Vomiting in a child: how dangerous is it?

Every mother has at least once encountered nausea and vomiting in her child. Experienced parents often do not attach much importance to this, attributing the “trouble” to ordinary overeating. However, everything is not so simple: severe vomiting in a child can be very dangerous!

If your baby, especially in the first year of life, feels sick and vomits, you should definitely consult a doctor. There can be many reasons that cause such behavior in a child’s body. But you can’t sit idly by while waiting for the doctor. Vomiting in a child requires immediate first aid, which any adult without medical education can provide.

Vomiting in children occurs much more often than in adults due to insufficient development of the structure of the stomach and brain. The mechanism of its occurrence is justified by the physiological reaction of the children’s body to the stimulus. It can be either external (for example, an involuntary reaction to a smell or a repulsive visual picture), or internal, caused by impulses from the stomach or other internal organs (liver, kidneys), the vestibular apparatus to the cerebral cortex, where the vomiting center is located.

Sometimes vomiting occurs during prolonged, choking crying, for example, during vaccination. It is especially dangerous if a vomiting attack occurs in a child’s sleep.

In most cases, there is nausea before a child vomits. Kids who can't explain in words what's bothering them. This unpleasant and often painful sensation is manifested by anxiety and refusal to eat. Nausea in infants can be noticed by an attentive mother by protruding the tip of the tongue, a change in the color of the skin to a paler color, and coldness of the hands and feet.

You can often prevent vomiting in children by noticing other signs that precede it:

• nausea;
• weakness;
• increased salivation;
• rapid intermittent breathing;
• complaints of soreness, burning, sensation of a “lump” in the throat.

The home first aid kit should always contain not only brilliant green and hydrogen peroxide, so that in case of wounds and abrasions, bacteria do not enter the child’s blood, but also activated carbon tablets, Smecta or Phosphalugel, drugs that can alleviate the baby’s condition when vomiting.

Causes and nature of vomiting

Sometimes the reasons why a child vomits are not difficult to determine.

If your child vomits after eating or drinking, the cause is most likely overeating or low-quality, spoiled foods . Stomach cramps often occur after a child takes pills or other medications. This is all just a protective reaction of the body; vomiting in this case is a one-time event. After self-cleansing, the stomach calms down and nothing bothers the child. However, it is necessary to monitor the baby so that a repeated attack of vomiting does not overtake him in his sleep.

A common cause of vomiting is spoiled food, medicines, chemicals, etc. If the baby is poisoned, general intoxication of the body occurs, toxins accumulate in the blood. The child feels weak, the temperature rises, diarrhea appears, the stool may be foamy, green or another unusual color. Sometimes a rash and inflammation of the mucous membranes occur. Vomiting in this case is repeated and profuse. The patient needs specialist help and hospitalization.

Often, due to their habit, babies can put everything in their mouth. swallow something . In most cases, the object passes naturally through the intestines. If you know for sure that ingestion has occurred, you need to carefully examine the baby's stool and make sure that the object came out in the feces. Sometimes the object passes through the esophagus. Typically, sudden vomiting without any previous symptoms is the body's rejection of a foreign body.

The color of vomit is often heterogeneous and depends on the color of the food filling the stomach. Vomit usually consists of the remains of undigested food, gastric juice and mucus. It may contain foam and impurities: bile, blood, pus. Impurities should alert parents; as a rule, they are a signal of a serious illness:

• blood and pus may indicate gastric bleeding;
• pieces of undigested food - about pyloric stenosis;
• bile - about bile stagnation or gallbladder diseases.

Acetonemic vomiting - this is a symptom of a disease associated with a metabolic disorder, in which acetone accumulates in the body with the blood, provoking periodic attacks of uncontrollable fountain vomiting. Acetonemic vomiting is a consequence of disruption of the brain centers responsible for carbohydrate and fat metabolism.

Acetone disease is provoked by brain damage (in the prenatal period or as a birth injury, sometimes as a complication after vaccination) or diabetes mellitus. Usually all symptoms disappear after 14-15 years, in adolescence.

Nervous system diseases can also manifest themselves with frequent vomiting: intracranial pressure, meningitis, brain tumors - vomiting in this case is repeated, periodic, occurring even at night when the child is sleeping.

ENT diseases

Any infections, including ENT diseases, can cause vomiting. So, often the cause is snot accumulating in the nasopharynx. In a baby who cannot blow his nose on his own, the snot should be sucked out using a bulb or straw, and then drops should be used.

Don’t be afraid to wake up your child at night to rinse your nose with salt water if your baby begins to choke while sleeping. This is especially true for infants: swallowing snot while eating can provoke vomiting.

Sometimes snot is caused not by acute respiratory viral infections or acute respiratory infections, but by allergies, so you should first establish a diagnosis, and not start taking pills and antibiotics on your own. With allergies, snot often accompanies a rash throughout the body or its local manifestations.

Vomiting with a sore throat can have several causes. It is important to know them; it depends on what needs to be done to stop vomiting during illness.

Vomiting during illnesses such as measles and rubella, can be caused by an increase in body temperature and as a reaction to antibiotics. At the same time, symptoms of ARVI are observed (snot, cough, general weakness), so it is not easy to make an accurate diagnosis before the rash appears. The development of diarrhea or intestinal infection against the background of these diseases is also possible: the immune system becomes vulnerable even before the rash appears, and bacteria easily penetrate the body.

Interestingly, vomiting can become side effect after vaccination from these infections. No special treatment is required; usually sudden vomiting is one-time.

Meningococcal infection - a most dangerous disease where the count is not days, but hours: the infection penetrates the brain with the blood. Fever, vomiting, rash in the form of subcutaneous hemorrhages are signals for immediate hospitalization of the child. Mandatory vaccination done on time can save a child from death.

If the time for the next vaccination has come, and the child has weakness, nausea and vomiting, you should postpone vaccination.

Infant and vomiting

The exit of absorbed food back through the mouth in infants does not always indicate that not everything is all right with the baby. Firstly, it may be common, which provokes air swallowed by the baby along with milk. By three months (less often, after six months), this unpleasant phenomenon goes away on its own.

You can help your baby by holding him upright after eating so that he burps air. However, frequent regurgitation, including in a dream, impurities with mucus, excessively frequent and loose stools (sometimes with foam), covering the skin with a rash and the child’s anxiety are reasons to contact a pediatrician and neurologist.

Secondly, a common cause of vomiting in infants is a reaction to vaccinations, antibiotics or antipyretics. The baby may vomit repeatedly within an hour after taking the drug. Fever, rash, runny nose, swollen lymph nodes and vomiting are often reactions to vaccinations. Usually, before vaccination, the pediatrician warns about side effects. The baby's body can react in a similar way to teething.

In the first hours of life, a newborn may experience vomiting due to ingestion of amniotic fluid, and, as a rule, it goes away within a day. Doctors, under whose supervision both mother and baby are, can correctly assess and monitor the situation, take a blood test if necessary and provide assistance, so there is no reason to worry. The removal of amniotic fluid from the stomach is mainly accompanied by a single vomiting without foreign impurities.

Accompanying the eruption of vomit in newborns with attacks of suffocation may signal a narrowing or occlusion of the nasal passages, which requires surgical intervention. This pathology requires constant monitoring of the baby, both while awake and during sleep.

An examination by a surgeon is also necessary if foamy discharge is observed from the mouth, the skin around the lips becomes bluish in color - symptoms of esophageal obstruction. Intestinal obstruction, another pathology that requires surgical intervention, signals itself in the following way: bloating, prolonged absence of stool, stagnation of food in the stomach, repeated fountain vomiting, in which the volume of vomit exceeds the volume of milk consumed.

Babies older than six months, becoming more active and mobile, react by vomiting and bleeding from the nose to overwork, after a long stay in the heat or sun. Nausea occurs when new foods are introduced into the diet (along with an allergic rash). Vomiting, as well as loose, loose, foamy, dirty yellow stools, is a common symptom as teeth begin to erupt.

If vomiting occurs at night, you must not let your guard down! It is necessary to ensure that the child lies on his side, with his head raised: lying on his back can cause choking!

Child after one year

A one-year-old baby may well give a signal if nausea or vomiting begins. The cause could be any of the above diseases. Vomiting can occur due to injuries (a strong fall on the stomach or back, a blow to the head, a concussion), overwork, eating unwashed fruit, etc.

What to do and how to stop vomiting should be decided after finding out the reasons for its occurrence. Sometimes it is enough to reconstruct the chain of events preceding the illness, and then it will become clear whether it is enough to provide first aid at home or whether it is worth calling an ambulance.

The baby is vomiting. How to help?

If it is clear that the child has been poisoned, medical help cannot be avoided. While the ambulance is traveling, the child must be given first aid.

First you need to give the correct position of the body: lay it down so that the head is raised. It is advisable to perform gastric lavage. Even a one-year-old baby can do this, the main thing is to pull yourself together and not panic. To rinse, you will need to give the child warm water (as much as possible) and press with your finger or spoon on the root of the tongue. The entire volume of drunk water must come out. The procedure is repeated several times until the child begins to vomit clean water.

Washing cannot be done if the child has lost consciousness! Also, you should not leave your child unattended, especially at night.

If vomiting is caused by motion sickness or seasickness, it is enough to give the child the required dose of Phosphalugel. It will also help if periodic vomiting in a child is caused by infectious diseases. Phosphalugel can be given to children both in the form of a gel and in the form of a solution (half a glass of water per sachet).

Activated carbon in tablets, Phosphalugel, Smecta, Regidron - these drugs are safe for children and help cope with vomiting and normalize stool.

When treating prolonged vomiting, it is advisable to exclude feeding for a period of 6 to 12 hours, especially if the child has been poisoned and his stool is foul-smelling, watery with foam. Drinking plenty of fluids is necessary as vomiting and diarrhea lead to dehydration. For symptoms of dehydration, it is necessary to give the child a glucose-saline solution, which can be purchased at a pharmacy or prepared independently: for 1 liter of water, 1 teaspoon of salt without top, 0.5 teaspoon. baking soda and 8 teaspoons of sugar.

After vomiting stops, nutrition is introduced carefully, in small portions, spicy and fatty foods, fruits and raw vegetables are excluded. It is best to start with cereal porridges cooked in water, without adding oil.

Recommendations of Dr. Komarovsky: what to give a child with acetonemic vomiting

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