Vomiting in Children and its Types

Vomiting in infants and children is very common since it may be associated with numerous conditions. Among the most frequent causes are allergy, car sickness, infections, cutting of teeth, gastrointestinal infections or upsets, pylorospasm, pyloric stenoses, poisons, intussusception and other intestinal obstructions, psychogenic causes, pressure on the brain, and lack of normal amount of sugar in the blood.

Vomiting is not to be confused with regurgitation, which is simply the spitting up of food after eating. This is usually caused by a bubble of air in the stomach. As a rule it is of no significance. It is very common in the newborn and young infant. Regurgitation of this type usually subsides and disappears before a child is six months of age. In a few instances it may continue as long as a year.

The time-honored method of preventing regurgitation due to air-swallowing is “burping the baby” - holding the infant upright over the shoulder and patting him gently on the back until he “brings up a bubble.” A certain amount of air is bound to be swallowed with food, but things such as thumb sucking or a slow nipple may aggravate the condition.

There are a number of types of vomiting. Vomiting as such is due to the expulsive force of the stomach. If the force is very marked, as in pylorospasm or pyloric stenosis, the undigested or partly digested food is vomited out with such force that it is thrown one to two feet from the body. This is called projectile vomiting. Vomiting which is immediate would signify either an irritated or sensitive stomach, an allergy to a specific food, or a marked narrowing or closure of the esophagus (gullet). Vomiting which is yellow signifies that in the course of stomach contractions bile has been sucked in from the intestines below. Blood in the vomitus or “coffee­ground” vomitus may occur when capillaries bleed in the course of severe vomiting. It may also be a sign of a serious blood condition where capillaries are fragile. This is always an indication that a physician should be called.

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