Children's Nausea

[Brock]

My 7 year old son has had re-occurring Nausea since he was about 2 years old.  He never actually vomits, just runs through the symptoms of feeling Nauseaus.  During the past year we've noticed that 80% of the time it happens when he goes to school!  However, sometimes it just happens when we are at the Mall or at home. One of his teachers suggested that it is probably "school stress-related" but he likes school and does above average and has many friends (it's a private christian school).  To see him going through the nausea symptoms is to realize that he isn't faking it!  We've taken him to several different Pediatricians and none have been able to find anything wrong with him.  He's had tests done, including blood tests, but none have revealed anything.  He is otherwise a very healthy, active boy.  It is obvious he has something but no one has been able to help us at all.  His Physician seems fed up with us bringing up this matter every year but he offers no solutions.  Any advise would be appreciated.

[JennyB01]

A related discussion, 11 year old nausea was started.

[Kyle's Mom]

My 5 yr old was having problems with nausea and didn't want to eat.  Turns out he had an overgrowth of Candidia yeast and he is allergic to Candidia.  After a few weeks on Nystatin, and virtually eliminating sugar, yeast breads, sodas and everything we can with corn syrup, etc. plus taking an acidophilus with every meal he is eating like he's never eaten before, put on 6 lbs and actually ASKS for food.

[bcollie]

My 5 yr old was having problems with nausea and didn't want to eat.  Turns out he had an overgrowth of Candidia yeast and he is allergic to Candidia.  After a few weeks on Nystatin, and virtually eliminating sugar, yeast breads, sodas and everything we can with corn syrup, etc. plus taking an acidophilus with every meal he is eating like he's never eaten before, put on 6 lbs and actually ASKS for food.

[Concerned Mom]

Brock, don't feel alone, my husband and I are going though the same type thing. My daughter has had nausea for six months and has had several diagnose and procedures. At first her doctor thought constipation, and although she was constipated when that was cleared up she  still had nausea only worse. I'm talking about having nausea all the time. She then had an endoscopy done and they found she had acid reflux with can cause nausea, but with medication for acid reflux the nausea still did not disappear. We are now trying anti-nausea meds and my doctor is now suggeating it is stress related but I do not believe this.
My doctor also seems confused and close to giving up and I consider him to be a great doctor. My suggestion to you is don't give up, get another doctor is need be. Acid reflux does cause nauseous reactions so if they havent checked that out yet they should. My daughter is healthy and active too, but nausea had been something she has come to live with, I hope we find a answer too.

[shelley]

My 2yr old stopped eating at about 11mos he is still on the bottle because im afraid he's starving.  I've noticed he looks sick at his stomach, and he either hiccups, or salivates more.  Having my one and only bout with GERD this summer led me to wonder if he could having a reflux problem.  So I look it up on the internet and it keeps refering to H. Pyloris bacteria(ulcers and all)which brings me to my 10yr old who has suffered with encopresis since he was about 4.  Could this all be related? and I've though about giving my 2yr old a dose of pepto in the morning and seeing how it goes.  I plan to have my 10yr old tested within the next week for the h. pyloris bug and if he's + we will all be tested.

[shelley]

My 2yr old stopped eating at about 11mos
he is still on the bottle because im
afraid he's starving.  I've noticed he
looks sick at his stomach, and he either
hiccups, or salivates more.  Having my
one and only bout with GERD this summer
led me to wonder if he could having a
reflux problem.  So I look it up on the
internet and it keeps refering to H.
Pyloris bacteria(ulcers and all)which
brings me to my 10yr old who has suffered
with encopresis since he was about 4.  
Could this all be related? and I've
though about giving my 2yr old a dose of
pepto in the morning and seeing how it
goes.  I plan to have my 10yr old tested
within the next week for the h. pyloris
bug and if he's + we will all be tested.

[cheri]

Please remove my last name.

[Cheri Alvarez]

My daughter has had fainting spells, nausea, dizziness since she was3 years old.  This started the day after some childhood vacinations.  She usually only faints once a year.  She is now 11 years old.  The last faint was approximately one year ago.  She has had blood work, x-rays, MRI, encelphlogram, EKG's.  Absolutely nothing shows up.  She is very thin, A student (over achiever).  She tells us that she really doesn't know what its like to feel normal, as she is dizzy and nauseated alot.  If she over exurts herself physically then these symptoms get worse.  She also has had digestive problems recently.  Such as diahrea and loud belching.   In the last year the top of her hairline seems to be receding.   She seems to feel the worst in the mornings so we have trouble gettting her to eat well in the mornings.  The doctor doesn't seem to know the problem.  Should we have metabolic tests?  We are lost.  We want to see her feel better as this is now starting to depress her.   Please responsd as soon as you can.

[Our experience]

Dear Brock:  Our daughter is 11 now, but when she was in first grade she started having nausea to the point I would have to take her out of school when they called.  She is an honor student, loves school, but somewhat shy so we thought stress might be involved.  Summertime was better, but when school started so did worsening of her nausea, (but never throwing up).  We went through the tests, ultrasound and whathaveyou.  All was relatively normal.   She always seemed better at home, but did have her moments.  Sometimes I felt it was to get attention or to get out of whatever it was we wanted her to do, so it was hard to discern between the real nausea and the fake one.  We noticed when she was feeling really bad we would take her temperature and it would always be around 100.  The school did the same thing and by policy we had to bring her home if it was 100.  I'd get home and her temperature would be back to normal.  Finally, after a visit to a pediatric gastroenterologist he explained that when she has an episode that her temperature rises as her body's way of reacting to the pain or nausea, but that it wasn't a fever necessarily.  Well, he did an EGD and said her stomach looked fine, no ulcers, but that she did have a little hernia.  At that point we still had no answers to her chronic pain and nausea.  Well, the biopsy of the lining of her stomach revealed "chronic severe inflammation", meaning that her stomach had been inflammed for years, but was not detectable to the doctor's eye when he did the procedure.  He was surprised, but said he's seen this before and that it was caused from a virus she had sometime early in life that settled in her stomach.  So, once it became inflammed then the stomach acid made it worse - which explained why eating didn't always help.  He put her on a prescription stomach acid reducer, called a proton pump inhibitor, so it would allow her stomach to heal without the acid.  She took it for three months and we have a new child now.  I feel bad she had to endure years of discomfort, but you have to insist on answers from your medical doctor if everything else checks out.  One doctor said all her problems was due to a move we made.  While sometimes that may be true, I had to remind them this started years before the move.  Good luck to you and your son.  Push for more testing and answers.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Brock,

I don't think it is likely that this behavior has a psychogenic origin, though it may be precipitated by stress. It would be wise to schedule a consultation with a pediatric gastroenterologist to determine the cause of your son's discomfort.