Am I a Paranoid Mother???

I can see the throwing up as a result of eating too many sweets with Mawmaw, but not the fever. Sounds like a stomach bug to me.

If there's a fever, I doubt it's anything other than a bug or virus.

Do you think there's a connection between the sweets and the stomach bug? Personally, I don't. Sweets might have made him vomit, but not run a fever, right?

Test out your theory at home: feed him chocolate frosted sugar bomb cereal, wonder bread with jelly, icecream & Popsicles for a day. If he starts throwing up like crazy... Voila. He's one of the very rare kids who can't handle sugar.

If NOT ... You've got a lot of options

- Virus

- Overstimulated (aka the kind of kid who makes themselves sick when they're excited... My sister was 'that' kid. Vomit & Dinseyland are just LINKED in my brain. We went to Disney once a month on average, and every time shed be puking. Ditto hikes, grammas, sleepovers, etc. Took YEARS before she figured out how not to go 'happy dog on crack' and be throwing up by the end of the day.) LOL, one of my cousins is similar. He's just a sour and bitter guy. He NEVER does anything fun, so he doesn't get sick. I'm glad my sister had my mum... Who just cleaned up and pressed on... Instead of my aunt, who refused to let my cousin do anything that might upset his tummy!!!

- Migraines (similar to overstimulation... Something triggers, and HEAVE!)

- Food intolerance

- Carsick / Motion sick (my aunts Subaru always made me sick. Only that car. But every time I was in it, 4 hours of puking awaited me. I know it wasn't my aunt's driving, because she'd drive other cars and Id be fine.) So specific cars, as well as specific drivers.

- Changing environments. Some kids get sick during transitions/travel. ESP on the way "home" for some kids (adrenaline from excitement keeping the hurling at bay), and especially leaving home for other kids (adrenaline giving the hurling a shove to start)

- Overtired. Some kids react to being overtired by getting sick. (This is another one you can test at home, by keeping them up late and getting up early... And then going for a drive).

- You have SUPER powers (as in you notice super subtle signs of illness... And that's when you ask for meemaw to watch. Not on purpose, as a subconscious thing. My SIL was doing that with strep at one point. She got suspicious, next time she decided to call Oma for a weekend 'off', she didn't... And my neice who gets strep throat all the time was in full swing Monday. We don't know what she's noticing, but its probably smell. It's been 4 years and she's ALWAYS right. I quit betting against her, but some of the fam has a flatline learning curve.) It could be any of the above, though (migraine early symptoms, stomach bug early symptoms, etc. As in you're catching it SuperMom before SCIENCE can &/or in the incubation stage. Which is just wicked cool.

- Mild case of food poisoning. From food kept longer, dishes not washed as well, etc. We generally get used to our OWN cleanliness standards and food standards (as in we build immunities... So that bacteria laden sponge used on the dishes never makes US sick, nor that soup from (shudder) last week)... But visitors leave being slightly ill. ESP. Kids.

- allergy

- List goes on.

I'd test what your gut tells you is most likely, first. You may be dead on, but it also may be something else.

Given that it's endemic to grandma's and after alot of sweets, especially considering the fever that abates after food is expelled, I would suggest having him tested for food allergies. If he were to have a food allergy it could present thus, and most candy is processed with nuts. If it were a food allergy and related to candy consumption, it could be anything else as so many common allergens are typical to candy ingredients. I suggest you push your pediatrician for a blood panel or get a recommendation for a pediatric allergist. If you think food allergies may be a consideration, I strongly recommend keeping a food journal where you record everything he eats to try and find some patterns. My son has always reacted this way to red dye, fyi.

Right now there is a stomach virus going around, it's hit my house, so it's possible that he has caught it. It's not unusual for one or two people to get something and no one else. I see it in my family of 10 all of the time. The only reason I would think virus and not a bit of extra fun at grandmas, which I have also seen, is the fever. The fever indicates his body fighting something.

dont just think sweets.. as a kid i went to my aunts house.. seh fried food in lard or crisco.. my tummy was not used to that oil adn I puked.

there could be any number of foods that mamaw feeds him that he is not used to.

maybe you could gently suggest a menu for him.. so that his diet there is more like his home diet.

I remember doing something similar when I was young. It was partly the sweets, partly the volume of food all at once (you said he was very hungry earlier in the day) and partly the excitement and activity. You can tell Mawmaw to lay off the sweets like only one treat per visit, add more veggies (they take longer to eat), and see if that helps. If not, it may be environmental (does she smoke?) and you'll just have to start eliminating thing one at a time looking for what else is different from home.

Some kids just have very sensitive stomachs?

It could be the sugar...it could be just a bug...it could be lots of things...

Hope your lil' guy feels better quick!

very strange, I think. Stomache bug can bring on a fever sometimes. If its a food allergy or too many sweets than prob not. Stomache bug or something else. Ask her to start making a list of the things they are eating so that if it happens again you can zero in on the culprit easier. Take him to the allergist too

My DD will throw up after eating even what to some kids is a small amount of sugar, but the fever doesn't make sense.

may be a stomach thing from too many sweets but, I agree, not the fever...coincidentally, strep can also start w/throwing up and a fever....and maybe I'm a paranoid mom too, but call the pedi

From the timeline you gave us, I wonder if he started to feel bad just a little bit before that popsicle, but he couldn't resist the sweet. Which probably made his upset tummy worse. And ditto with the ice cream - couldn't resist the ice cream, but really wanted mostly to sleep.

My first guess would be, that if he had just slept off the bug, he'd have been all right a lot faster, but the sweets combined with the bug led to the vomiting.

That's what would happen to me, anyway. It's hard for little ones to turn down sweets, though. They don't understand that it'll give them an upset tummy.

I don't think you're being paranoid and it is possible that he is having some blood sugar issues. If you think that might be the case, talk to his pediatrician about it.

Let me share with you my experience. My mother has type 2 diabetes (got diagnosed about 5 years ago) and my dad has severe type 1 diabetes (he has had it since he was in his early 20s, which is less common, since most people get type 1 while they are still a child or teen).

Since the tendency obviously runs in my family, my mom was always careful about not giving us too many sweets. She said that even before she got diagnosed with it (when she was in her 60s), she always felt that she had a sensitivity to eating too much sugar, even when she was as young as her teens.

So we grew up only eating sweets if it was a special occasion like Halloween, a birthday, or Christmas. My two sisters and I have not become diabetic, even though we are all in our 40s now, but I got heavier about 8 years ago, tested my blood sugar one night because I felt badly and had eaten more sweets than usual - I had started to get in the habit of eating the bad sweets - they are pretty addicting once you start getting used to eating them. My blood sugar was 200. At that point I knew I had to lay off the bad food and exercise regularly. I shed the weight and only occasionally eat sugary or high-carb foods because my body is sensitive.

My oldest daughter is very sensitive to sugar, and has been since she was born. The first two years of her life, she rarely had the chance to eat junky food, since we didn't live near any grandparents and I was totally in control of what she ate unless we went there, and it seemed like she didn't handle the cookies at Memaw's too well - acted differently when she ate it. She has always naturally been bigger (not overweight, just meatier and larger-boned that the average child). Once she got into preschool, she was given candy or cookies, etc. every day it seemed. She started screaming for it in the grocery store and I didn't buy the junk, but started making healthy cookies and treats, so she was happy enough with that. Well, as she got older and I had another daughter, both grandmothers would constantly give her treats every time we'd go to their house. No matter how much I protested, they gave them to her. My mother finally began to see the change in her behavior, so stopped. She realized that she could have blood sugar issues. One time my mother-in-law gave her so much junk that she threw up. We knew that this wasn't normal. Some children's bodies can't handle all of those sugary carbs. It's a vicious cycle. While my husband and I were taking a short weekend-long vacation, our daughters were being fed nothing but junk, because they didn't seem to want to eat anything else. That's what happens with junk food. When you get a taste of it, you start to only want the bad food. It was the day we got back that her system was on sugar-overload and she threw up. We tried to explain it to her, but she didn't seem to think it was a big deal.

My older daughter herself, now that she is 13, realizes that her body can't handle the too many carbs and sugar. But, since she's still a child, she went to an all night sleepover recently, and gorged herself on a bunch of junk. She knew it was a bad idea but gave into peer pressure. I had to come get her, because she kept throwing up and was embarrassed that she had to leave the sleepover due to getting sick from junk food overload. I have tested her blood sugar and it is normal when she doesn't eat sweets, but has gotten higher (160-180) when she does. The pediatrician recommends her staying away from the sweets even though she is not officially diabetic. He has seen that she could easily become diabetic or prediabetic if not careful. She seems to have metabolic syndome, which I believe I also have. People can have it for years. It is a sort of pre pre-diabetic state, and reveals itself when your body can't process sugar well.

How much did your son weigh at birth? Is he on the heavy side now? I was almost 10 lbs. at birth and my older daughter was almost 9 lbs. My younger daughter was 10 lbs. even but has not shown a tendency towards diabetes or hypoglycemia, at least not yet. She never overeats sweets nor wants to.

My dad was underweight when he came down with type 1 while in the military. My mother was overweight when she got type 2.

Is there the possibility that your sons mamaw isn't keeping her house clean or is giving him outdated food?

Whatever it is, it does need to be addressed. If he is getting sick every time he is over there for a weekend, and acting sluggish and sick afterwards, that is not a good thing. It does seem like he is being given too much junk food. Some grandmas don't know when to stop. They like seeing the happy reactions of their grandchildren when they get so many treats and seem all too happy to give them what they want, not what is healthy. They like to leave the healthy eating to mom and dad and enjoy the spoiling.

Definitely talk to your doctor about it. By the way, even children without blood sugar issues might get sick after eating too many sweets, so it is possible that he doesn't have any issues - he just needs to stop eating so much at her house.

It could also be a food allergy or bad reactions from chemicals and dyes. BTW, after my children throw up, they always run a fever, but if it doesn't go down quickly, the fever isn't from the exertion of throwing up, it is probably from a bug. If it goes right down, I think you could rule out a flu or bug. Again, talk to his pediatrician about diabetes, sugar-sensitivity, allergies, etc.

I would ask Mamaw what all he's eating. It could be an allergic reaction.
The first few times I ate shellfish I had "flu like symptoms". Now I'm
highly allergic and can't eat it at all. Mine started much like you describe.