What to do if your child sweats while sleeping

Sweating is a normal physiological reaction of the body, but as children grow up, any small situation will be magnified in the eyes of their parents, who love their children dearly. Many children sweat easily when they sleep, which makes their parents worried and they are very concerned about the solution. So, what should we do if children sweat while sleeping? Let’s take a closer look at the solution.

Physiological sweating and its solutions

For normal children, parents do not need to worry even if they sweat too much, because children's sweat glands are more developed. The secretion of sweat glands is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (vagus nerve). After a child falls asleep, the vagus nerve becomes excited, causing excessive sweating. Sweating usually occurs mostly on the head and face, but it will subside within one or two hours after sleeping. At this time, you can use a dry towel to wipe off the sweat in time; change underwear frequently to prevent catching a cold due to excessive sweating; let your child take a bath frequently, and expose the bedding or sleeping bags to the sun frequently to keep them dry, and sterilize them at the same time.

Infants and young children have an active metabolism and are active and lively. Some of them cannot rest even after going to bed at night, so they may sweat on their heads after falling asleep. The so-called physiological hyperhidrosis refers to sweating during sleep when the child is well-developed, healthy, and has no disease. Parents are often accustomed to deciding the best environmental temperature for their children based on their own subjective feelings, and like to cover their babies with more blankets and keep them tightly covered. Because children's brain and nervous system are not yet fully developed and they are in the growth and development period, their body metabolism is very active. Coupled with the stimulation of overheating, they can only regulate normal body temperature by sweating to evaporate the heat in the body. In addition, drinking milk, malted milk or eating chocolate before going to bed can also cause sweating in children. Some parents give their children milk, malted milk, etc. before they go to sleep. After the child falls asleep, the body produces a large amount of heat, which is mainly dissipated through sweating through the skin. In addition, too high room temperature or excessive warmth can also cause children to sweat while sleeping, which are all physiological sweating.

Pathological sweating and its solution

Pathological sweating occurs when the child is in a quiet state, such as sweating caused by rickets, which manifests as obvious sweating on the child's head in the first half of the night after falling asleep. Because the pillow is irritated by sweat, babies often shake their heads and rub against the pillow when they sleep, resulting in sparse hair and loss of hair on the pillow, forming typical annular hair loss on the pillow, which is medically known as "occipital baldness". It is an early manifestation of rickets in infants. As long as vitamin D and calcium are supplemented in time, rickets can be controlled and sweating will stop by itself.

If a child sweats not only in the first half of the night but also in the second half of the night and before dawn, it is usually a sign of illness, the most common of which is tuberculosis. Tuberculosis also has other symptoms, such as low fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, flushed cheeks, etc. Children with tuberculosis tend to sweat easily during daytime activities, which is called spontaneous sweating, and sweating at night is called night sweats. If you suspect your child is infected with tuberculosis, a lung X-ray or a tuberculin test should be done for timely diagnosis and treatment.

The above is an introduction to what to do if your child sweats while sleeping. I hope it will be helpful to parents. There are many factors that cause children to sweat easily, not only physiological but also pathological. Therefore, for children with such characteristics, parents should look for the cause comprehensively. Only by finding the specific factors can they better solve the problem.