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Hilliard Pediatrics, Inc. - Dr. Tim Teller, MD
Vomiting is the forceful bringing-up of what is in the stomach out through the mouth. Vomiting can be a benign one-time episode after gagging to a much more serious sign of illness. The information below is to help you decide the treatment for your child who is vomiting.
Dehydration is when we do not have enough fluids in our system. Dehydration can occur with repeated vomiting. How likely it is to occur depends on a lot of things, including how frequent the vomiting occurs, how well someone is holding down something to drink, and whether diarrhea and fever are making the matter worse. One of the goals of treating vomiting is to prevent dehydration. We are concerned that a child is dehydrated if they have not urinated (or had a wet diaper) in 8 or more hours, have made urine less than 3 times in 24 hours, have a dry mouth (sometimes called “cotton mouth”), make no tears when they cry, and act lethargic (like a limp rag doll; this is different from “listless” which means less active and laying around but will be up and around on occasion). Note that if a child is drinking well after recent vomiting, is not acting lethargic, but has not urinated in the last 8 to 10 hours, it is safe to see if their drinking will allow them to make urine in the next couple hours.
Last Updated 06/2019