A few days ago we talked about the children who at night they end up vomiting after crying, or during them, theoretically because they are provoked not to be alone. We talked about the vision of Dr. Estivill, known for his books to teach children to sleep, which argues that the vomiting of a child is a trick to get attention and make finally dad and mom listen to him.
We are many, and in the comments of the readers it could also be evidenced that we are against that vision and among the opposite people I highlight the psychologist Rosa Jové, author of the book "Sleeping without tears", which speaks of the vomiting of children at night in very different terms.
Estivill is dispatched talking about vomiting with a “Do not be scared; nothing happens ”, without arguing in any way and without citing any bibliographic reference that shows that this is true. Jové, however, does cite studies and provides bibliography when talking about vomiting. Moreover, he knows the cause and reveals it.
Fear triggers the alarm
When parents leave their child alone in the room, fear appears (not always, but in children who end up vomiting). He fear is a stressful factor that is totally contrary to the calm and security that a person needs to sleep, because it activates the alarms of the brain, those that cause a child to enter a fight / flight state, motivated by the need to survive. In other words, when the child feels fear the body is activated thanks to various hormones, including cortisol, stress hormone and discomfort, crying and the request to parents for an action that appeases that fear and that activation and allow the child to sleep peacefully without having to be aware if something can happen to him by being alone.
The crying of a child with fear can lengthen more or less, until the moment in which the body, knowing that a brain cannot withstand a constant situation of alertness and stress for a long time, compensates by segregating substances of an opioid nature (that calm the child ), such as endorphins, serotonin, etc., that lower the alert level and get the child to finally calm down and, as it is at night, to end up asleep and asleep.
Cortisol + Serotonin = Vomiting
In the same situation, high concentrations of cortisol are combined with high levels of serotonin, which arrive to “sedate” the child and force him to calm down for the sake of his brain health. The problem is that High concentrations of these two substances at the same time have a side effect: involuntary vomiting.
This is not a fact that happens only in children, since it also affects adults. Surely it has happened to someone on occasion: you live a very stressful situation, the body finally relaxes and when this happens the nausea appears and finally the vomiting. If it has never happened to you, surely you have seen a movie in which the protagonist ends up vomiting after a stressful experience.
Different recommendations
Given this evidence, it is clear that Rosa Jové's recommendations about vomiting are very different from those of Dr. Estivill. In fact the psychologist does not talk about this act and how we should act, because the performance of some parents before the dream of babies, which is evolutionary and therefore not pathological in most cases, It must be to accompany the child and help him fall asleep (avoiding tears and, therefore, vomiting).
In a few days, in a third entry, I will speak again of vomiting in children at night and a third explanation that my experience as a father has given me (surely many will easily reach it), in addition to offering the conclusions about the two entries that you have already been able to read.
