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Vomiting in children
Category: Babies & Children · All children symptoms
What it can feel like
Vomiting in children means forceful bringing up of stomach contents — different from the effortless posseting of babies. It is usually a stomach bug, but the assessment pivots on hydration: children dehydrate faster than adults, and the younger the child, the less reserve they carry.
Possible causes
A symptom can have many causes, and most are not serious. The lists below group conditions this symptom can be associated with — common causes first. They are possibilities to discuss with a clinician, not a diagnosis.
Common causes
Vomiting in children can be associated with gastroenteritis (with diarrhoea, cramps and fever), other infections (urine infection, ear infection, tonsillitis all vomit in children), travel sickness, migraine, and overfeeding or reflux in babies.
Other possible causes
Vomiting in children can also be associated with appendicitis (pain first, then vomiting), bowel obstruction (green bile-stained vomit, severe pain, swollen abdomen), head injury, meningitis, diabetic ketoacidosis (with deep breathing and drowsiness), and pyloric stenosis in young babies (projectile vomiting, hungry, losing weight).
Red flags — when to seek help promptly
- Green (bile-stained) vomit, or vomit with blood — urgent
- Signs of dehydration: very few wet nappies or no urine, no tears, sunken eyes, unusual drowsiness
- Vomiting with severe abdominal pain, a rigid or swollen abdomen, or blood in the stool
- Vomiting after a head injury, or with severe headache, neck stiffness or a non-blanching rash
- Projectile vomiting in a baby of 2–8 weeks who is losing weight
- Vomiting in a baby under 3 months with fever
What a clinician may do
A clinician will assess hydration (alertness, mucous membranes, skin turgor, urine output), examine the abdomen and ears, test urine and blood sugar where indicated, and grade dehydration. Most children are managed with oral rehydration — little and often; dehydrated or surgical-pattern children go to hospital.
Watch: related videos
Examination and clinical videos from the MedicalVideos.com library relevant to this symptom. Some clinical footage is graphic — that is the nature of a medical video library.
Related guides on MedicalVideos.com
Frequently asked questions
What should I give a vomiting child to drink?
Small, frequent sips of oral rehydration solution (or watered fluids if refused) — a teaspoon every few minutes beats big drinks that provoke more vomiting. Continue breast milk. Avoid fizzy drinks and undiluted juice, which worsen diarrhoea through their sugar load.
Why is green vomit an emergency?
Bile is released below the stomach, so green vomit means the bowel's contents are coming back up past the bile duct — the signature of a blockage or twisted bowel. In children, especially babies, that pattern needs surgical assessment the same hour, not home observation.
Related symptoms — Babies & Children
Browse the V section of the A–Z list or return to the Symptoms A–Z hub.