8 Month Old Infant has Intermittent Vomiting
About 6 weeks ago my then 6 1/2 month old vomited in his sleep. It was not normal spitting up but total vomit. He threw up everything in his stomach and then dry heaved a few times until every bit of mucous was out. He cried a bit, I know it must have been painful. We bathed him, he became kind of lethargic and sleepy for a while and finally went back to sleep.
He was perfectly normal before and after this episode. Since then, over the past 6 weeks this has happened about once a week, sometimes twice a week. It is starting to freak me out a little bit. He always begins to vomit when he's sleeping so I'm terrified he's going to choke on his own throw-up. This happens during naptime and nighttime. Sometimes it takes a good 15 minutes before he completely empties his stomach - he wakes up and begins vomiting, then he stops a little while, then heaves up anything that's left.
My diet hasn't changed since he has been born and it hasn't mattered what I have fed him/not fed him. He has vomited after eating sweet potatoes, rice cereal (made w/breastmilk), squash, applesauce, oatmeal, sweet potatoes w/corn, peaches and straight breastmilk after nursing. This is all the food I can remember feeding him directly before vomiting although I'm sure there is more - probably a biter biscuit, cheerios, etc...
It doesn't happen every day. Today I took him to the pediatrician because he had a fever over the weekend and today he has a rash. The Dr. said he had adenovirus - which I feel is a generic term for "some kind of virus, I don't know what". I don't think the virus and rash are related to the vomiting - although he did vomit yesterday before he got the rash. The Dr. disagrees and thinks it is related and wants me to cut out high proteins like egg whites and peanuts - which I barely eat anyway. I'm a starchy loving, fruits & veggies kind of girl with a chicken breast for dinner.
If it's an allergy to something I'm eating, why start throwing up all of a sudden and not since he was born? Why not throw up after every feeding where he gets breastmilk? I'm not entirely satisfied with the answer and do not know how to proceed. Any advice/suggestions would truly be helpful.