NAUSEA – 7 causes, symptoms, and treatment
Table of Contents
Nausea is an unease feeling in the stomach which most times leads to “throwing up”. “Throwing up” commonly known as vomiting is the act of emptying one’s stomach knowingly or unknowingly through the mouth.
Nausea and vomiting are not dangerous neither are they diseases but they can be signs/symptoms of other serious health conditions like:
• Brain injury or concussion.
• Stomach flu.
• Overeating.
• Motion sickness.
• Appendicitis.
• Food poisoning.
• Early stage of pregnancy
Causes of vomiting vary in age
In children vomiting can be caused by:
• Milk allergy
• Viral disease
• Food poisoning
• Overfeeding
• Motion sickness
• Already existing sickness like high fever
• Coughing.
To know the cause of vomiting in children, the time of the vomiting can be used. For example, if the child vomits shortly after being fed, that suggests that the vomiting might be caused by gastritis, food Poisoning, or ulcer.
Dehydration: This is a serious effect of vomiting, this effect is easy to control in adults because adults can easily identify when they are dehydrated. But it’s difficult to control in children as children do not know how to identify dehydration. So when a child is vomiting especially added to diarrhea his or her caregiver should look out for these symptoms of dehydration:
• Sunken eyes
• Dry mouths and lips
• Decrease in urination
• Increase in breathing
Symptoms of nausea
• Fever
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Gas
• Abdominal pain
• Diarrhea
How can Nausea be prevented?
• Eat slowly
• Avoid eating food that is difficult to digest
• Eat cold food or at room temperature in case the smell from hot food makes you feel nauseated
• After eating, rest with your head elevated to about 12 inches above your feet
• Avoid drinking liquids between meals
• Take anti-nausea medicine like scopolamine
What if am feeling nauseated already, how can I prevent vomiting?
• Activity usually worsens Nausea. So when feeling nauseated it’s best to rest in a seating position or supported lying position.
• Drink a small quantity of sweet liquid like fruit juice or soda juice except for acidic juice like grape and orange juice.
Treatment of nausea
The treatment given for Nausea depends on what caused it. If Nausea is caused by motion sickness, seating in the front of the car helps reduces it. Medicines like Dramamine, dimenhydrinate, also help reduce seasickness. Taking stomach-acid reducing drugs helps too.
Is Nausea also caused by hunger?
For some people, staying for a long period of time without eating causes Nausea.
When should we vomit?
When we swallow something poisonous we are tempted to vomit even if we do not feel like it. Before now doctors advice the use of ipecac bottles to induce vomiting, but now through many researches doctors no longer advise the use of ipecac bottles to induce vomit because they have to know the damages associated with it. Damages like:
• Inhaling vomit into the lungs
• Chemical burns as the poison is trying to come back to the mouth
• Tissue damage in the mouth and throat
• Dehydration
Therefore if we take poison we should only induce vomit if we get clear instruction to do so from our doctor as he will be in the best position to tell us how to best to do so without damage.