My son is 15 months old. He has had six instances of vomiting in the middle of the night. The pattern is always the same. Vomits a couple of times followed by a period of dry heaves followed by several instances of vomiting bile. The situation usually starts at about 1am and lasts until 6 or 7 am. After this, my son is his normal, cheerful self. I've been told that it's "just a bug". If this is true, why does it ALWAYS strike in the middle of the night? Not once has it struck during the day. Is there a condition that might cause this situation?

You don't mess around with gastro-intestinal problems with infants as dehydration in a great danger to them. In your case if he eats and drinks OK during the day then there is less danger. My own 15 month had a 'gastro' that lasted 4 days (throwing up + diarrhea) but it wasn't as you described. I would definitely get a doctor's appointment for him right away, at least to get some answers from a real doctor.

Does your son complain about his mouth hurting or anything? Does he give any sign that he has discomfort in his mouth or throat? One of my sons had a lot of trouble eating chicken when he was younger. He would vomit every night when he had been asleep, after eating chicken. He did grow out of it when he was about 4. I had to try every once in a while but I had to be careful. I have oral allergies that are very serious and I didn't want him to have the same reaction. As I said he did grow out of it. A person once said, he might not be allergic to chicken but the antibiotics that were given to the chicken. Anyway, sorry for rambling. My point is, try to watch or track what he had been eating earlier that day. My son's reaction was 1 to 7 hours after he had eaten it. I would be interesting in knowing if this helps at all. Take care.;)

Reflux, Reflux Reflux!!


Raise the Head of his crib/bed and call your doctor in the morning. Laying down flat at bed time is the worst thing you can do. Please call your doc in the morning and get checked. Maybe meds are an additional option.

Not sure it fits the pattern of rotavirus...

Their little tummies get lactose intolerant w rotavirus. Is your son drinking milk at night? Get up curdled milk w vomiting?

Common to last a few days. My son will always get sick at night laying down w rotavirus, but it also happens during the day... so I'm thinking this might be the bug mentioned, but the only at night thing isn't the pattern I've seen w my son, though its more common at night w him... usually 2am on.

First you should see your ped. Also avoid dehydration as mentioned. Water is absorbed directly through the stomach, so small amounts of water is good. We would use a 5mL medicine dropper w water every 15 min to get liquids in.

And watch for dehydration signs... no tears when crying, skin doesn't rebound when pressed, sullen eyes, dry tongue.

Sister in laws son went through a spell of vomiting... seemed to be a gluten thing by the time they were done w it all.

So yeah, id see a doc. I just wouldn't mess around w a little ones esophagus getting damaged from acid if this lasts more than 2-3 days.

I just watched an episode of "mystery diagnosis", on the discovery health channel, and the case was exactly the same. The vomiting was actually caused by epilepsy. Contact a neurologist, to have an EEG done at night.

postedMay 3, 2006

My daughter has epilepsy and has night vomiting. I would strongly suggest seeing a neurologist to rule this out. It's just a matter of having an EEG.

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Originally Posted by mbillingsley

My son is 15 months old. He has had six instances of vomiting in the middle of the night. The pattern is always the same. Vomits a couple of times followed by a period of dry heaves followed by several instances of vomiting bile. The situation usually starts at about 1am and lasts until 6 or 7 am. After this, my son is his normal, cheerful self. I've been told that it's "just a bug". If this is true, why does it ALWAYS strike in the middle of the night?? Not once has it struck during the day. Is there a condition that might cause this situation?

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This can be a case of Epilepsy. Epilepsy ALWAYS has a trigger. Sometimes it's difficult to find this trigger. It probably has something to do with nighttime and/or the bedroom. Also, if the vomiting continues, try to let your child have early evening meals so that everything is digested before your child goes to bed. If things become really worse, try to avoid evening meals.

Also change the bedroom location, or even the bed. Your child might be allergic to the type of material that the bed is constructed with.

To mbillingsley


Do you have any answers from a doctor yet? I have a child who is experiencing somewhat of the same symptoms and am very interested to know what you've found out.

To aqua@home... I am convinced my 3 year old daughter has some sort of sensitivity to chicken. She has occasional bouts of vomiting no other symptoms, randomly after eating and it seems like she ALWAYS vomits after we eat chicken. Never with processed stuff like nuggets, but whenever we have a nice well prepared meal with chicken she throws it up. I don't ever force food down because I know it will come up. When she tells me she's done, she's done. When she was a baby I gave up on feeding her the jarred chicken, because that never stayed down. Can't seem to find any info on it and my hubby thinks I'm nuts.

I am very interested to know what this problem could be. I have a 22 mth old that has been experiencing the same symptoms.He can goweeks without any issues and sometimes it can happen 2 or 3 times a week.

jeni0922 - Our son was vomiting every 8 to 10 weeks. These episodes occurred only at night, and he was usually fine during the day. Each episode lasted 2 - 3 days. After months of testing and meds, he was diagnosed with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome which is also known as “Abdominal Migraine”. We took our son for neurofeedback sessions which re-train the brain. Neurofeedback was originally developed to help individuals with epilepsy. As it turned out, our son had a small brain wave pattern which resembled epilepsy, and we discovered that there is also a condition known as “Abdominal Epilepsy'. After several neurofeedback sessions when he was 5, our son has not had a single recurrence of this condition – it was life-changing for us. You can get more information at this website: www.greatbrain.com. Hope this helps.

My daughter does the same thing! The throw up is very phlegm based not a lot of food at all followed by dry heaving. Sometimes it happens once sometimes 2 or 3 times. The pediatrician said they thought it could be what is called cyclical vomiting. The way they explained it to me is that it's almost like a migraine but in the stomach and is caused by stress. Not stress like you and I experience. They said the stress a child experience may be something very minor in our eyes but to them any little sudden change or event can trigger it. My daughter has not been diagnosed with this as it takes a while before you can get a diagnosis for it. You have to keep journals of the episodes and characteristics, times, and also what they ate that day or did that day as the triggers very from person to person. But it may be something you want to discuss with your son's pediatrician.

My daughter does the same thing! The throw up is very phlegm based not a lot of food at all followed by dry heaving. Sometimes it happens once sometimes 2 or 3 times. The pediatrician said they thought it could be what is called cyclical vomiting. The way they explained it to me is that it's almost like a migraine but in the stomach and is caused by stress. Not stress like you and I experience. They said the stress a child experience may be something very minor in our eyes but to them any little sudden change or event can trigger it. My daughter has not been diagnosed with this as it takes a while before you can get a diagnosis for it. You have to keep journals of the episodes and characteristics, times, and also what they ate that day or did that day as the triggers very from person to person. But it may be something you want to discuss with your son's pediatrician.

My 5 yr old started vomiting six days ago only at night. She wakes between 1 and 2 am vomits everything she ate or drank the day before. She has had diarrhea during the day. The dr was not sure why she only vomits at night started her on Zofran and Zantac. She took a full days dose and she still vomited last night. I fear she may be dehydrated because she's vomiting everything including gatorade.