There is relentless nausea with repeated bouts of vomiting or retching. The child is very pale and resists talking. They often drool or spit and have an intense thirst. There is often intense abdominal pain and less often headache, low-grade fever and diarrhea. Prolonged vomiting may cause mild bleeding from irritation of the esophagus.
Patients often describe being 'possessed', out of control and stuporous.
The symptoms are frightening to the child and family and can be life-threatening due to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Jeremy usually wakes up this way or on rarer occasions, he actually makes it to school but has to be sent home by mid-morning. That's the word all right. And yes, Jeremy gets about as white as a ghost and just wants to be left alone, though he likes to have me sit with him for a while, now and then. The spitting part fits too as he tends to get lots of sinus drainage at the same time and the thirst is a real killer.