Treatment and Relapses

Once the Rumination Syndrome was diagnosed, the treatment was quick and she immediately stopped vomiting. It was a one hour session with a speech therapist at Children’s Memorial who is specially trained in diaphragmatic breathing. The idea is that the brain has to re-learn that digestion is a one-way street. Diaphragmatic breathing forces the diaphragm to cover the top of the stomach so that the food doesn’t exit from the top. Its that simple. (Note: I understand that for kids with other complications this can be take longer to resolve.)

Since the time the rumination was resolved, my daughter has 4 relapses. The first 3 were isolated vomiting incidents which she corrected by practicing the breathing techniques. 

The 4th one required another one hour visit the the speech therapist to review the basic diaphragmatic breathing techniques. It was more challenging because it was triggered by a virus that caused her to vomit for 2 days. I was able to see after 2 days that her other virus symptoms had disappeared and only the vomiting remained. It was such a relief to know exactly who to contact to get the help she needed.