How to Throw Up: 10 Tips to Vomit Safely (& When)

To throw up, there are several steps you can take, like adequate hand hygiene and drinking water afterwards, that can help to reduce discomfort and prevent other complications. Vomiting is a natural reflex that the body uses to eliminate spoiled food or toxic substances in the stomach. The body will automatically stimulate the vomiting reflex when necessary. 

If you have ingested a poisonous or irritating substance, like cleaning products, you should not attempt to throw up, as the fluid will have to reenter the throat, and cause more damage. In these situations, you should proceed immediately to the hospital for assessment and treatment as necessary.

You should only throw up if recommended by a doctor, or if you are experiencing very intense symptoms after eating that do not improve with other remedies. If you are experiencing nausea and are looking for relief, you can check-out these natural tea recipes for nausea that can help to soothe stomach discomfort and burning. 

5 essential steps to vomit safely 

To vomit safely and to prevent discomfort or other serious complications, you should: 

1. Wash your hands thoroughly

Washing your hands is very important for preventing the transmission of bacteria and other microorganisms from your hands to your throat, which can cause infections like tonsillitis. Before making yourself throw up, perform thorough hand hygiene with warm water and soap.

2. Kneel in front of the toilet

Kneeling in front of the toilet is one of the most comfortable and safest positions to vomit in. You should avoid putting pressure on the stomach, as this can cause more discomfort when throwing up.

3. Place a finger in your throat 

There is a point at the front of your throat that can be squeezed to stimulate the vomiting reflex. To reach it, you should place a finger in your mouth, and slightly press down on the area behind the tongue, where your throat starts. The desire to vomit will appear almost immediately, although some people will need to do this 2 to 3 times to be able to vomit, as the brain may try to block the signal the first few times.

4. Drink 1 cup of water

After vomiting, it is important to drink a cup of water to remove any excess stomach acid that remains along the stomach walls. This can reduce any stomach burning and throat inflammation from acid that has been regurgitated.

5. Wait 30 minutes before washing your teeth 

Although you may feel the desire to brush your teeth immediately after vomiting, it is best to just rinse and gargle with water. The teeth will be quite sensitive after coming in contact with stomach acid, and brushing your teeth may worsen this. Therefore, you should wait about 30 minutes after vomiting to brush your teeth.

5 safe ways to make yourself throw up

Making yourself vomit with Ipecac or any of the below methods is not advised for the treatment of suspected chemical poisoning at home. However, if intense gastric symptoms, like intolerable nausea with cold sweats, emerge immediately after eating a meal, you can seek relief by:

1. Using a finger

The gag reflex is an automatic contraction of the back of the throat that serves to protect you from inhaling foreign bodies or food that is not swallowed into the stomach. This reflex can be triggered by poking the back of the throat behind the tongue or the tonsil area with a finger, toothbrush or tongue scraper. The contraction often triggers stomach content to rise and back up into the mouth.

2. Intense gargling

Instead of touching or poking the back of your throat with a finger or other instrument to stimulate a gag reflux, you can also trigger this reflux by gargling with fluid like water, for example. Gargling should be intense enough to induce gagging and retching, so that stomach content will flow back up.

3. Motion sickness

Motion sickness is the feeling of malaise that follows after the brain is overloaded with sensory information. That is, when your eyes see an image, but your muscles sense an opposite force and and your ears sense a change in balance, the brain is not able to compute all these movements. This can often result in nausea and vomiting. You can induce motion sickness by spinning in a circle or computer chair with your eyes open, making sure to do so in a safe area. 

4. Mental imagery 

Some people may have a heightened sensitivity to certain sensory stimuli that may provoke vomiting. These stimuli can include auditory elements (e.g. hearing someone vomit), smells (like imagining the smell of vomit or other strong chemicals like bleach), and thinking about tasting unappealing food. 

5. Sodium solutions

Although they are no longer recommended to induce vomiting, salt-water mixtures are thought to upset the stomach. It is important to highlight that sodium solutions are associated with a risk of hypernatremia, which is a salt toxicity that can be life-threatening when sodium levels in the blood are severely elevated. 

Possible risks of throwing up

One of the biggest risks of inducing vomiting is the possibility of causing a pneumonia. This happens because when you vomit, stomach content returns to the mouth, and when it flows back up, it can be aspirated into the lungs. If this occurs, the lungs will become inflamed and bacteria from the stomach contents can start to grow in the lungs, leading to pneumonia. 

Frequent vomiting can cause wounds in the esophagus and mouth, as these are lined with very sensitive tissue that are not made to be in direct contact with gastric acid. 

What can cause vomiting 

Although the desire to throw up is a common symptom, there are specific situations in which vomiting can be a sign of an abnormality. Some of these include: 

• Serious abdominal problems, like appendicitis or bowel obstruction 
• Problems in the digestive system, like food poisoning or ulcers 
• Problems in the nervous system, like meningitis, hydrocephalus or tumors
• Pregnancy, especially after the 6th week 
• Use of medications, like digoxin, codeine and chemotherapy drugs  

There are many situations in which inducing vomiting is not associated with significant risks. However if you feel the desire to vomit frequently and it does not improve, or if you have other symptoms like blood in the vomit or a foul odor, you should proceed to the hospital for assessment.

Read more about the most common causes of nausea and why you may feel discomfort. Understanding the underlying cause can help to guide the appropriate treatment. 

When you should not make yourself throw up

You should never throw up to remove recently ingested food, just because you feel you ate too much. If you feel the desire to vomit for weight loss reasons, you may be experiencing bulimia. This is an eating disorder which is characterized by the desire to vomit out of fear of weight gain. 

In addition, if you have accidentally consumed a poisonous substance or cleaning product, you should not try to vomit, as you may increase the risk for esophageal burns.