Dealing with your child throwing up food as a Parent

Once a calm meal and suddenly your child just vomits out the food shortly after. At first you may express your frustrations to clean up the mess, but there can be medical issues behind it. Is it because of allergies? Is it because of gas? Are they doing it on purpose? First, remain calm and then get to the root cause. You may have made menu transformations into more easily digestible food options and look for growing up milks (eg. Similac Total Comfort) to further ease digestive issues.^{1, 2, 3, 4,}

Rain checks your reaction

Your first reaction is to scold your child for making a mess. The thing is, very young children cannot comprehend your reaction and only know their own discomfort and pain. Remain calm and the best reaction is no reaction at all. If the vomiting or throwing up of food was intentional, they will soon realize that what they are doing is boring and calmly eat their food the next time.^{1, 2}

Find the root cause

Every child develops different eating habits, and they all have their unique taste preferences. Are the pieces of food too big? Try smaller bite sizes and see if it lessens the digestive and swallowing issues. Is it because of the texture? Try different cooking methods. Did they have the urge to vomit because they have had bad reactions to it before? Usually, allergies show up as red faces and rashes in most cases. Asides from vomiting, your child can experience diarrhea and nausea without the explanation of food. Look for signs of discomfort after meals and remove the suspected items. Poor eating habits, if prolonged, can cause malnutrition, irregular bowels, aggravate allergies, decreased energy, and weaken the immune system.^{1, 2}

Reevaluate their nutrition

If it is not the texture nor the taste, it may be the food itself is lacking certain nutrients. Sometimes some foods cause acid reflux to come back up and bloating and may need to switch to easily digestible foods that support gut health. Prebiotic fibers are important here as they feed the healthy bacteria in the gut, allowing them to flourish to fight off the bad ones. This helps with digestion and increases nutrient absorption and fibers bulk stool for easier passing. Foods’s rich in prebiotic fibers are bananas, apples, barley, oats, and cocoa. Careful with the diet changes as the change itself can sometimes upset your child’s sensitive tummies.^{1, 2, 3}

To make your child feel comfortable in the gut, they may need some easy to digest formula growing up milk for when food alone is not enough in fixing digestive issues. For this Similac Total Comfort can help. Similac Total Comfort Growing-Up Milk is an easily digested and absorbed nutritional formula for toddlers 2 years and above who may experience abnormal reactions in their gastrointestinal tract such as constipation, flatulence, diarrhea due to poor tolerance of lactose. Similac Total comfort with Tummy care Nutritional System contains prebiotics (FOS), partially hydrolyzed 100% whey protein, very low lactose, unique vegetable fat blend.

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