Daughter will not swallow her saliva.

My daughter has been spitting all the time for the past year but now she is doing it all day and night. She is 5 yrs old. She carries around a towel now when we are home and continues to spit in it because she was using tons of paper towels, toilet tissue,etc. She says she cant swallow her spit because it makes her feel like she is going to throw up. Has anyone heard of this?

[RockRose]

I hadn't heard of this until now,  but when I googled "can't swallow spit" I got a LOT of hits.  You have to wade through the pornographic ones about swallowing vs. spitting (I think we all can guess what that's about)  there are a lot of them with your daughter's problem.

It sounds to me like an obsessive compulsive disorder related thing.  Does she have other compulsions?

[sassy8824]

Thank you, I will look it up! No, she does not have any other obsessions, but I think you may be on to something! Thank you!

[supermomma531]

Have you taken her to her doctor. What does he/she say? Maybe there is something truly wrong.Does she get some sort of funny taste in her mouth? Or maybe her reflex is really sensitive. Maybe she have to have some sort of therapy to learn how to swallow her saliva. How does she do when eating? Or drinking? This sounds kind of serious. Good Luck and Take Care!

[angelinamarina]

My daughter did this for a while..but it was after a really bad sore throat and she was afraid to swallow for a long time.  I think the doc can help you with this.