Daughter vomiting after meals and through the night

[Starscape76]

My daughter is six years old about 37 pounds, I am not sure of her height but she is above the normal for her age.She has been vomiting spuratically for the past year. Her doctor ran blood tests in Feb of 02.I brought her back this Oct. because the vomiting is happening every other day and the stomach pains are almost every day.This has nothing to do with her bowel movements. 10 to 20 minutes after a meal she gets really bad pains and vomits.  Sometimes it can be a couple hours.She is waking in the night to vomit also.None of her doctors ran any other tests yet they just put her on Zantac 12ccper day and said it was probably reflux. Yet the vomiting still has not subsided. She has lost 15lbs. Since Sept 1st.I feel helpless because there is nothing I can do.This is affecting her school work because she is constantly in the bathroom at school vomiting.What kinds of tests should I request? Her vomiting went from 3 times a month to progressing at a rapid rate as I have explained above. I am almost sure it is not an allergy because it is all sorts of food that she is eating. She has a loss of energy, at times she will come home from school and go directly to bed at 5:30p and not wake till the next morn. Her face is pale and she has pink circles under her eyes.We basically have to take a bucket every where we go.If anyone can please help I would greatly appreciate it. Joyce

[Kdown11]

I too elect the gastric emptying test for Gastroparesis. I was diagnosed a year and half ago and it is horrible to live through. I ate radioactive eggs....tasted like McDonalds....isnt that a scary thought! Good luck!

[ChickenBriar]

I've been making it my mission to spread the word about Gastroparesis.  I watched my wife go through more than a year of incorrect diagnosis when a Gastric Emptying Test would have diagnosed her very quickly.  I third the motion to have her tested for Gastroparesis.  There aren't too many doctors who know a whole lot about it, but it is often overlooked.  I'm glad to see 4gpact suggesting this as well.  Yahoo groups has a gastroparesis group for people suffering with it.  Here is a link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gastroparesis/.  These are a good group of people with similar problems.

[rhyanen]

You may want to check into Celiac disease.  My 2 year old son used to vomit after meals very often too.  he would also wake up gagging and vomiting in the middle of the night.  He was constantly tired and lethargic, had the same circles under his eyes, losing weight rapidly,  among some other symptoms.  He was miserable.  We finally had him tested for celiac disease, just a simple blood test, and it showed positive.  But to confirm the disease, he had to have a small bowel biopsy, which showed the damage to his small intestine.  If I were you, I would get in with a very good pediatric gastroenterologist and demand a celiac panel to be done on your daughter.  If any of the tests on that panel show even weakly positive, I would suggest a small bowel biopsy(EGD) be done.  Also check out the celiac.com website for more information on this common, but underdiagnosed disorder. The site also has a list of doctors recommended by celiac patients throughout the US and other countries.  you may want to look into that as a possibility.  Good luck and keep us posted.

rhyanen

[juliana]

so sorry to hear about your daughter it must be awful for you to watch. Did your daughter ever have a gastric emptying study. I get a pain just where she does and have been told I have slow gastric emptying, hope this is of some help all the best

geraldine

[4gpact]

I agree about the stomach emptying, or gastric emptying test. It is an often undiagnosed condition; I know this because I also have a stomach motility disorder (gastroparesis). Never heard of it before I found out I had it myself. It is not a difficult test, you eat a small meal with an isotope (no taste), and lay on a table while they take pictures of how your stomach moves. It is done in the am. I think you should ask about it. If you do get that for a diagnosis, search the internet for more info. Most gi docs don't know a lot about it.
Good luck.

[mom5kids]

Sound alot like my daughter except that my daughter is sixteen. She vomits after every thing she eats, although not immediately. Some days, she vomits through the night also. The mornings tend to be the worst, we have had to pull her out of her school and home school her because she's missed so many days. She's going to another specialist next week, then probaby for more tests. All that they've found so far is a hiatal hernia and a small amount of reflux. She's a small girl anyway, I'm concerned about her not getting enough to eat. Let me know if you find anything that helps - good luck with your little one!

[Starscape76]

I forgot to add she has no cough or pain that is associated with heartburn or reflux, her pain comes from 2 inches above her belly button right in the center of her stomach.