night time vomiting

[Purrfctkty]

My son is 5 years old and is mildly Autistic with a phonetic speech impairment.  He also has some OCD.  Every so often, (about once a month) he will wake up in the middle of the night crying and then vomit a couple of times and then fall back to sleep an hour or so later. Now this has went on for several months, at first we thought he had caught a stomach bug, but this vomiting only happens at night and the next day he seems fine.  I have asked him if he was having a bad dream, but I don't think he understands exactly what I am asking him.  I have mentioned to him about him seeing his pediatrician but then he starts to cry and wimper.  Could his vomiting episodes be coming from his inability to deal with his emotions in his dreams?

Thank you.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

No, this could not occur. I would run this by the pediatrician. It may have to do with food ingestion prior to bedtime, or with crying on waking up and vomiting in response to the stress of crying. But dreaming per se and reacting to the dream directly will not promote vomiting.