Nausea after meals and at night

Posted by lichty @lichty, Nov 2, 2018

My 19 year old son started about 3 months ago having nausea after meals and at night. He always feels like he is going to throw up but never does. It kinda came out of nowhere. He says riding in a car or exercising (he use to play hockey but now can't) makes it worse. He says drinking water and taking showers and baths help. The doctor has checked his gallbladder, food moving through his system. They have did X-rays, cat scans, EGD and everything has came back normal. They have checked his cortisol levels - normal. My husbands family has a history of having acid reflux and quite a few take medicines for it. My son is on an acid reflux medicine 3 times a day and on nausea medicine that he takes after meals. He says it helps but still feels sick. He is pretty much staying home all the time now. He did drink quite a bit of soda but no longer does and hasn't since this started. He is also a Type 1 diabetic - not sure if that has anything to do with it. I just want to know if anyone else has this issue and what they are doing to help it. We are not sure what to do next. He's too young to be suffering like this all the time.

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Hello @lichty and welcome to Mayo Connect!

I can certainly understand your concern about your 17-year-olds nausea and problems with eating. All of us who are mothers feel concern about the welfare of our children! It certainly seems like you have covered a lot of basis regarding a gastrointestinal reason for the nausea and it sounds like he has been examined for many of the things that would cause these symptoms.

Towards the end of your post you mentioned that he has Type I Diabetes. I am wondering if you have talked about his nausea with his endocrinologist?

Here is an article from the American Diabetes Association about Type I Diabetes in children and teens that might be helpful to you, just click on the link to read the entire article.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/9/2026?loc=dorg_201809_en_puz_t1dposition
If you are comfortable sharing more, how long ago was your son diagnosed Type I? Is he taking insulin? How well is his blood sugar controlled now? Any changes in his insulin level that might be contributing to this?

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Hello @lichty

I found some more information on Mayo Clinic's website regarding Type I Diabetes, with some interesting information about food choices, exercise, etc.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20353011

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@hopeful33250

Hello @lichty and welcome to Mayo Connect!

I can certainly understand your concern about your 17-year-olds nausea and problems with eating. All of us who are mothers feel concern about the welfare of our children! It certainly seems like you have covered a lot of basis regarding a gastrointestinal reason for the nausea and it sounds like he has been examined for many of the things that would cause these symptoms.

Towards the end of your post you mentioned that he has Type I Diabetes. I am wondering if you have talked about his nausea with his endocrinologist?

Here is an article from the American Diabetes Association about Type I Diabetes in children and teens that might be helpful to you, just click on the link to read the entire article.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/9/2026?loc=dorg_201809_en_puz_t1dposition
If you are comfortable sharing more, how long ago was your son diagnosed Type I? Is he taking insulin? How well is his blood sugar controlled now? Any changes in his insulin level that might be contributing to this?

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Thank you for replying. We did talk to his Diabetes doctor and he felt that this was not diabetic related. We are seeing a GI doctor right now and she believes it is not GI related but wanted to run a couple more tests to rule other issues out - a Cortisol test and the Hydrogen Breath test. The cortisol test came back normal and the other test is the one we are waiting for the results back. It is a test for overgrowth of bacteria in his gut. It looks like it may be normal (according to the person that performed it). We are awaiting the official results from doctor. We are at a loss of what to do next. He will be fine then he eats something and is nauseous. He either takes showers or baths and he says that helps him feel better. Not sure how the two are connected. My son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes thirteen years ago when he was 6 years old. He does take insulin - novolog & lantus. His A1C's have been pretty good - 8.1. He hasn't had any changes in his insulin levels that I think would be causing this. Although when he goes low - it seems to make him really sick. Also if he doesn't eat when he gets hungry he gets nauseous. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

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To add to the above, this all started at the end of July this year (so it has been going on for about 4 months now). He was working two jobs, one was a landscaping job out in the hot weather and the other was a grocery store clerk job. I'm not sure if it was the stress of working two jobs, not getting enough sleep, drinking too much soda or the combination of all of it. I just know when he quit both jobs and was going to a hockey tryout that first weekend in August is when this all started. He ended up not being able to do the tryout due to not feeling good. It was in Chicago and he slept the whole way home. It really doesn't matter what he eats. And it seems that the nausea is worse later at night. He sometimes has trouble sleeping because of it. I'm just wondering are we looking at the wrong thing - his GI tract or should we have something else checked out?

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