Dr. Hive - strange sweating question

[BikeBookBread]

LLL (who is 4 1/2) sweats a ton at night. I go in and check on her, and her head is completely wet. Sometimes I think she has wet herself, but it is really sweat. It also smells very acidic...almost urine-like, but it isn't. When she wakes up in the morning she has white mineral residue rings on her pillow-case (her case is bright pink, so it is very visible; if her case was white maybe I wouldn't notice this).

 

She wears cool PJs or nightgowns, we have A/C so her room isn't too cold. She is drinking a ton of water.

 

Is this normal? Should I be worried?

[Wyndie]

My son used to do that too. It was disgusting b/c he was soaking wet in the morning and his sheets were drippy! It stopped when I took gluten out of his diet. My understanding is that the body is detoxing from the gluten (or whatever food makes that happen for your child) by sweat. We do heal and detox naturally when we sleep so it made sense to me that it stopped when I stopped feeding him a food he was allergic to.

[lisamarie]

My DD3 is the same way. After naps and in the morning her hair and her shirts are soaking. I thought she was just a super sweaty kid. But I will have to consider the gluten aspect. She has a diarrhea problem and gluten was one of the foods suggested that she could have issues with. We're cutting out dairy right now to see if that helps, but so far not so much.

[MBM]

LLL (who is 4 1/2) sweats a ton at night. I go in and check on her, and her head is completely wet. Sometimes I think she has wet herself, but it is really sweat. It also smells very acidic...almost urine-like, but it isn't. When she wakes up in the morning she has white mineral residue rings on her pillow-case (her case is bright pink, so it is very visible; if her case was white maybe I wouldn't notice this).

 

She wears cool PJs or nightgowns, we have A/C so her room isn't too cold. She is drinking a ton of water.

 

Is this normal? Should I be worried?

 

I've read that children sometimes have trouble with their internal heating and cooling mechanisms.

 

My youngest used to sweat profusely at night even with just a sheet over him and the A/C turned up. We figured out that if he didn't sleep on his pillows and covered himself lightly he was okay. Nowadays he doesn't have this problem. He's 13, so maybe he's growing out of it.

 

Btw, in our case, his overheating caused sleepwalking (once outside) and hypnogogic dream states (in a sleep state but awake). Fevers have the same effect even still.

 

I don't think you have to worry too much. Usually, serious conditions will have other noticeable symptoms. For reassurance, you could put a call in to your pediatrician's office and just ask over the phone what they think.

[Unicorn.]

LLL (who is 4 1/2) sweats a ton at night. I go in and check on her, and her head is completely wet. Sometimes I think she has wet herself, but it is really sweat. It also smells very acidic...almost urine-like, but it isn't. When she wakes up in the morning she has white mineral residue rings on her pillow-case (her case is bright pink, so it is very visible; if her case was white maybe I wouldn't notice this).

 

She wears cool PJs or nightgowns, we have A/C so her room isn't too cold. She is drinking a ton of water.

 

Is this normal? Should I be worried?

 

Does she pee a lot during the day? You said she is drinking a ton of water. Does that mean she seems thirsty all the time?

 

If it were me, I would see about getting her blood sugar checked. Even if you just have a diabetic friend test her sugars for you, it would let you know if you need to be worried.

 

I have a kid who sweats a lot, (has hyper-hydrosis ) but hers hasn't ever smelled funny, and she doesn't drink a ton.

 

Oh, are her pj's cotton, or poly? Poly can make you sweat!