1 Yr Old Who Likes to Gag Himself

Sounds like stress-related behavior to me. My son would pick his nose until it bled when he was stressed out by our living situation (tension in our house when in-laws temporarily lived with us). I would re-examine bed and naptime routines and see if I could go easier on my child or reduce their stress somehow. Maybe he is not ready to sleep. Maybe he hasn't had enough 'mommy' or 'daddy' time that day.

Punishment at any age (sleeping with vomit? yuk!) just causes more stress and problems. Children -- and people at all ages -- need to be gradually shown how to do things with a compassionate manner. And sometimes it is us, not them, that needs to change.

Anyway, toddlers don't even have the mental capacity to see themselves as separate people before 18 months, so they can't do things to "get attention" yet. And if getting attention is the cause later on, giving loving attention is the cure. One-year-olds can't even "pre-meditate" anything yet. Punishment will only teach him that it is a cruel and harsh world. It sounds to me like you're being a very patient and caring mom overall, good for you!

My daughter did this at the same age to get attention while we were in the car. Naturally the first couple of times we freaked, then we figured out what she was doing. She then did it at naps and bed. It took only one time ignoring it and she stopped. He wants attention from you. If you can stomach it I would not make a big fuss. Praise him when he is not doing it and try "time ins"
Good luck

My son also has a weak gag reflex. Every day while eating he'd puke.. Anytime he got a cold and coughed too much, he's puke..Every time he got upset and cried for to long.. You get the idea. I asked a pediatrician and he said that he'll likely outgrow it, or at least learn to control it. My son is 5 now and pukes a lot less.

I never learned anything that could be done to reduce it, but that doesn't mean there isn't an answer. I just got used to cleaning it up.. Something I did do when he got older was MAKE him responsible for eating small bites of food. I would tell him that if he threw up his meal that he'd have to eat the puke.. He NEVER threw up his food when I would tell him that. Good luck!

If it happens at nap or bedtime, it sounds like it's his way of attracting attention. That means he needs to learn to stop it. If he throws up in his bed, leave it and let him sleep at the other end, then clean them all up when he wakes up. He will learn that it doesn't work anymore.

My son did this too. Not while he was teething, but he would gag himself at dinner time when he didn't want to eat something. I took it to be that he was lashing out because he didn't like what we were having.

We started to swat his hands away from his face and tell him in a strong voice that gagging is not acceptable. Usually, he would listen to us, and then try it again. I can't tell you that it was easy because it took a year to get him to stop. He was the same age as your child too.

That is my best advice. It is just another gimick on how children react to certain things that they do not agree with.

As for the bleeding nose, he may have a dry nose and be picking because it itches. I would put vasoline in his nose with a Q-tip to keep his nose from drying out. You may have to do this a couple of times before it will heal enough. We still have to do this with our son because he has allergies. You might also get him checked for allergies.

I wish the best. Just be persistant with what you try and keep trying. Eventually, he will outgrow some of this silly behavior and come up with other behavior. It's just part of raising kids. Funny little characters!!!!

Best wishes.

Kim B.

This is a "stage" common to year old babies. A one year old is exploring his world. He's found his epiglotis or his throat and is checking it out. This is a common thing to do. Also some babies and people have a stronger gag reflex which makes it impossible to not vomit if the person puts his fingers too far in to their throat.

I recommend paying as little attention to it as possible. He started this by discovering that he gags and vomits when he does this. He did it again to see if it still happens. And again until he's learned whatever he's working on learning. When the parent strongly reacts to the vomiting then there is another element to check out. When I vomit, mother gets anxious. Will that happen next time. If you keep changing your reaction he is more likely to continue checking it out.

This is very IMPORTANT! The baby is NOT consciously aware of what he's doing. He isn't thinking, "let's see what happens next time." I also suspect that he might even forget what happened the last time and in a way rediscovers his epiglotis.

I would quietly clean the mess up, while calmly talking with him about what has happened or reassuring him if he's frightened.

I would also put a plastic sheet over any surface that this is likely to happen. When it's naptime get the plastic piece (not a full sized sheet) before taking him to his nap. You might leave him in his diaper and put a water proof draw pad over his bedding. Perhaps you have some left from when he was newborn or later when you protected his bedding while sleeping or changing him.

Now to the bleeding nose. The air is dry this time of year. He has dried "buggers" in a dry nose. This is uncomfortable! To stop it apply vaseline a couple of times a day inside his nose. do this especially in the morning when he first wakes up and in the evening before going to bed. Another thing that will help is to use a humidifier. My daughter and I both have electronic humidifiers that put out a cool mist.

I was stranded hat her home this week when she started the humidifier because all of our noses were dry and uncomfortable. She has a small 3 bedroom apartment and the one machine in the living room humidified all the rooms.

Here is a far out idea. Could the gagging and nose picking be related? How is he gagging himself. I assumed he was putting his fingers in his mouth. I have an adult friend who could gag herself just by thinking about it.

Perhaps his food isn't masticated (slushy) enough and hits his epiglotis combined with an easy gag reflex.

Sometimes I gag when whatever I've eaten doesn't feel good in my stomach. Sometimes I feel enough nausea that I think that if I could only stick my finger down my throat to make myself vomit I'll feel better. Many times I've experienced feeling much better after vomiting. Something like this could be going on tho it does seem unlikely.

If he's not putting his fingers in his mouth and seems to just spontaneously vomit it is likely something else is going on. I've read that babies will not eat too much. I've found that to not be true and when my cousin's baby ate too much she vomited. I had assumed it was OK to keep feeding her as long as she kept eating. Her mother said I'd fed her at least twice as much as she usually ate.

If the stomach is full, bending a baby in the middle or tipping them head down or rough housing with them can cause vomiting. The flap at the top of the stomach that keeps food in can be weak. I've experienced this with both of my grandchildren.