# crying leads to coughing fits which lead to vomitting



## tylerdylan (Aug 29, 2007)

My 2 1/2 year old son can't seem to cry without it causing coughing fits and if the coughing and crying goes on for more than a few minutes it leads to vomitting. We had been told that all this would go away after his tonsils and adenoids were removed, but things have not changed at all. Does this happen to anyone elses child?? Does anyone have any ideas on why this happens? We are so tired of doctors and specialists...I wish he could just be "normal"...


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## Mamato3wild ponnie (Jan 6, 2007)

What can you do to lessen the crying? Rather than preventing what happens once the crying starts...why would you think your child is not normal? All children fuss to some degree sometimes....picking him up and hugging him when he starts to cry or changing scenes when the crying starts..might help the crying to stop...are you doing attachment parenting?


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## tylerdylan (Aug 29, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Mamato3wild ponnie* 
What can you do to lessen the crying? Rather than preventing what happens once the crying starts...why would you think your child is not normal? All children fuss to some degree sometimes....picking him up and hugging him when he starts to cry or changing scenes when the crying starts..might help the crying to stop...are you doing attachment parenting?

Your response is somewhat offensive to me. All 2 year olds cry at some point for one reason or another. Today he really only had one crying spell and it was because he hurt his arm (has a big bruise now) while playing. What I don't think is normal is that his crying causes big coughing fits which cause him to vomit (often till his belly is empty). He also has many other health problems most of which I am not going to get into, but one of which is failure to thrive so the constant vomitting is about the last thing we need. Of course I know how to calm my son down and yes I do attachment parenting. I am not looking for an attack on how I parent my child, but rather reassurance that other children vomit when they cry too. If no one else has children who vomit when they cry it means another trip to the doctor for this problem and a referral to a GI specialist because this has been going on too long.


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## Momily (Feb 15, 2007)

My son did this as a young child, although not as consistently as you describe -- he had pretty severe cough variant asthma. By cough variant I mean that he never wheezed, just had constricted airways and a chronic cough.


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## kaPOW! (Aug 15, 2006)

That happened to me when I was a kid, and it still happens to a milder extent now, and I'm 29. I guess I never fully realized that this doesn't happen to everyone. Interesting.


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## mom2annika (Mar 30, 2006)

Chronic coughing can lead to a gag response. This happened to me when I was in college, and it totally freaked me out. I had sinus infections over and over, and then suddenly started coughing and puking, even on an empty stomach. It was miserable. The MD at the campus health assured me it was a normal gag reflex.

Is there some to to short-circuit the cycle? Hot baths, cool washcloths applied to the face, running a vaporizer, using acupressure?? I'm just trying to throw out ideas. I read somewhere pinching the chin can stop you from crying...your face has to tense up in order to produce tears, so if you can stop that response, maybe it would help?

GL!


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## DarkHorseMama (Mar 8, 2003)

Sorry for you and your little guy.







Sounds like he's been through a bit of health concerns. My DS had his tonsils/adenoids taken out just after his third birthday this year. Not what I wanted or expected, but his health was being jeopardized severely.

As far as the coughing goes, there are actually two separate incidents to which I can relate. But every little piece of the puzzle can add some insight hopefully.

My stepbrother was asthmatic and he learned early on that if he got upset and started coughing that he could set off an asthma attack which would *instantly* divert attention from whatever trouble he had gotten himself into. I'm NOT saying that's what your DS is doing. But I am saying that if he has any trouble with breathing that starting to cough can exacerbate that issue to the point that he can no longer control the coughing fits. In other words, the coughing fits start to take on a life of their own.

Also, when I had pertussis several years ago I would often cough myself into vomiting. It didn't help that I was going through my first trimester of pregnancy when I had it, so I was somewhat prone to more sensitive gag reflex anyhow. Those uncontrollable coughing fits (see above where they take on a life of their own) really can set off that gag reflex.

Augh! I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself very well. It's late.







Hopefully you'll understand what I'm trying to ramble through!


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## tylerdylan (Aug 29, 2007)

Thank you for the responses. It makes me feel relieved to know that it happened to others and there wasn't something seriously wrong causing it (which is our big fear because he has so many unexplained problems). My son does have asthma and like one of the posters mentioned he never wheezes just coughs and coughs uncontrollably and pukes and pukes. He does also have a very sensitive gag reflex and when he chokes on his food he often ends of vomitting. We had been reassured that the choking and vomitting would stop once he had the surgery (adenoids and tonsils out), but they are as bad as ever. Now we are wondering if the surgery was a waste of time (and a rotten 3 weeks of recovery), although his sleep apnea and snoring are gone at least. And we are concerned that the enlarged tonsils and adenoids were not the cause of his problems and there is still something we are missing. My son's failure to thrive went undiagnosed for over 1 1/2 years before the big tonsils and adenoids were discovered and we were guaranteed the surgery would reverse it...now we aren't so sure and we are just worried something is really wrong with him. Thanks again for the responses. We are just so desparate to get him figured out so any little bit of info helps us to piece together the puzzle....and the coughing and vomitting with the crying just seems really out of place.


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## guardandolaluna (Jun 3, 2007)

First of all, my heart goes out to you.. this can be very frustrating for everyone







It is hard on you and on him as he doesn't know how to fix it!
My DS went through this about a year ago. He is almost 3 now. It has gotten *alot* better. The Dr. said it was an immature gag reflux. They just said he would outgrow it. What was hard is that he went through it when I was pregnant wiht my 3rd baby! I would end up throwing up sometimes from cleaning it up! Anyway... I have tried to help him calm down. We try distracting him, or telling him to breath. BTW, I have had asthma all my life and when I was pregnant for some reason coughing triggered vomiting sometimes. I think it was a reaction to post nasal drip. My DS also tends to do this easier if he has post nasal drip. Could it be allergies? Personally, I would try to hold off on surgery.. unless you get 1nd and thrid opinions. This may just resolve itself. it is MUCH better now. Actually, now he can tell when it is going to happen and goes to throw up in the toilet. I would say this last 3 months it has happened once. It used to be it happened many time a day for a few weeks! We were seriously concerned! When they are that little they sometimes just don't know how to deal with things and their little bodies just react in whatever was they can to cope? KWIM? hope this helps









Kristi


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## tylerdylan (Aug 29, 2007)

Thank you guardandolaluna!! It's nice to hear from someone who has gone through this recently and that it got better. My son already had his tonsils and adenoids out a little over a month ago for severe failure to thrive (he hasn't gained ANY weight in 23 months!!). The theory is that some children with sleep apnea don't reach the 4th and 5th stages of sleep which is when growth hormones are produced. He is sleeping great now and we are eagerly waiting for him to start growing and gaining weight, but when we got the diagnosis we we were told all the choking and vomitting would stop since his throat wasn't being obstructed by "massive" tonsils and adenoids anymore. And the choking and vomitting really hasn't gotten any better. So now we don't know if they were unrelated problems all along, or if the failure to thrive still has some undiagnosed cause (if that's the case we are all likely to lose our minds over here!). It made sense to me that when he cried he would cough and gasp for air because the opening at the back of his throat was so tiny due to the huge tonsils, but now his throat opening is huge and he is still coughing all the time when he cries and it isn't asthma because the coughing stops when he calms down and he never needs his inhaler for it. We are so lost over here and just wanting all this to end....


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## LionTigerBear (Jan 13, 2006)

I am looking into the SCD diet and the Health Recovery Diet for my son who is three. Look into those-- see the Healing The Gut Cheat Sheet thread in the stickies above. These kinds of healing diets can work wonders on many, many health problems.







for you and your son.


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## DarkHorseMama (Mar 8, 2003)

The sleep apnea and (to a lesser extent) the snoring are certainly worthy of the surgery. I went into the ENT's office from a very defensive position wanting to protect my DS's tonsils and, by extension, his immune system. It was only after a couple of visits and a lot of soul-searching that we finally agreed to the surgery. It even became such an issue that we contacted the doctor a few days later and had the surgery moved up to urgent status. His apnea became so bad it was like a 10-hour asthma attack all night long.









But, it sounds like the magic bullet you were promised didn't fix everything. But you've got some good feedback here and I hope your little one grows into ways to cope with the coughing...or even outgrows the problem completely.


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## Gitti (Dec 20, 2003)

...


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