spoon and then started coughing that cough, and I just lost it, I became crazy scary mommy and just started screaming. "NO MORE VOMITING", "THIS IS NOT HOW PEOPLE EAT AND DEAL WITH FOOD" he stopped coughing, swallowed and started crying, but I just kept on screaming, he went to his dad for comfort and took a long time to settle down, and guess what!?! He hasn't vomited since, thank God!
He had control over it, and now if for whatever reason he doesn't like what he is eating he'd spit the contents of his mouth not his whole stomach, we no longer keep a food diary, he's eating better, the carpet washer has been put away awaiting for when we start our potty training accidents, and we're a happy family.
Has anyone else gone through something like this? Has losing it like I did solve any problems for good?
Comments (11)
I can only imagine how frustrating that would be. I've heard of kids who can vomit on a whim. It starts out as reflux and then they realize they can...you know, lol. Anyway, I'm glad he seems to have stopped. :)
I have never heard of such a thing, vomiting on purpose. My question is: why the heck would you want to? But, children don't think the same way adults do. I suppose it made complete sense to him, and he has now learned that vomiting that much is not normal behavior. I'm glad you figured out what was causing it.
I'd never heard of that but I had heard of kids who were older, within like the 5 year old range that could do it and know they could do it on their own will and make themselves ill, usually for attention. Sad things is some of those kids don't grow out of it and play sick into their teen years, witnessed that before.
Sometimes losing it really is the only way to get through that what's going on really isn't right and that it needs to be stopped, now. I'm glad you got through to him. Though you may have seemed like "the bad mommy" at the time, you did a good thing, the right thing, and it's made life alot better, hasn't it? Glad it's better. :)
Hey well it's nice to know he was causing it to happen! I bet you felt horrible for losing it, though.
Poor baby.
my daughter (2mo) is a "happy spitter". i hate having to change her clothes, or our clothes after she spits up. it's gotten so much better but we have to hold her upright after nursing. i can't wait until she can sit up so i don't have to hold her up for so long. even if we put her in a rocker or something that's upright, she still spits up. it has to be the hold over the shoulder...and getting those burps out.
sorry you are dealing with this. My daughter went from spitting up eveything as a baby to throwing up everything as a toddler. Until age 2 she threw up 1-4 times per DAY! We tried elimination diets, restricted diets, seeing doctors and specialists, eating and drinking schedules.... then one day, she just stopped. When I say throw up, I mean, projectiled the contents of her stomach nearly every time she ate or drank. She wasn't allowed to eat in the car or drink anything aside from water or we'd have a nasty smelly mess all over the car and her carseat, I had to take spare clothes everytime we went somewhere because she would always soak something in spit up/throw up, I had to sit next to her with a bowl ready to play catcher everytime she ate, and we had to avoid her eating more than half a filling amount of food at resturants or she would throw up all over the table and spoil the entire resturant's meal. So I definatly feel your pain.
finally, we ditched the whole milk docs insisted she have to keep weight on and eventually gave up liquid milk all together. For the next year I also limited the amount of heavy fat, dairy products she had in a day. One per day was the rule. She has luckily outgrown that rule and can now enjoy dairy again. For the record it don't think it was the fact that it was dairy. She did the same spitting up routine when she was on breastmilk and on formula. I honestly, think her tummy just couldn't handle the high fat (and kind of fat found in those) contents in any of them. Eating smaller meals definatly helps as well.
My 8 month old son who is breastfed (no formula not much solids) was spitting up tons until my supply regulated at around 6 months. Another case when overfeeding/overeating may have been the culprit. When night wakings started again at 5 months my system regulated and stopped overproducing and he stopped spitting up within a couple weeks. Hes back to sleeping through the night now and always spits up after morning feedings when I have oversupply.
Anyway, just wanted to share in case anything I went through with my kiddos can help you figure out what's going on with your's! Maybe your child has a very sensative stomach and the minute anything upsets it the puke reflex jumps in. The fact that your child not swallowing the things he doesn't want cured the problem could indicate that. Maybe your freaking out is what is keeping him from eating things but his not eating things is what is keeping him from throwing up. Maybe once it was in his stomach he had little control over it.... Things like crying, being active, eating or drinking more once the stomach is upset are only going to make throwing up more likely and less avoidable. He may have made himself cry knowing it would probaly make him throw up but, I don't think he cried specifically so he would throw up. Know what I mean? I think that made sense.
@Fairywife@xanga - yeah I did feel terrible, espeically that I didnt know I would get through to him, but as it seems to have worked, I dont feel too bad anymore, he's eating better and that's what's important.
@mamajoyjoy - I feel for ya, we had to feed him upright and keep him that way for at least half an hour, but still after we placed him in his car seat he'd still spit up, he also had a really difficult time getting burps out, it would even wake him up. It will take it's time, hopefully for ya and the baby not too much :)
@DessertHer@xanga - thank you DessertHer we tried everything and for a time I thought it was due to a sensetive stomach, cuz most vomitting was at night or after he had something heavy to eat, and I took him to doctors, 2 told me it was normal, it wasnt even every day (4-5 a week), one doctor asked for a stool analysis and a abdominal ultrasound, and both came out fine, which really made me believe it was intentional like I said there was always THAT cough.
I also barely fed my son out of the house, worried he'd vomit and ruin someone's home, and it was really tough telling aunts that he wasnt hungry and he'll eat when we get home and if he insisted on eating (he had to you know) I would feed him very slowly and try to stop after every spoon it was horrible, but thank God that is all over.
Good luck for all of us :D
Freaking out is perfectly normal and ALL mammys do it, sometimes its the only way to defuse and gain back the control. Now you have control dont allow him an inch. They test your boundaries every so often and thats just all part of growing up. My 4 year old is a very fussy eater and will puke if she decides she doesnt like something even though she liked it yesterday.