How to Help Kids When the Fear of Throwing Up Takes Over
AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety
Natasha Daniels: Child Therapist, Child Anxiety and OCD Expert, Parenting Coach and Parent
4.9 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the fear of throwing up begins to take over a child’s daily life, it can quietly shrink their world. School, eating, travel, social events, exercise, sleepovers, restaurants, and even ordinary conversations can suddenly feel unsafe.
In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I’m talking all about emetophobia, the intense fear of vomiting, and how it can show up as both anxiety and OCD.
We’ll explore the hidden compulsions that often fuel this disorder, including reassurance seeking, body checking, food restriction, avoidance, hyperfixation on nausea, and the constant need to prevent getting sick.
I’ll also discuss:
• Why emetophobia is not caused by trauma, even though a traumatic illness experience can trigger it
• How avoidance quietly strengthens the fear over time
• Why reassurance rarely helps long term
• The difference between empowering your child versus protecting the disorder
• How to identify the core fear driving the emetophobia
• What exposures can look like for vomiting fears
• How ERP therapy can help kids reclaim their lives
If your child’s fear of throwing up is beginning to control daily life, this episode will help you better understand what is happening beneath the surface and how to support recovery in a compassionate, therapeutic way.
Resources from this episode:
Get the PDF Handout for this episode
Emetophobia Videos:
https://youtu.be/mvQlW3iSU5U?si=b-UBrQdNR7ze0gKx
https://youtu.be/cclkHTOX0co?si=tuSIySbvUlVdzBui
https://youtu.be/oShDAdBugJ0?si=MfdwLU2xx1xocR9c
https://youtu.be/KvhjJqSXDRw?si=aJiOJKyJn1LYUdGZ
Books Mentioned:
Anxiety Sucks: A Teen Survival Guide by Natasha Daniels
Overcoming Emetophobia Exposure Workbook by Natasha Daniels
Facing Mighty Fears About Throwing Up by Dawn Huebner
***
This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides online OCD therapy in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. To schedule your free 15 minute consultation to see if NOCD is a right fit for you and your child, go to
https://go.treatmyocd.com/at_parenting
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used to replace the guidance of a qualified professional.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, where you get help and guidance through the chaos of parenting a child with anxiety or OCD. |
| 0:12.0 | This show is for educational purposes and is not intended to replace the guidance of a qualified professional. |
| 0:18.5 | Here's your host, child therapist, Natasha Daniels. Well, hello there and welcome |
| 0:24.0 | to another episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast. Today we're going to talk about something |
| 0:29.6 | that I know a lot of you are dealing with, and it's something that we have dealt with at my house |
| 0:35.2 | a lot, which is the fear of throwing up, |
| 0:38.7 | clinically known as a metaphobia. And I wanted to do a really comprehensive episode of what it is, |
| 0:46.5 | the many different ways it can show up, and as parents, what we can do to support our kids and what |
| 0:52.3 | we should not do. Sometimes that's just as important as what we can do to support our kids and what we should not do. Sometimes that's just as important |
| 0:55.4 | as what we can do. But before we jump into today's episode, I do want to thank No CD for sponsoring |
| 1:02.2 | this episode. NoCD offers affordable, effective, convenient therapy, and they're available in the |
| 1:08.4 | U.S. and outside the U.S. You can schedule your free 15-minute consultation to see if no CD is a right fit for you |
| 1:15.7 | and your child. Just go to treat myoced.com. That's treat myoced.com. I'll leave a link in the show |
| 1:22.8 | notes as well. All right. Let's start with just understanding a metaphobia. Now I'm going to start |
| 1:28.2 | with a really controversial statement for some of you, but stick with me. A metaphobia is not |
| 1:36.6 | caused by trauma. This is a very big mistake that happens often because it can be triggered by a traumatic event. That is |
| 1:48.9 | different. And so it's important to understand that often a metaphobia is triggered by a traumatic |
| 1:56.6 | event. However, many of us have had traumatic-ish events around throw-up. We have seen people |
| 2:05.3 | throw up. We have gotten really, really sick. We've had bad experiences. This is part of the |
| 2:10.1 | human condition. If everybody developed a metaphobia because of that trauma, literally everybody would have a metaphobia. |
| 2:19.4 | And I would have to say maybe two-thirds of the people I've treated with a metaphobia |
| 2:24.5 | will start off with an event that happened, a traumatic event that happened, that caused |
... |
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