20 Month Old Has Fever, Has Ear And Chest Infection, Vomited Brown Substance. Is It Blood ?

When there is infection of the respiratory tract the inflammation can cause some bleeding usually in the nose. The blood can pass down the pharynx into the stomach and can be vomited. It is extremely unlikely that baby has any serious problem. If the general condition is satisfactory and the child is active you need not worry. Sometimes repeated vomiting can also cause small tear in the delicate lining of the stomach which can cause some bleeding. As the blood is digested by the stomach juice it does not look bright red but brown.

Hello there,

It is obvious for you to get anxious as you got two different opinions on whether it is blood or not.

First of all, is you child "coughing out' that browny substance or 'vomiting out" that browny substance ? The first condition is called hemoptysis and the second hemetemesis. The causes for both are different.In both the cases, this browny substance can indeed be blood.

Although infections can result is hemoptysis, all other causes like congenital heart disease, pulmonary hemosiderosis, inflammatory bronchial mass, cystic fibrosis, factitious hemoptysis, and esophagitis are less common.

Children of this age can not cough out and swallow their sputum so what they vomit may sometimes be swallowed blood.

In hemetemesis, esophagitis and peptic ulcer disease are common causes. But in such cases there will be recurrence of blood tinged vomitings.

So there needs to be more clarity here. What food was given to your child of late ? Was any oral drug given to your baby ?

If the problem recurs, your child will require a complete investigative work up including an upper GI endoscopy and complete blood count. At the same time, it is important to keep the child under observation in a hospital, monitor the vitals and check for any drowsiness that may set in the child because of this problem.

Take care.