Toddler

I've woken up too many nights to a little visitor standing beside my bed looking miserable. "What's the matter?" I ask groggily.

"I frew up."

Then comes the midnight trek to discover exactly where she "frew up" — hoping to see the mess before stepping in it.

Toddlers tend to vomit without much hesitation or control, and some do so frequently with little provocation. (One of mine once threw up because he saw another child sucking on a mitten.) As parents, we generally have two concerns: First, is this a symptom of something serious? And second, how best should we deal with the mess?

"Some toddlers do just tend to be barfy," explains Michelle Ponti, chair of the Canadian Paediatric Society's Community Paediatrics Committee. "These are often the ones who tended to spit up or regurgitate a lot as infants — what we call 'happy spitters.' They are content and healthy otherwise, but they tend to spit up easily."

Parents have a good sense of what's normal for their children, she adds. "I always start off by saying if parents are worried, they should seek medical attention. The amount of spitting up that would be not unusual for one child could be a concern with a toddler who almost never throws up."

Ponti lists these as the most common reasons for toddler vomiting:

• gastrointestinal infections (what most of us call "stomach flu")

• the generally barfy child, who may throw up out of excitement, when he coughs, when he sees something that turns his stomach, if he eats or drinks too much or runs around after eating, and so on.

• other kinds of infections, some of which can be serious (If your child is vomiting repeatedly and has other symptoms such as fever, lethargy or pain, or if you are concerned, consult with your doctor.)

Originally published in Today's Parent, August 2006