Vomiting

Many common childhood illnesses can cause vomiting, so you should expect your child to throw up several times. Vomiting usually ends quickly without treatment but knowing this doesn't make it any more comfortable for you or your child. Pediatric Consultants of Wisconsin uses these guidelines to help a child who is vomiting:

• Give your child 1 ounce of a clear fluid, such as Pedialyte, white soda or water, two hours after his or her last episode.
• If your child keeps the liquid down for one hour, increase the amount of liquid by one more ounce each hour.
• If your child cannot keep 1 ounce of the liquid down, wait one more hour and try again. If your child continues to vomit after this, a medical professional should see the child.
• After six hours of no vomiting, introduce a bland diet, such as crackers or dry cereal.
• Diarrhea can typically follow in a child who has been vomiting. If this happens, begin the B.R.A.T. diet, which consists of bananas, rice, applesauce and toast.

Some conditions that cause vomiting require immediate medical treatment, so be alert for the following symptoms, whatever your child's age:

• Blood or bile (a green-colored material) in the vomit.
• Severe abdominal pain.
• Strenuous, repeated vomiting.
• Swollen abdomen.
• Lethargy or severe irritability.
• Convulsions.
• Signs or symptoms of dehydration, including dry mouth, absent tears, depression of the "soft spot" on a baby's head, lethargy and decreased urination.
• Inability to drink adequate amounts of fluid.
• Vomiting that continues longer than 24 hours.

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