I have not been on the boards for a while, but some of you may remember me. I have four children, 2 with PDD-NOS, 1 Neurotypical, and one with NLD, ADHD, and mood disorder.
Anyway, my 6 year old PDD-NOS daughter has been vomiting at night while in her bed. The strange thing is that she does not come and tell us. In fact, she threw up all over her bed last night and does not even remember doing it. This has been going on for a while. I brought her to my pedi who thought it may be anxiety related (as she also has some anxiety issues). I'm starting to think there is more to it. She has no fever associated with these vomiting episodes, and no one else in the family is sick. Plus it happens too often for it to be a viral cause.
She also sometimes has these staring spells during the day. I can only describe it as a blank stare. It usually lasts about 10 seconds and I can eventually get her attention, but it is strange.
The couple times when she did vomit at night and we were aware immediately after, she was very confused. I attributed to her being tired, but I'm starting to wonder if she could be having seizures at night while she is sleeping?
Has this happened to anyone else? Do you have any idea what else could be causing this? Any ideas are appreciated.
No experience here, but if you search the terms vomitting & seizures, lotta hits.
Of course your doc would say, anxiety. Don't you know that once a person has anxiety, that will account for all present & future illness???? And more important, take the doc off the hook from having to do his/her job? Drives me NUTS. Yah, anxiety can make people vomit. But during sleep????
Get a referral to a pediatric neurologist. If she is vomitting post-seizure (or during), there is some risk of aspiration. If she were my child, I'd def. want an EEG and/or sleep EEG done. Esp. considering the zone-outs in the day.
I'm wondering if you could get any relevant info by setting up a video cam to film her while she sleeps. I know they do this for sleep apnea studies, but how often you'd have to get up to change the tape in a home video recorder, or how long a digital could record, ... don't know how practical this would be for you. Of course, not all seizures have a dramatic motor/movement component.
OR you might want to keep watch ... but with a houseful on the spectrum, you need your sleep. Could you hire someone? A trusted relative or friend, to watch?
Thanks Elmhar! Sometimes I think my doc thinks I'm overreacting about these things. But I really feel that something is not right. The other thing I'm wondering is blood sugar being too high? Would that cause her to vomit at night? We don't have any history of diabetes or anything, and I do not see any other symptoms of this in her. She is not excessively thirsty, and does not have frequent urination. But is it a test I should ask for anyways?
Also, she eats lots of carbohydrates. She eats no meat and only carrots for veggies. Do you think it could be her diet? I know you are very familiar with autism and the gut connection. I have not done a lot of reading about that, but I wonder if that could be playing a role in this?
I'm going to bring her to our pediatrician tomorrow. I know he will give me a referral to a neurologist, but those appointments often take a while to get. Is there any specific testing I should ask my doctor to do ahead of time? Should I request a test to see if maybe gluten is a problem for her? I really appreciate your advice.
My inclination as a Mom, remembering some of the peds we've had over the yrs ... is to have ONE goal going in to see the doc. For me, in your shoes, it would be to get a ped. neuro consult ASAP. I would be as specific as possible in describing to your doctor for both events, sleep-vomitting & zone-outs: frequency, times of day, duration (of the staring) , and also describe the confusion & any other observations related to either event.
You know your doc; if you start asking about diabetes & diet stuff, might he/she get derailed from the neuro consult? If not, then ask.
First degree relatives of anyone with celiac disease should be screened (blood test). That is the current NIH recommendation. IME, if one blood relative responds well to GF diet, (even that person is not officially celiac), there's a good chance other family members will as well. This is the grey area of gluten intolerance, which is not outright gut-wrecked celiac.
I have met a couple of celiacs with gluten-induced seizures that abated on GF diet, but epilepsy is a big field & I wouldn't want to suggest that ALL seizures -- or even most -- are due to gluten
My advice is to follow your gut instincts on what to ask the doc. I hope you will be able to let us know soon that everything is OK with your DD.
Thanks again Elmhar. I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow. They could not get her in today unless I saw the nurse practitioner. I would much rather see the doc, so I will wait until tomorrow. Last night was weird. She threw up three times at bedtime (but before she went to sleep). I had her fall asleep on the couch in the living room, so my husband and I could watch her. We watched her for about 4 hours. No throwing up after she fell asleep. We did notice that she snores really loud though. I will post tomorrow to let you know how the appointment went.
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