My nine-year-old is suffering from bouts of nausea – what questions should we be asking docs?
OUR resident specialist and NHS GP, Dr Zoe Williams, shares her expert advice.
Today, Dr Zoe helps a reader whose granddaughter is suffering from bouts of nausea.
Q: MY nine-year-old granddaughter has been suffering from constant bouts of nausea and sickness for the past four months.
She has missed a lot of school but is otherwise in good health.
She has seen her GP twice and been checked over in the children’s ward but a cause has yet to be identified.
What questions should we ask the health professionals?
A: I’m so sorry to hear that your granddaughter is experiencing this.
It reassures me that she has been thoroughly checked over by her GP and hospital specialists, as that would suggest they have ruled out any serious underlying conditions.
But it must be awful for her and the family to be going through this without any understanding of why.
Has anyone mentioned cyclical vomiting syndrome (CVS)?
I can’t make a diagnosis just from your question but it could be something worth discussing with her doctors.
The NHS website and cvsa.org.uk both have information on it.
CVS is characterised by recurrent, explosive bouts of vomiting and it tends to start in childhood.
The key would be the pattern.
CVS tends to have bouts of vomiting lasting hours to days which resolve on their own, followed by a period being totally symptom-free, which typically lasts for weeks to months.
There can sometimes be triggers, such as stress, fatigue, or skipping meal, so keeping a diary to try to identify a pattern can be helpful.