Suggest Treatment For Severe Abdominal Pain And Vomiting In A Child

Posted on Sun, 31 Jul 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 31 Jul 2016 Answered on

Mon, 22 Aug 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : My 4-year old grandson was in the pool for about 45 minutes this afternoon. He is a very good swimmer, but often swims pretty fast and does lots of flips in the water. After being out of the pool for about an hour, he said "My tummy hurts" and started throwing up a few minutes later. He threw up most of what he had even for lunch about 5 hours earlier. I put him in the bath tub to clean him and he rubbed the chest area around his left nipple and said, "It hurts here." (I knew he had swallowed some water while he was swimming and immediately I thought about secondary drowning.) I just kept an eye on him. About an hour later, he said he felt like eating something, so he ate a small slice of pizza and a chicken wing. He does not appear to have a fever and seemed normal when I put him to bed. I am, however, now concerned about secondary drowning and wonder if we should take him to the ER or just continue to watch him tomorrow. I have read several articles online tonight and am concerned. His mom and dad are on a date. I don't want to call them just because of my paranoia. Your thoughts?

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (23 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Not secondary drowning

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone very carefully through your query and understand your concerns. Secondary drowning or dry drowning can happen when the child breathes water into his lungs but had that been the case, the situation would have been different. With dry drowning, water never reaches the lungs. Instead, breathing in water causes your child's vocal chords to spasm and close up after he's already left the pool. That shuts off his airways, making it hard to breathe. Surely that is not the case here.

Rather, it seems that he has some food poisoning (possibly) or simply gastritis. You need not panic. Keep him under observation. Give him some antiemetic like ondansetron. Give him plenty of fluids and ORS to drink. I do not think that things would worsen. But if they do, just visit the ER.

I not not see much cause to worry. However, the nausea and vomiting may last for 2-4 days before the situation resolves.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar