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What Causes Vomiting At Night?
Question: My daughter is 21 and every once inawhile she wakes up in middle of the night throwing up like several times. After it finally stops she is just worn out. She went to er at 4:30 this morning cuz it scared her so bad and no temp, blood pressure fine, was dehydrated. Could this be from anxiety? Could she maybe have acid reflex?
Brief Answer:
both of these can cause this symptom
Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic
Both of the conditions that you mentioned can cause vomiting but the acid reflux would normally be addressed first unless there are other obvious symptoms of anxiety (chest tightness or heaviness, palpitations and/or shortness of breath at rest, worrying, tension headaches etc)
Acid reflux symptoms tend to be worse early morning or late at night.
Treatment would involve lifestyle changes and medication: (1) reduce the use of fatty, fried, spicy or acidic foods eg tomatoes, onions, mint, citrus juices/fruits, caffeine products, chocolate
(2)reduce portion sizes, use small frequent meals instead of large meals.
The meal size would affect the amount of acid released
(3) avoid laying down till 2 hours after eating
(4)weight loss of any excess weight if possible. It compresses on the stomach and worsens reflux
(5)medications such as nexium, prilosec, prevacid, protonix, pepcid or zantac can be used as well along with the lifestyle changes
These medications can sometimes take 5 to 7 days to take an effect because the reduce the acid secreted but cannot do anything about the acid already present.
This means that she needs to take one of them persistently for it to work.
If she uses these measures and there is no improvement then other causes such as anxiety, would need to be considered
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions
both of these can cause this symptom
Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic
Both of the conditions that you mentioned can cause vomiting but the acid reflux would normally be addressed first unless there are other obvious symptoms of anxiety (chest tightness or heaviness, palpitations and/or shortness of breath at rest, worrying, tension headaches etc)
Acid reflux symptoms tend to be worse early morning or late at night.
Treatment would involve lifestyle changes and medication: (1) reduce the use of fatty, fried, spicy or acidic foods eg tomatoes, onions, mint, citrus juices/fruits, caffeine products, chocolate
(2)reduce portion sizes, use small frequent meals instead of large meals.
The meal size would affect the amount of acid released
(3) avoid laying down till 2 hours after eating
(4)weight loss of any excess weight if possible. It compresses on the stomach and worsens reflux
(5)medications such as nexium, prilosec, prevacid, protonix, pepcid or zantac can be used as well along with the lifestyle changes
These medications can sometimes take 5 to 7 days to take an effect because the reduce the acid secreted but cannot do anything about the acid already present.
This means that she needs to take one of them persistently for it to work.
If she uses these measures and there is no improvement then other causes such as anxiety, would need to be considered
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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