What causes vomiting in children?

Vomiting is a common disease in many children, and it occurs almost once or twice every year. Some cases are mild and can be cured quickly with proper treatment. Other cases are more severe, lasting a long time, and are very serious. Patients with vomiting are often accompanied by dehydration and electrolyte secretion disorders, which can be life-threatening. Many children now often vomit. In fact, there are many reasons for children's vomiting, including intestinal bacterial infection, intestinal inflammation, intussusception, and gastrointestinal inflammation, which can all lead to vomiting. Wrong medication, psychological problems, and excessive mental stress are also the causes of children's vomiting.

Causes of vomiting in children

There are many reasons for vomiting in children, including gastrointestinal infection, intussusception, pyloric obstruction, appendicitis, etc. Among them, gastrointestinal infection is the most common, including infections caused by rotavirus, adenovirus, enterovirus, etc. Eating inappropriate food is also a common cause of vomiting.

In addition to gastrointestinal diseases, diseases of other organs such as otitis media, urethritis, colds, meningitis, hydrocephalus, etc. can also cause vomiting. Allergies and poisoning caused by taking certain drugs such as salicylic acid, iron supplements, erythromycin antibiotics, etc. may also cause gastrointestinal reactions and vomiting.

In addition, many children vomit due to psychological problems and excessive stress. When children are forced to do things they don’t want to do, such as being forced to study or eat, feeling pressured by homework, or being afraid of going to school, vomiting will occur. Although this type of vomiting is not related to any disease, it should still be taken seriously.

In some cases, vomiting is not related to illness. For example, when a child cries too much, he will vomit. Some children vomit due to motion sickness or eating too much, but the causes of these situations are easy to find and generally do not require examination or treatment.

Problems that can be easily confused with vomiting

When caring for a nursing baby, it is easy to mistake spitting up for vomiting. Vomiting up is caused by the baby's esophagus being too short or the cardia of the stomach being closed too loosely, and there is gas in the stomach. Therefore, after feeding, the gas in the stomach will push the milk out, causing vomiting. Spitting up is not a disease, but is caused by improper feeding.

Careful observation will reveal that spitting up is different from vomiting. Spitting up only occurs in newborn babies or babies a few months after birth. Spitting up will not affect the child's appetite or mental state, and the baby's weight can also increase normally. Vomiting is different. When vomiting occurs, the child will show symptoms of listlessness, poor appetite, fever, and no weight gain or even weight loss.

Management of vomiting

When vomiting occurs, the first thing to do is to calm the child's emotions, do not let the child cry or shout, and immediately stop the suspected factors that cause vomiting, especially when there is a problem with the food, stop eating immediately.