Emetophobia (the fear of throwing up) in children: As a parent, what can you do?
What is Emetophobia?
No one likes being sick. Its only natural to want to avoid it. But what do you do if you are a parent with a child who really really really doesn’t want to throw up to the extent it is impacting on their life, school, friendships and mental health.
The extreme fear of vomiting is known as Emetophobia and effects up to 7-9% of people. This makes it one of the most common phobia’s in both adults and children. Yet sadly, awareness of this disorder is often lacking in both schools and even from many therapists. Emetophobia is a truly disabling condition that starts to effects every area of your child’s life. Unfortunately, Emetophobia rarely gets better on its own and children don’t just grow out of it. Luckily, treatment is highly effective.
How do I know if my child has Emetophobia?
For those without Emetophobia, it is normal to be nervous about being sick when ill, but for children with Emetophobia, their fear of being sick is way stronger and they can start to become afraid even when they are not ill. Their thoughts can become pre-occupied with the chance of catching a tummy bug, food poisoning or seeing others be sick.
If your child has Emetophobia they will often go to great lengths to avoid places, foods, activities or things they associate with being sick. They might also repeatedly ask questions and seek reassurance from you about the chance of them being ill.
Emetophobia can develop early, around the age of 9 and is more commonly diagnosed in girls. Often Emetophobia can develop following an episode of vomiting or seeing others be sick. However, for some children no recognisable event occurs.
Book a free consultation with David Kaneria, an Emetophobia specialist to talk about therapy for your child
Signs and Symptoms of Emetophobia in Children
Anxiety symptoms:
Emetophobia is a type of anxiety disorder. This means your child will experience the physical symptoms of anxiety when they have thoughts about being sick, feel nauseous, picture being sick or come into contact with something they believe will lead them to be sick. These symptoms can include:
Uncontrollable worrying.
Nausea.
Rapid heart rate (palpitations).
Faster breathing.
Panic attacks.
Poor sleep.
Reduced eating.
Avoidance behaviours:
Anxiety is designed to keep us safe and acts like a warning sign of danger. One of the ways it attempts to keep us safe is by wanting us to escape or avoid dangers. This makes sense for real threats. However, for those with emetophobia, their anxiety system has incorrectly identified vomiting as a danger. and applies the same logic of having to avoid it. You might see your child:
Avoiding certain situations were they could see others be sick (school, playgrounds, friends houses).
Refusing to eat certain foods they see as ‘unsafe’.
Keeping away from people who are ill or have been sick recently. This can make going to school a stressful experience if there is a sickness bug going around.
Refusing medications that might cause nausea.
Safety behaviours:
As already mentioned, anxiety is designed to keep us safe and acts like a warning sign of danger. A big part of this is about preventing danger from happening or being ready for it. This often leads to your child doing repeated behaviour’s designed to prevent sickness. These are called ‘safety behaviours'‘ and they seem logical at face value. However, they are symptoms of Emetophobia which only grow and intensify your child’s fear over time.
These behaviours can include:
Excessive checking behaviour: Such as checking dates, mentally reviewing who they spoken to or what they have eaten that day, looking for signs of undercooked foods or ill people.
Reassurance seeking: Your child may start asking repetitive questions about foods, people or if they are going to be sick.
Body scanning: Your child may start monitoring their body for symptoms. This is often not a visible behaviour from the outside but you may see it’s effects. Typically children doing this experience nausea and tummy problems more frequently, if not daily.
Hypervigilance(scanning for danger): Your child may start to become jumpy and become watchful of what they see as dangers. You might see them looking around for toilets, watching you cook, or looking for people who look unwell.
Preventative behaviours: Your child may start to do things to prevent them from being sick such as taking mints, chewing gum or asking for anti-sickness medication.
Worrying: Your child may start to excessively worry for large portions of the day.
Unnecessary planning: Your child may start planning for sickness. They might have to know where the toilets are in restaurants or on trips. They might start carrying around items just in case they are sick.
Distraction: Some children try to keep busy and stay distracted to stop themselves thinking about sickness.
Do children grow out of Emetophobia?
It is unlikely your child will grow out of their Emetophobia. This is because anxiety disorders are self-reinforcing, which means the symptoms caused by the disorder, only grow the phobia over time. It is possible your child may have periods of their life where their phobia appears to disappear, but it often lies dormant until they next get triggered. For example, some children feel better in summer when it is not tummy bug season, but relapse in winter. Without treatment, Emetophobia typically gets worse over time. It is not uncommon to see adults who have had it their entire life.
Is Emetophobia treatable?
100%.
It is very treatable.
The only good thing about Emetophobia is that we know exactly what you need to do to get rid of it. However, Emetophobia is a severe and tricky disorder that is different than treating other phobias. It often requires a therapist with specialist knowledge in the area. It is advised to speak to a therapist like myself who specialises in this phobia compared to a generic therapist. If you can not find a specialist, it is recommended to at least find a BABCP accredited CBT therapist. Do not just trust a therapist you found online who says they ‘do CBT’ without accreditation.
How Do You Treat Emetophobia in Children?
The best treatment is known as CBT, which stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Your child’s Emetophobia is fed by a series of common psychological processes which keep them trapped in their anxiety. These psychological processes differ for each person with Emetophobia. CBT aims to help your child uncover these processes, and then start removing them one by one. See these processes like a house of cards. Remove just a few of the cards at the bottom and the whole thing falls down. This type of therapy is designed to be effective and often recovery is possible within 10-20 sessions.
Why CBT?
1) It works: Currently the only treatment that has been reliably proven to work for Emetophobia is CBT. This doesn’t mean other approaches don’t or can’t work, but that CBT is the only one proven to work.
2) It’s flexible: CBT treatment is highly flexible and will focuses on your child’s specific needs.
3) It makes sense: Therapy should not feel confusing. CBT is a very rationale and understandable approach to overcoming your phobia.
4) It’s validating: CBT is highly validating and aims to help your child understand why they have such an intense fear of vomiting without any judgment.
5) It is education based: Your child will learn the science behind anxiety and our child will be taught to understand why the CBT tools work. This helps them apply what they have learnt to any form of anxiety in their life moving forward.
But I was told I need Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), not CBT.
ERP therapy is known as one of the “gold standard” treatments. However, what most people don’t realise is that ERP is just a tool within CBT. Your child’s therapy will involve elements of exposure therapy but it will also have so much more. There will be a wide range of tools and techniques to aid them to overcome their phobia.
Why work with me?
Many of the standard treatments often fall short of what they needed. Emetophobia is often a misunderstood problem and many therapists are not equipped to deal with it. Sadly this is all to common and many therapists have never even heard of emetophobia, let alone know how to apply evidence-based therapy to its treatment.
However, I have spent my career trying to change this. Emetophobia is something I specialise in. My whole practice is build around treating emetophobia, I have 4 university level degrees, have written a textbook and run training sessions for therapists on the treatment of emetophobia.
I work with children (and adults) over the age of 12.
If you decide to have your child speak to me, they will be getting someone who really understands what they are going through and knows how to help them recover. They will feel heard, understood and empowered to recover.
I am highly rated and recommended by the clients I see - client reviews can be found on my google business page → Click here.
Will therapy be scary? - No
Many people with Emetophobia are scared of therapy as they have heard horror stories of therapists using exposure therapy that was too intense. Sadly that does happen. Many therapists who are inexperienced with treating Emetophobia can try to treat it like another phobia and often can make things worse.
Therapy with myself aims to use as little exposure therapy as possible and focus on other proven ways to overcome your child’s phobia. However, your child will be guided to occasionally put themselves outside of their comfort zone and try new things. This will always be done slowly and without any pressure.
Let’s do this together.
Why not book in a free no obligation consultation to see if I am the right therapist for them
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Social story for children with emetophobia
Children with emetophobia can find it hard to go to school or try new things. This book brings these fears to life with the story of Sophie, a girl scared of going on a school tip. The book contains advice, tips and a guide to overcoming your fears. All written to be understood for children aged 8+
What is a social story?
A social story is a book that is designed to echo what your child is going through and aims to help them learn about their own phobia by reading about someone else struggling with their emetophobia.
The book can be found on amazon → Click here