Nausea is the feeling that your child might throw up. It can cause belly discomfort, queasiness or a sick feeling in the stomach. They might feel clammy or look pale.

Vomiting is when your child forcefully ejects the contents of their stomach through the mouth.

These symptoms are very common in kids. Most of the time, they go away on their own and aren’t a sign of anything serious.

Some of the most common causes include:

• Stomach virus: A viral, bacterial or parasitic infection that affects the stomach or intestines.
• Food poisoning: An infection from eating food that has gone bad and contains harmful bacteria.
• Gastritis: Swelling or irritation in the lining of the stomach.

If your child has a short-term illness, the best care is to keep things simple and help their stomach settle.

• Give small sips of clear fluids to prevent dehydration.
• Let your child eat bland foods like toast, rice or applesauce when they’re ready.
• Avoid dairy for a few days — it can make an upset stomach worse.
• Make sure your child rests and stays home from school or daycare.

Your child will usually start to feel better within a day or two. Sometimes, a stomach virus can make it hard for kids to digest milk for a little while. This often goes away in a few days or weeks.

If your child has vomiting that keeps coming back or you’re worried about dehydration, call your doctor. We’re here to help.

If your child’s nausea or vomiting lasts more than a few days, happens often or keeps coming back, it could be more serious. Sometimes the problem starts in the stomach or intestines. Other times, it may involve the brain, nervous system or how the body handles stress.

Our team looks at all possible causes to figure out what’s going on and create a care plan.

• Helicobacter pylori: A stomach infection that can cause ulcers or gastritis
• Eosinophilic GI disease: Allergic inflammation in the GI tract
• Inflammatory bowel diseases: If these conditions affect the upper GI tract, they can cause nausea.
• Functional GI disorders: Conditions that cause nausea and vomiting even when all the tests look normal
• Motility disorders: Problems like constipation or gastroparesis, where delayed stomach emptying causes nausea, vomiting and fullness
• Anatomic problems: Structural issues in the digestive tract that block normal movement
• Pancreatitis: Inflammation of the pancreas that causes belly pain, nausea and vomiting

CVS is a fairly common condition that causes repeated episodes of severe vomiting. These episodes come in attacks. Your child may throw up dozens or even hundreds of times over a few hours or days. Between episodes, your child usually feels completely fine for weeks or months.

CVS symptoms include:

• Intense vomiting and nausea
• Belly pain
• Headache or sensitivity to light
• Pale skin or curled-up posture
• Dizziness
• Loss of appetite
• Diarrhea
• Fever
• Fast heart rate
• Sweating

CVS is often misdiagnosed as a stomach virus or food poisoning, including in emergency rooms. But unlike those short-term illnesses, CVS follows a pattern.

The vomiting episodes usually start at the same time of day (often early morning). They come with the same symptoms and last about the same amount of time each time.

It’s important to track potential triggers for your child’s vomiting episodes. Triggers can include:

• An infection
• Stress or excitement
• Poor sleep and fatigue
• Foods that include excess sugar, caffeine, nitrites or monosodium glutamate

Experts don’t know the exact cause, but CVS may involve the brain’s vomiting center’s response to stress or other triggers and abnormal autonomic nervous system signaling. CVS is closely linked to functional GI disorders. Many kids with CVS also have abdominal migraines.

Some kids don’t vomit but still feel sick to their stomach every day. This may be a sign of a chronic nausea syndrome. This syndrome causes regular nausea without a clearly identified medical cause but is often coupled with a variety of non-digestive symptoms. Our team has expertise in diagnosing and treating this complex condition. 

Like cyclic vomiting syndrome, these illnesses can seriously affect your child’s daily life, even though tests often look normal.

Doctors may consider CVS if:

• Your child has had four or more intense vomiting episodes in the past year.
• The episodes each last less than a week.
• The vomiting starts suddenly and repeats many times per hour.
• They have a family or personal history of migraines.

CVS treatment includes healthy habits, medicines and care during episodes. Your child’s care team will create a plan tailored to their symptoms and triggers.

• Lifestyle changes: Help your child keep a regular sleep and eating schedule and avoid known triggers.
• Preventive medicine: Anti-migraine medicines may help lower the chance of future episodes.
• Vomiting care plan: During an episode, we can give your child a care plan including anti-nausea medicine, pain medicine, IV fluids and sedation if needed.
• Stress-management tools: Deep breathing, cognitive behavioral therapy and counseling can help your child cope and reduce how often episodes happen.

If these aren’t working, stimulation therapies may help.

These include:

• Auricular neurostimulation: A non-invasive option. It may help regulate gut-brain signals and reduce nausea. Children's Wisconsin was the first to introduce this innovative therapy and is the leading research institution on auricular neurostimulation in the U.S.
• Gastric pacemaker: A surgically implanted device that may be effective for chronic nausea and vomiting problems including gastroparesis and functional dyspepsia. It sends gentle signals to help the stomach muscles work better.

Our team is here to support your whole family, not just treat symptoms. Whether your child has a short-term illness or a long-term condition, you’re not alone.

At Children’s Wisconsin, we care for kids with all types of nausea and vomiting. We’re here whether your child needs care for a short-term stomach bug or a complex digestive condition. When your child’s vomiting is ongoing or severe, we help you find answers and help your child feel better.

We’re one of the only pediatric centers in the region with a Pediatric Neurogastroenterology and Motility and Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Program. Our expert team diagnoses and treats nausea and vomiting caused by complex GI conditions. Our Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Program is well known as the first and largest of its kind in the world.

Our experts offer an integrated approach to CVS treatment. We connect kids and their families with experts in genetics, autonomic testing, neurology, psychology and other areas. The care team works together to find answers for your child. As a result, our program offers strong outcomes — we can often significantly reduce vomiting episodes.

First Visit

Before your first visit, we collect and review your child’s:

• Medical records
• Vomiting history
• Symptom diaries
• Questionnaire answers

This helps us learn more about your child and start the visit with a clear plan.

At your visit:

• We take time to listen and ask detailed questions about your child’s symptoms, history and possible triggers
• We look for patterns that may point to a specific diagnosis
• We may order tests to rule out other serious or structural causes of vomiting and nausea

Common diagnostic tests may include:

• Upper GI series: A special X-ray that uses contrast to look at the esophagus, stomach and upper small intestine. It helps us rule out twists, blockages or narrowing in the digestive tract.
• Abdominal ultrasound: Uses sound waves to check the organs for signs of inflammation, masses or obstruction.
• Endoscopy: We use a small camera to look inside your child’s esophagus, stomach and upper small intestine. It can help diagnose inflammation, ulcers, food allergies or infection.
• Blood tests: May be used check for metabolic conditions, liver or pancreas problems and signs of infection.
• Imaging: Rarely, we may order brain imaging if we suspect a neurologic cause of vomiting, such as pressure on the vomiting center in the brain.

During Treatment

If your child has CVS or a motility disorder, our experts will guide your family every step of the way. We follow the most up-to-date guidelines and offer advanced care options not available at most centers.

Once we know what’s causing your child’s symptoms, we work with you to tailor a comprehensive and individualized care plan to your child. We focus on reducing the impact of nausea and vomiting on your child’s health, growth, school and daily life.

After Care

We stay involved as your child grows. Most children with CVS or chronic nausea improve over time. Many children will outgrow CVS around puberty, but about 75% will develop migraine headaches. Some children develop chronic daily nausea and autonomic disorder.