morning vomiting in teen boy

[KatC94]

I am writing on behalf of my son.  He is almost 17 and has had issues with morning nausea and vomiting for several years.  It comes and goes and lasts 3-5 days.  It will wake him up in the morning for several days and he will either vomit (most often only once) or feel nauseous for an hour or so and then is perfectly fine the rest of the day.  When it ends he is fine for several weeks before it starts again.  He is otherwise very healthy and active although quite thin, even on the edge of being underweight.  He normally has a good appetite except during these episodes when he seems to get full very quickly.

I am hoping for some insight on what could be causing this or how to help with it.  I strongly believe it is NOT linked to stress (I have been doing a lot of online research and this has come up often) as he is a very confident person and not at all a worrier.

thanks so much for any help.
Kat

[Clinicaesperanza]

I am a school nurse. Generally I can see these symptoms in boys from the 4th to the 12 grade. The endocrine system is so interconnected and delicate. One small hormonal fluctuation sets off a firestorm or symptoms. Cortisol levels and inadequate sleep is a key component.  I did a informal albeit direct history of some of these boys families. For some of the boys fathers they remember stretches of nausea and vomiting episodes. The events went unnoticed because A. Boys were more independent thus weren´t under a microscope B. Their Moms, perhaps  with good perception rules out viral, or bacterial causes.
  Unrelated to this thread but relevant,  a Childrenś hospital pain center nurse discussed not asking children with headaches and pain, if they are having headaches and pain !  Finally carefully consider if this happens when they are away from home? What days of the week? If its all about missing work at school, schedule a meeting with Guidance and administration to adjust schedule and get the work done. His doctor will accommodate with written orders. No 504 if its for the a quarter to test the adjustment.

[sjselin]

Hi, I'm just curious how hormonal fluctuations could cause nausea and vomiting and how does lack of sleep fit into all of this? Could you elaborate a bit more? Thanks in advance.

[TheLorax13]

Just as an FYI

Info on CVS:
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/cyclic-vomiting-syndrome

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cyclic-vomiting-syndrome/basics/definition/CON-20028160

http://www.medicinenet.com/cyclic_vomiting_syndrome_cvs/article.htm

I'm still struggling with my son's issue. He's had this for the last month and missed too much school. Now we're having to look into getting him into a Section 504 plan. :/

http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/section-504-2/

[TheLorax13]

I would also suggest searching for the Cyclic Vomiting Association website. They have a lot of good information and a forum where you can communicate with other people with CVS.

[TheLorax13]

Just as an update, we are STILL struggling with this issue. His nausea finally stopped being daily late in 2017. Then in about April of this year it started up again. We are still pursuing testing including genetic testing and we're going to go seen an endocrinologist. As usual, his blood work shows him to be perfectly healthy. This is such a frustrating disorder. He is doing online school again this year and started off feeling nauseous right around the start of the year and then had a week long bout of vertigo to cap it off.  Once the vertigo was gone, he's been nauseous pretty much all day every day. He is still eating and keeping a positive attitude and we're looking into it but it's very worrisome to his mother and I.  

[Syberchick70]

My son is 10. He's thin, but not tall and he doesn't have long fingers or anything. He is having trouble sleeping, he is feeling nauseated and gagging in the mornings and apparently he just hallucinated, although I'm wondering if that isn't due to lack of sleep. I do not want to subject him to the torturous process of lots of testing. He is hyper sensitive to needles and gags on most liquid meds. He has also had something going on for a long time. He says it burns when he pees (no issues found by Dr). I gave him an antacid this morning and that seemed to help after he managed to get it down. I'm hoping someone has ideas. :/

[TheLorax13]

Has anyone made any progress with this?  

My son just turned 16 and has had this same thing for probably 3 years now. Episodically (every month or two) he will feel queasy and retch every few minutes off and on for a few days and then it just goes away for weeks or even months.

For the longest time he never actually threw up but this morning he finally did start throwing up. Otherwise he is very healthy.

We eat very clean here at our house and have removed as many environmental and chemical toxins from our household as possible.  

Like everyone else posted, he's tall and thin but not too thin for his height. He's about 6' 2" or so right now. I'm not sure of his weight but I don't believe he's under weight.

This has been driving me crazy. Luckily I work from home so I've been able to help but he misses school way too often.

Does anyone have any updates on this?

[TheLorax13]

Update: That was April 13 and it's not May 17th and this has been ongoing nearly the entire time.

We went to a doctor who thought it might be an allergy to eggs. We cut out eggs as well as refined sugar for the most part and he's avoiding having sugar with dairy at her request. None of this seems to have helped.  

We had a metabolic panel and blood count done and everything was perfectly normal.

We are going in today for an ultrasound to see if they find anything. Does anyone else have any updates? The anxiety is starting to get to me. :(

[melodie308]

My son has had every test ran and I paid to have him tested for food sensitivities. We still cannot figure it out :/

[Fezell]

I have a 12 year old soon to be 13 & he has had these same symptoms going on 3 years.  We have taken him to several doctors & have ran several test.  All we get is his stomach produces s lot of acid due to nerves.  We have started homeschooling this year so he has zero stress nor peer pressure, it has slowed down but is still happening a few times a month.  I just want to know what it is & how to make it stop.  He too is very y’all & thin & now has low immunity.  ????? Anyone have any idea or updates???

[TheLorax13]

My son still has issues. Neurologist tried some migraine meds with the hope that it is abdominal migraines and they seem to help remove the nausea with the caveat that they cause dizziness and lack of focus so while he feels better he is still unable to do any work for school.

Recently he's been just toughing it through as much as possible. Lots of rest and work when he can. We all got sick with a cold in Jan and that brought the nausea back pretty strong for a while again. Now it's more of a dull roar. :/  

I've been posting on the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association message board about my story. You will find current threads there talking about this type of issue.

[Atally82]

My son is 16 and he is having the same issues it's been going on for 3 years I initially thought it was hormones we just recently went to the doctor and got blood work done and now I'm on pins and needles waiting for the doctor to tell me if it's anything serious I'm so worried

[Jonene]

My son has been going through the exact same thing, he is 15 and is waking up every morning gagging and vomiting, its mainly just fluid. He has a rare kidney disease and I called the renal nurse to discuss this and she reassured me its nothing to do with his kidneys. She seems to think it's reflux. As a baby he suffered from reflux terribly so I am hoping this is all it is. But it is reassuring that I am not the only one who is going through this. I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday so fingers crossed we can get an answer

[villa1981]

My son is 17. He started throwing up a few days ago, but we live in Palm Springs which is a desert, so I immediately thought dehydration. The next day he threw up again, then I had him miss a day of school for rest and hydrating. Today he went back and threw up at lunch and 5th period. So maybe its something else. He says he feels fine besides the random nausea which causes the vomiting. He also had a couple nosebleeds throughout the summer, but then again we were at 117 sometimes so I always blamed the heat, but now its only in the upper 90's so its not dehydration. I will get doctors app, but in the meantime hes on ginger tea (which recently cured me of daily heartburn and fatigue) and also apple cider vinegar as it has antibacterial properties for bacterial situations. I will post again if I figure this out as it seems noone comes back to follow up with the outcomes, and its really sad to watch your kid throw up.

[Hail33]

Hi all, my son is in pretty much the same case as everyone on here.  He's 14 years old and for the last 6 weeks has woken up nearly every morning retching and bringing up bile.  He can't eat breakfast and he has little appetite all day, although the vomiting only occurs in the morning.  He's had a blood test, stool test, urine test, 2 scans and everything is in order!  The doc thinks it may be psychological, caused by underlying stress, yet my son seems to be fine.  He has no problems at school, with work, friends etc and he has an older sister who he usually confides in when he has a problem, so I find it difficult to imagine it's just a stress problem.  I'm now wondering if this could be a hormonal problem, like teenage 'growing pains' as there seems to be no other explanation.  I'm reassured to know that there are others experiencing the same thing and I sympathise with everyone on here as it's awful to watch this happen to your child and to be so helpless!  I'm going to take him back to the doc and mention some of the possibilities that people on here have talked about, but I'll also come back to this thread to see if anyone comes up with other possible explanations.  Good luck everyone.