Child dizzyness vomitting light sensitivity episodes

[cindycrawford06]

My six-year-old has had strange, recurring episodes of dizzyness with vomitting and light sensitiviy.  They usually start at night...she will cry for her sister to go get me, screaming that she is dizzy.  Then she vomits all over herself, usually hours after her first complaints, usually all over her bed.  She doesn't even try to get up to make it to the bathroom.  She does not run a fever, have diarrhea or a headache or any other symptoms associated with a virus.  She also can eat during these times, but if she moves too much she throws up again.  The first time that I took notice of it happing (I think there may be other times that I have written off to a kid being a kid) I thought it was viral....the second time coincidence....the third time I'm concerned.  I'm not counting a week that started with an obvious stomach virus and ended with a week of these symptoms......they thought she had spinal meningitis but we never tested her for it because she got better very suddenly after twelve hours of observation.  Sometimes she is ok during the day after a night episode, sometimes not.  For example, night before last she did this but then was fine all day yesterday.  Then last night she did it again but the symptoms have continued into the day today.  She is eating and drinking today but is propped up in a dark room because she is dizzy and light-sensitive and throws up when she moves her head too much.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why she has these episodes.  She had one last week and a month before.  She gets ten hours of sleep every night and eats well.  There is a history of migraines in the family both for me and my husband, but she usually does not complain of a headache during these episodes.  We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, but we are military and our primary care physician is a P.A. so I like to go in armed with ideas because sometimes things have to get really bad, particularly with children, before the military takes it seriously.  Usually I can look things up on the internet and find relavent information, but this baffles me.  I'd appreciate any insights because she has lost a lot of school days this year to this mysterious thing.  Thanks.

[cindycrawford06]

A related discussion, FINALLY found out the answer was started.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
There are a few possibilities.
“Basilar artery migraine
Basilar migraine (BM), also known as Bickerstaff syndrome, consists of headache accompanied by dizziness, ataxia, tinnitus, decreased hearing, nausea and vomiting, dysarthria, diplopia, loss of balance, bilateral paresthesias or paresis, altered conscious..
Cyclic vomiting syndrome
A rare disorder involving repeated cyclic episodes of vomiting which occur for no obvious reason....r
Subarachnoid hemorrhage
Brain bleeding in the subarachnoid area..”

Refer: http://symptoms.wrongdiagnosis.com/cosymptoms/dizziness/photophobia/vomiting-desc.htm

Also you cannot rule out irritation of the brain. Your daughter definitely needs to see a neurologist.
It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!