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Fridaynight · Aug 19, 2009, 09:24 AM

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.

Fridaynight · Aug 19, 2009, 09:27 AM

I forgot to add that he has also eaten every one of the foods mentioned above just fine, without vomiting later on, both before and after the vomiting episodes started.

atfiv · Sep 1, 2009, 02:38 AM

Fridaynight,
Unfortunately, I do not have an answer but after spending most of the early AM searching for our Granddaughter's symptoms your child's scenario is almost on-target with our daughter's 6.5 month old. They are as follows:
- up to 5 months old, breast feeding and all things normal
- about a 1.5 months ago at approximately 5 months my daughter was advised to start the solid food process – baby food mush, the normal product bought at the grocery – everything seemed normal and there were several successful feedings of various foods until after several days she vomited – all stomach contents, of which I believe was sweet potato – after the vomiting she went lethargic, eyes closed and she lost neck control, or so it appeared. 911 was called at the restaurant (we were out to eat) and panic pursued. Prior to the paramedic's arrival some folks were prepared to do CPR of which I intervened sighting “she had not lost her color” , she was still breathing and slowly coming out of this seizure like condition. We spent the night in the hospital and the final diagnosis was she probably choked on the vomit and self-recovered.
- My daughter could not bring herself to start the baby food process again even though her doc said to start it up immediately. Once she finally started it again she experienced about 2 good weeks of baby food then it happened again yesterday. Same scenario but this time it was oatmeal.

The little one is back in the hospital and a series of tests are being performed to try and isolate/define the cause. The significant difference is your child's fever and the frequency (once a week) but, for the most part, very similar.

Wishing you luck and success with diagnosing the cause.

aeslater · Sep 26, 2009, 04:45 PM

This also happened to my 5 1/2 month old son at the beginning of September, he is now 6 1/2 months old and it is still happening occasionally. It seems to be related to baby food, but he had previously done fine with them all - rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes. And he is fed breastmilk, so it's not a problem with the formula. He vomits everything he has then continues to dry heave. Lethargic afterwards.

TheBeansMom · Dec 30, 2009, 02:39 PM

This is currently happening to my son as well. The scenerios are almost identical (with the exception of the poor child who choked on the vomit and was sent to the hospital). It started with rice cereal mixed with breastmilk and now has happened again with bananas. With both foods, he starts fine--enjoying the food and responding well to it. Then, several weeks into the new diet, he wakes vomiting, empties his stomach, becomes lathargic and falls back to sleep. At first, I thought he was allergic to rice cereal, or something in it (although I used organic), so I tried straight bananas. And, I thought he was doing well with the bananas until this afternoon during his nap when he repeated the same thing. I'm going to my doctor in less than a week and am going to print off this thread and hopefully get some answers. Anyone here having any more luck with their babies?

jtrisdale · May 20, 2010, 08:03 PM

This is currently happening with my 7 and a half month old granddaughter. Has anyone found a solution or diagnosis?

TheBeansMom · May 21, 2010, 04:09 PM

Back when I responded to this question, my son was vomiting and spitting up all of the time. He is now 11 months old and doing quite well. The doctor told us that she believed he had Delayed Gastric Emptying but decided to not do testing since it would expose him to a significant amount of radiation with the testing. Instead, she prescribed the drug Reglan for him. Before I filled the prescription, however, I did some research on the drug Reglan. From what I have learned, it is a nasty drug. In fact, there are numerous class action lawsuits against the makers of the drug for the harmful and oftentimes, irreversable, side-effects from this drug. I decided to not use it for my son on the basis that that although the vomiting was worrysome and unsettling, my son was still thriving and gaining weight. I also knew that I would be a disaster the entire time he was on the medicine with the enormous potential for side-effects. So, we waited and as hard as it was in the meantime, he outgrew the problem and is fine today. I hope so much this is the same outcome with your granddaughter. Please let me know if I can help you with anything else! Best of luck!

TheBeansMom · May 21, 2010, 04:09 PM

Back when I responded to this question, my son was vomiting and spitting up all of the time. He is now 11 months old and doing quite well. The doctor told us that she believed he had Delayed Gastric Emptying but decided to not do testing since it would expose him to a significant amount of radiation with the testing. Instead, she prescribed the drug Reglan for him. Before I filled the prescription, however, I did some research on the drug Reglan. From what I have learned, it is a nasty drug. In fact, there are numerous class action lawsuits against the makers of the drug for the harmful and oftentimes, irreversable, side-effects from this drug. I decided to not use it for my son on the basis that that although the vomiting was worrysome and unsettling, my son was still thriving and gaining weight. I also knew that I would be a disaster the entire time he was on the medicine with the enormous potential for side-effects. So, we waited and as hard as it was in the meantime, he outgrew the problem and is fine today. I hope so much this is the same outcome with your granddaughter. Please let me know if I can help you with anything else! Best of luck!

jaimem · May 3, 2011, 08:08 AM

I am having this issue with my 8 1/2 month old daughter right now... is there anything else anyone has found?

Fridaynight · May 3, 2011, 08:30 AM

Wow, Thanks so much for all of your responses! It is nice to know I haven't been alone. My son is now over 2 years old. I did end up cutting out all peanuts and other nuts from my diet and it helped considerably. He did outgrow the vomiting altogether at around 10 months old. He can eat peanut butter and nuts just fine today. Some other odd things that have happened since then are that my son, at 15 months old suddenly became overly sensitive to dairy. I had weaned him off breastmilk and onto regular formula and then from formula onto regular whole milk. He had been drinking whole milk, eating yogurt and cheese and anything else with dairy in it from 1 year old until 16 months old when he got sick, had a nasty bought of diahrea and then could no longer drink whole milk. He would get a horrible tummy ache, diahrea again and really bad diaper rash anytime he had dairy. I made buttermilk pancakes once and he groaned in pain all day long. When nursing, I drank milk all the time and he didn't seem to have a problem with it. The pediatrician was baffled, as was the food & allergy specialist. We had to cut out milk altogether and put him on soymilk. We have very slowly been adding dairy back into his diet to see how he does. He can now eat cheese and ice cream and buttermilk pancakes just fine but if he drinks regular milk (skim, 1%, 2% or whole) he gets terrible diahrea and a diaper rash again. I'm tired of seeing the allergist so we're just going to keep him on soymilk, the allergist couldn't offer any answers anyway. His weight gain is fine, he's healthy and happy and active. It's completely weird to me that he can eat one food one day and have GI issues with it the next and then go back to eating it months later. Good luck to all of you and thanks for contributing!

Kdandkayla · Apr 23, 2012, 11:04 AM

Sounds like your little one had FPIES

http://thefpiesfoundation.org/aboutfpies.html

http://www.iaffpe.org/what_is_fpies.html

Mica2011 · May 13, 2012, 07:45 PM

My 81/2 month old daughter suffers from something similar. She has had three episodes (each being a couple of months apart) where she will have vomiting, lethargy, and become completely pale. I assumed the first was a reaction to dairy so I took it out of both of our diets. She has a milk protein allergy. She is breast fed and supplements with Elecare. The next two episodes were so severe that I couldn't wake her and we ended up in the ER. They have done x-rays, ultrasounds, upper GI tests, allergy tests, EEG, etc. We are waiting for some results to come back. She is thriving & reaching all milestones. She stays at home and does not go to day care. She was tested for berries, oat, rice, and mangos and all allergies came back negative. Her IGe levels were low. I'm requesting a more comprehensive allergy test and plan on meeting with a GI again. I'm praying she has had bad luck with stomach flus and that it's nothing more. Anyone else out there still dealing with something similar that might have answers..?

Kdandkayla · May 14, 2012, 04:17 AM

How long after does your little one react after eating? If its 1 1/2 - 3 hrs most likely FPIES especially if allergy tests are negative. It sounds like a classic case. My baby started at 6 months w solids. He would eat and almost on the dot 1 1/2 hr later vomit his guts out and go into shock a couple times. He would get pale, floppy, lethargic, & diarrhea most of the time. It's very scary. I'm exclusively breastfeeding now.
Read this short def on fpies
http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=99