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Home : Health : Remedies : Vomiting : 'Sick' of vomiting?
'Sick' of vomiting? Are you fed up of being sick
Submitted by Steve Martin
When I was a young kid, I suffered from a condition known as cyclical vomiting, this means that I would periodically suffer bouts of
uncontrollable vomiting and constant nausea. As you can imagine, this was very distressing for me and my parents!
After the cause of the condition was dealt with, however, a psychological / habitual problem still remained, not only did I have an intense FEAR of vomiting, but I also found that certain situations; foods, smells, tastes, times of the day etc. continued to bring about nausea.
Well, in my plain and innocent childish way, I 'invented' a psychological 'cure' for my habitual problem! Every time I felt
nauseous, I would simply go to our bathroom, run the cold tap, and keep the little finger of my right hand under the cold flow until it went very cold and numb. This would invariably result in my nausea
vanishing, and it still works for me today!
Often kids hate being sick, I think my fear is rooted in one particular incident of prolonged vomiting and a feeling of choking / not being able to breath. Also, kids can become
nauseous at the drop of a hat, sometimes it is undoubtedly better to 'get it out of the system', but on those occasions when illness
(usually fever) or too much rough play after a meal bring about nausea which isn't related to a sour stomach, just march your child to the coldest tap and freeze that pinky finger!
I taught this to my son when he experienced nausea in the early mornings for a period and it worked for him just as well as it did for me. I'm not sure how it works, but I guess it's probably similar to why 'rubbing it better' works for bumps and scrapes, i.e. certain signals to the brain taking priority and overriding /
suppressing others.
Note: for this method to really work, I find that the tap water has to be very cold. it's when the finger gets so cold that you get that 'almost burning' numbness. if it's the middle of summer or your taps just don't run that cold, you'll just have to find another method such as a glass of iced water. Also, be warned, if you do this with a young child who is still half asleep, they may well pee themselves so have a
potty ready or something!
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