Gagging and Vomitting

I am wondering if anyone else has something similar with any of their kids?
My DS2 will be 5yrs old in August. As a baby, he had alot of ear infections and had grommets put in twice and his adenoids removed. It was suspected he had large tonsils, that seemed to right itself.

When he gags on food he not only throws back the food he is gagging on, also his whole stomach contents. Anytime he chokes on food (which is quite regularly) he will vomit up that and everything else. It's like the valve in his throat doesn't work properly.
He wil then continue to eat. I now keep a bowl or bucket near him just in case. He has come home from creche a couple of times in a complete change of clothes due to him gagging then vomitting.

I am thinking it's time to have this checked out as it happens quite often.

Does anyone else have a child that does this or know what could be the cause?

TIA

I don't have any experience with it, but I think you are right to have it checked out. Maybe he has a sensitive gag reflex or perhaps there is something physical that can be fixed. Does it bother him? Vomiting all the time can't be fun.

i would also get him checked, as JM said he may have a very strong gag reflex

Thanks for the responses. I have booked him in to our GP next Thursday. I really have no idea what they can do about it. Perhaps a referral back the ENT maybe?
We have a had few more episodes since this post, so even it turns out to be nothing, at least I have peace of mind of getting it checked out.

how did you go?

Thanks Olive.

I have a referral for a Paediatric Gastroenteroligist. I am going to sit on it for a while and see how he goes.
I asked my SIL who is Speech Path and explained the symptons. She said it could be a small airway.
If I go ahead, he would probably get a referral for a Barium drink investigation, my SIL explained this may not show up anything and may need to go in an have a look.

We have had one or two episodes, lots of coughing and spluttering, so I think I will ring later in the week, see how long (I am assuming a very long wait) and book him in and decided between now and the appointment.

It's such a tough one, he is a happy thriving boy otherwise.

Well I have him booked in for Dr Barry Lipschitz at Cabrini Childrens Centre 11th July. Not as long waiting as I thought.
They said I would be out of pocket $125 for the initial consultation, again I was surprised as I thought it would be alot more.

I decided to go ahead as I would really kick myself if it was something we could acutally 'fix' or control. He starts school next year so I also didn't want phone calls from school about him vomitting.
I have just had one from Kinder and had to explain that it's just him and I am having him investigated, have had this from creche also. They said he was fine, just letting me know as gastro has been going around.

I also have a SIL who is a Dietitian and she said it's not really normal.

I just hope it turns out to be nothing, he is just such and easy going, loving and nice boy (biased of course) and has already had to deal with specialists and anaesthetics for other things.

im glad you're having it looked into and hope its nothing serious!

That's great they can see him so quickly.
Let us know how he goes. :)

Heather only just come across this now but how often does it happen? Only asking cos my DS2 is similar to an extent, he will vomit when his tummy is over full (i presume anyway). He full on projectile vomits on sour cream even if it in something that has a minute amount and is virtually cooked out but is ok to have yogurt etc. I know it isn't allergies cos it only happens occasionally. Even a couple of weeks ago he did the biggest vomit in his bed from having water, the whole stomach contents come up it was massive.

It can happen up to twice a week. It will go in spurts. He will be OK for a while then he eats something and out it and the rest of stomach contents come.
He was similar to your DS2 with dairy as baby. We went through all the allergy testing and it was not conclusive, so we were advised to avoid dairy for a while and slowly re-introduce it. It's funny, as it was more in cooked foods rather uncooked dairy.

His seems to more a valve issue I think or the food goes down the wrong way and his pallet or valve can't sort out what to do and he just vomits after much gagging, coughing and spluttering, if that makes sense. My SIL is Speech Path in another State and asked her about it and she said even if he puts too much food in his mouth, his system still should only take little bits a time and this is not quite normal.

I am pretty sure he doesn't have any food intolerances and I think the vomiting when he was little was similar to what I am going through now rather than the dairy? It's been going on for quite some time.

I have been advised by my GP that this specialist has quite and interest in these sorts of cases, so hopefully we will get some answers.

We saw the specialist today. He is going in next week to have a laprascope investigation on his oesophogus. He is being checked out for EOSINOPHILIC OESOPHAGITIS. It is a suspicion at the moment and will know more next week. Basically it's like fibroids in the oesophogus and can make it swell a little making it difficult for food to get down so it comes back up. Think that's it in plain english anyway.
I will know more next week.
This specialist was fantastic, thorough and took his time with DS2. It's his field and he has written papers on this condition. It's a start, funnily enough, DS2 was eating a sanwhich while we were waiting to Dr Lipshchitz and it came back up :lol:, so very timely.

I was cleaning out my old threads and came across this one!
It turned out he does actually have Eosinophilic Oesophagitis, he has a very high white blood cell count all down his oesophogus, causing the ridges, it's supposed to be around 15 and his was well over 40. He was put on Buedesonide to be taken orally mixed with splenda sugar. It cleared up. As soon as we stopped the steroids, it came back within a month.
So back on again. We then got referred onto a Paediatric Allergist and he had to stop the steroids (something I was very pleased about as I don't like the idea of being permanently on a steroid) and start an elimination diet as with some kids it can be food allergy related. His skin tests came all came up negative which was expected as his is an internal allergy and not external.

So for a few months now we have been on rice, meat, fruit and veg only. Tough going to start as corn/maize was also excluded. It is actually working so it appears it is a food trigger. We have just introduced back into his diet corn/maize.

Back to the allergy guy in July and see what food next we can put back in..hopefully some sort of dairy, even soy would be good.

Well thats great you had it investigated and are on top of it now. The poor guy, doesn't sounds at all pleasant. Elimination diets are hard going. But worth the effort if it's helping him.