Kid that Vomits a lot!
Posted by agapemom on April 26, 2007
Okay here goes! I’m trying to figure all this out with looks, fonts and such- so bear with me (if anyone would even actually read this!!)!!!! HA
I am a Mom to 5 beautiful children. I homeschool the 2 older ones right now with the third to start in the fall. I’ve always been amazed that home schoolers can post so much and read so much on blogs. My day starts with kids and ends at their bedtime when I collapse on the couch in exhaustion. (Thank the Lord for an incredible and supportive husband who not only puts up with it but embraces all of it and us!) BUT, 4 of the 5 kids are at Nana’s house for a couple of days. So, I get to neglect housework (oops!) and try starting something.
I’d like to get the word out on this blog about a lot of things- but the first one is about Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome or abdominal migraines. My 7 year old was diagnosed a couple of years ago- but getting to that diagnosis was a battle.
It all started when she was just around 2. She would start vomiting out of the blue. There were no signs of viruses around the house. Usually the episodes would start in the morning. She would then proceed to vomit every 1/2 hour to an hour for sometimes 2 days but usually 3. She would then perk right up and be eating, drinking and playing- usually within an hour or two of beginning her sips of pedialyte or water. In the beginning, we’d go 6-8 weeks and then it would all happen again. Now, the other kicker in all this, her first episode would begin end of February or beginning of March. But then everything would stop end of September or October. We didn’t notice too much the first year (little slow on the uptake)! But when it started again the next year and we began to have to have her hospitalized for dehydration- I finally began to question what in the world was going on. Our dr. at the time did a great job of taking care of her when she was sick. She kept getting throat infections or ear infections afterwards because of all the vomiting. So, we would write it off as she got an infection that made her start vomiting. Well, we survived another year and enjoyed the time with her healthy. In this time we added another baby to the family. Things were so busy that life just took over and we just kept dealing with her being sick. We got real good at controlling the vomiting early and learning the signs of when an episode was going to take place. Because we thought that maybe the vomiting was beginning because of a throat infection, I finally began checking her throat periodically. When I saw it begin to swell just a bit I immediately took her in to a new doc. We had just moved- new perspective helped. It was the oddest visit. The doc walked in. I did about a 2 minute explanation of what we’d been through for the past couple of years. He said I think she has cyclical vomiting syndrome or abdominal migraines. Let’s put her on Topamax- a seizure drug used for migraines and see what happens. He’s saying the end of this while walking out the door pretty much. (We knew him from church so that helped.) We started her on the medication after researching some of the side effects (which no one really knew because it hadn’t been tested with kids). The vomiting episodes almost stopped for about 6 months. We started having some episodes a bit more regularly a little bit late in the fall. The doc increased the dosage and we have been doing well since. She still will go into a prolonged vomiting spell if she gets a stomach virus that causes her to throw up.
I still have concerns. What will the Topamax do to her in the long run? Will she outgrow this? Is there a root cause of this? Good it be diet related? We are looking at perhaps taking her off the drug in the fall to judge a bit what’s causing this or to see how it’s affecting her. The biggest challenge with that is- insurance won’t cover anything with it because it’s pre-existing. So, there are financial considerations to look into as well. If anyone out there has a child with similar problems, I’d love to hear your story. Maybe together we can gain some insight into this.
cyclicalvomit said
Your husband sounds like a swell guy!
Nancy said
My daughter was recently diagnosed with C.V.S. When we take her to the E.R. in our home town, the only thing that will stop the vomiting is a narcotic. Our trips to the E.R. are around every 4 to 6 weeks. Our last 2 visits there, it was implied by the E.R. staff that our daughter was a drug addict and that was the reason for our many visits. I was wondering if you could share with me what is done for your daughter if a E.R. visit is required. What do they give her to stop the vomiting ? It is a comfort to know that we are not alone with this. Thank You for any information you can share with me. Sincerely Nancy Beck
agapemom said
Hi Nancy.
I am so sorry that you are struggling with this. How old is your daughter? But, I can assure you that receiving a diagnosis is a help. There isn’t a lot they can do right now for stopping or curing CVS or abdominal migraines but there are some things you and your physician can do to control it.
We ended up in the emergency room three times I believe before we got really good at controlling the vomiting. (We had the advantage that we moved quite a bit so they were different ERs) And I guess it would be better said- we got good at avoiding dehydration. Once the vomiting starts it’s almost impossible to stop. We would use phenegran suppositories to at least make her sleepy and alleviate a small amount of the nausea. What most medical folks don’t realize is that her body is having a seizure of sorts and there isn’t much that can be done to stop it except make her as comfy as possible. At least that is how our Dr. described it to us. We had a particularly bad spell about 2 years ago. We were at about 60 hours of vomiting and we were desparately trying to avoid a hospital stay as insurance is awful for us and wouldn’t cover more than $300. Our doctor had us try a disolvable migraine pill called Zomig. It stopped the vomiting on the second dose. We have since used it with her vomiting spells which are only about 4-5 times a year now. It controls the vomiting a bit more for her and cuts the migraine episodes to about 48 hours. The topamax has been a saver for us in actually controlling the episodes. But this nor the Zomig have been proven in pediatric use- so be aware of this before deciding to try it out.
By the time we would get to the ER though her cycle was pretty much over and just getting treated for dehydration stopped the last couple of abdominal spasms. It usually took a bag of fluid and she would begin to perk up. My Mom was a nurse for years and my Dad was an EMT a while back. I had a lot of advice to help once the spells would start. First, we would (and still do) wait 4 hours after vomiting before we begin to introduce liquid. Sometimes ice cold water sounded good to her. Sometimes warm or room temp water would be her request. We give one teaspoon every 15 minutes for the first two hours. We’d then move to one teaspoon every 10 minutes for an hour. Then 2 teaspoons every 10 minutes. Usually after that she was able to slowly sip something. We’d try pedialyte to get electrolytes up but she hates the taste and will only drink it for the first hour or so until she’s not quite so desperate. This was a hard routine to follow when she was really little. It’s hard to explain to a 2 year old why she can’t drink. Even though I had several nurses snapping at me that I needed to control her more- as if it was my fault that she was sneaking liquid when my eyes would finally close after 2 nights of no sleep. Yes we have encountered our fair share of lovely medical personnel!
My best advice to you is be your daughters best, strongest, and most vocal advocate. This medical condition has given me a much thicker skin. Try to ignore what folks that aren’t familiar with your daughters case say. When she begins to go into a spell- contact the doctor that diagnosed her and is familiar with her case. She can hopefully direct her care. We got to where we avoided the ER at all costs and would actually go through the doctors office.
Hang in there! This won’t go away for awhile but you will get better at giving her the care she needs at home and hopefully avoiding the ER as much as possible. Our 7 year old has become quite good at taking her medication. She is so much more compassionate and determined because of the migraines. She has grown stronger already in her faith and has had to ask some tough questions that we have had to try and answer.
Please let me know if I can answer more questions or if you just need to vent about all of this. Sometimes it helps just knowing that someone else understands what she and you are struggling through! You aren’t alone.
Heidi