Child anxiety after sickness bug and school vomiting incident

[Mrspopper]

Any help gratefully received. DD (10) had a sickness bug a month ago. Was sick in classroom. This has triggered debilitating anxiety. Unable to get into school for more than a couple of hours, struggling with any thing social, barely eating. GP has done cahms referral. It’s heartbreaking. Tonight she said “I feel like all my happiness has run out of my body”. She’s on pathway for ASD assessment. Thank you

Dc2 has something similar, except she wasn't actually sick but has extremely high anxiety around it. She's almost 11 and was diagnosed with ASD, OCD and ARFID last year

She hasn't attended a full day of school for nearly 2 years. We are now thinking the only option left is medication.

It sounds so jarring hearing your DC say all her happiness has run outside her body 💔

This is called emetaphobia and my daughter has it. (Also has ASD) There is a private program you can pay for called the Thrive program which I know has helped many with this issue. My daughter still struggles with this fear but now manages it much better. My heart goes out to you. Just try to reassure her that she is safe and tell her to take big slow breaths to help calm her if she gets worked up about it.

Thank you both for responding.
its just so awful. She had anxiety but was doing ok in school (had EHCP) this feels like it has come in like a wrecking ball and it’s so hard to navigate.
GP has made referral to cahms and school are being kind. I have full on job in SEN and feel like I’m crumbling.

If you look on Amazon there are several books about emetephobia (fear of being sick) specially aimed at children and many seem to get good star ratings. Definitely worth a look.

Thank you. It’s now also a fear of school or anything outside of the house. Things that normally would be safe and fun for her no longer are. I don’t know how much to push building up time at school. Will look up the books thank you .

Hi! I had crippling emetophobia from age 15 to 17, it really is awful but it is treatable! Exposure therapy is very effective, and I’ve heard good things about the thrive program too. For me, it was about finding the one thing where my love for it and drive to do it was stronger than my phobia, and then building on that

Thank you! At the moment there’s nothing that’s bringing her enough joy/love for it so hard to motivate her to leave the house as she’ll have pain attacks xx

Hi my DD (nearly 10, ADHD, awaiting ASD assessment) has missed a term of school this year for the same reason. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever been through. She lost 7kg and was in bed for months.
the good news - she’s back at school, (though it’s a huge battle getting her in), she’s eating again, enjoying her gymnastics.

But it’s been traumatic- I wouldn’t wait for CAMHS. They’ve been worse than useless for us. You will get your DD back. I wouldn’t have believed back in Feb I’d see my girl throwing herself happily into a paddling pool again. But I dread if she ever gets ill again. Sending hugs to you both

@sweetpeaorchestra thank you. I’m sorry you’ve been through the same. It’s awful as she says she thinks this is how she’ll be forever. Is there anything that helped your daughter? I’m looking at thrive programme

I’ll never really be sure what shifted things for her. We saw a dietitian and she got nutrition shakes - was hard to get these down her at first, but I think I underestimated how hard it was to improve her mental health whilst her cal intake and nutrition levels were so bad.

They helped a bit to improve this. I wonder if if it was some sort of burnout being AuDHD, so maybe she needed the time out in bed. I’m not sure. She used to be afraid of being downstairs as that was where she was sick, so she hid upstairs for months watching sitcoms.

Taking her away from home helped a lot, (stayed with family) as she had bad associations of being sick at home. Though that was problematic as she’d not want to come back ! But she’d eat more when away and get out more.
We paid for a psychiatrist and CBT therapist. She is now on Guancafine which does reduce her anxiety (though I think has made her quite irritable.)

As she began slightly improving, we then got tougher on her - totally banning all screen time, doing more exposure to things she was afraid of (associated with the illness.) we got a lot of push-back but it helped.

My husband actually gave up his business and I went part time so we are flat broke, but we were in crisis and had to work together. We also did some hypnotherapy for her. We borrowed a lot of money for all this!

If your daughter could face reading it, (mine couldn’t at her worst as didn’t want a reminder) “Guts” by Raina Telgemeir is a fantastic graphic novel about a girl in 5th grade who goes through the exact same thing (well not as extreme as my DD but it’s very similar). My daughter adores her books now and it was great for her to know someone else went through similar.

Its impossible to feel hope when they are lost in the anxiety, but she will get through this - I spoke to a mum whose daughter was the same and she’s now training in midwifery. I really hope you don’t have to wait too long and find some good support and help. X

Thank you this is all helpful. I’ve just been signed off work to try and help both of us xx

Find a Human Givens therapist specialising in children. They'll do some "rewind" therapy to help reframe the vomiting incident and the fears around it. The therapy is designed to be brief and impactful. Good luck.