Children sweat while sleeping
Release time : 04/21/2025 09:30:01
Mom wakes up in the middle of the night to touch her baby's head, and she has sweat all over her hands! Babies who sweat while sleeping may have physiological or pathological reasons. Moms should carefully observe the symptoms of their babies' sweating at night. If it's physiological, they should treat it appropriately; if it's pathological, they need to take medicine and supplement nutrients promptly to improve their baby's sleep sweating symptoms.
Children sweating during sleep is due to their physical constitution. Infants and young children, especially during the early stages of life, have a vigorous metabolism and are active and restless. Even after getting into bed at night, they may not be calm. Therefore, they can sweat profusely in the head during sleep.
Parents often habitually decide on the best environmental temperature for their child based on their subjective feelings, and like to cover their baby with blankets, making it tightly covered.
Children are still in the stage of brain neurological development and growth, metabolism is very vigorous, and under the stimulation of overheating, only through perspiration, to evaporate internal heat, regulate normal body temperature.
Nursing parents often prefer to determine the optimal temperature for their baby based on their subjective sense, and they like to cover their baby in blankets tightly. This is also the reason why babies sweat while sleeping.
Sometimes, the weather isn't cold, and parents also put on more clothes for their baby. This could be the reason why babies sweat while sleeping.
Some lively and active children exercise a lot during the day and generate a lot of heat. The body does not have the ability to dissipate excess heat through sweating. The heat accumulates in the baby's body. The baby's body temperature can reach about 38℃ at night.
After the baby falls asleep, the amount of heat generated is reduced and the sympathetic sensitivity is weakened. The body dissipates excess heat through sweating to maintain the body's normal body temperature.
Dietary reasons Many parents are always worried that their babies are not nutritious enough and try every means to get their babies to eat more supplements.
Some parents will give their baby milk, malt essence, etc. before the baby goes to sleep. After the baby falls asleep, the body produces a large amount of heat, which can only dissipate heat through skin sweating, which is also the reason why the baby sleeps and sweats.
Drinking milk, malted milk or eating chocolate before falling asleep can also cause sweating.
Some parents give their children milk, malt essence, etc. before falling asleep. After the child falls asleep, the body produces a large amount of heat, mainly through skin sweating to dissipate heat.
Therefore, parents need not be overly concerned about children's night sweats. First, determine whether the child is experiencing physiological sweating. This is merely a physiological phenomenon during a baby's growth process, and it will gradually decrease as the child ages.
Children often sweat while sleeping, but not all types of sweating are normal. Some types of sweating in children are pathological, indicating the presence of certain diseases. It is important for mothers to pay attention to the following four types of sweating that indicate immature development in children:
In children with rickets, the most common cause of pathological sweating is rickets.
In this situation, the child, apart from excessive sweating, also exhibits symptoms such as irritability, crying, temperamental, sleep disturbances, easily awaken, and a bald head on the pillow (medical term: alopecia areata).
This results in excessive sweating and itching on the head, causing the child to continuously turn their head, rubbing their hair against the scalp.
In children with rickets, the head appears square, with prominent forehead, large fontanelles and delayed closure. Teething is also delayed.
This excessive sweating situation must be seen in a hospital, and timely supplementation of adequate vitamins D and calcium formulations should be done to prevent the condition from worsening.
Mom is puzzled, why does a baby sweat after calcium supplementation? Tuberculous hyperhidrosis is another pathological cause of excessive sweating.
Excessive sweating in pediatric tuberculosis is characterized by both excessive sweating during sleep and sweating in the early hours of dawn. The patient may also exhibit symptoms such as weight loss, lack of weight gain, loss of appetite, long eyelashes, and low fever.
Pediatric tuberculosis, if diagnosed and treated early, can be completely cured.
However, if it is discovered too late and the opportunity for treatment is delayed, treatment will become very difficult, and even develop into tuberculous pleurisy, pericarditis, etc.
Therefore, once it is discovered that the child sweats excessively at night and continues to do so in the latter part of the night, an examination should be conducted at a hospital, a chest X-ray taken, and a tuberculin test performed to confirm the diagnosis and initiate treatment promptly.
Low blood sugar is often observed in the summer when temperatures are high, babies sweat more, and they refuse to eat during the night. Upon waking in the morning, they appear listless.
The child exhibits feelings of sadness and restlessness, pale complexion, cold sweats, even profuse sweating, and a feeling of coldness in the limbs.
Abuse of drugs, with excessive sweating, is commonly observed in children who are physically weak and frequently suffer from colds.
During the common cold, many parents, in a hurry to seek medical attention (or for some hospitals' profit-driven motives), may misuse antibiotics on their children.
The cold nature of antibiotics can harm the child's constitution, causing their body to become even weaker and leading to excessive profuse sweating.
For cases of excessive sweating caused by the abuse of drugs, it is generally recommended that the child stop using antibiotics and wait for about 10 days before recovery can occur.
Children who frequently experience excessive sweating should consider nourishing Qi and reducing spontaneous sweating. Medications can be selected from dietary therapy, such as making a lily soup with rice.
You can also choose to take proprietary Chinese medicines such as Qixing Brand Xuhanting Granules, which has a certain effect on treating hyposweat in children.
For children with severe sweating or without improvement after self-recuperation, an experienced Chinese medicine practitioner should be asked to check their pulse and provide symptomatic treatment.
>>Traditional Chinese medicine: There are two types of baby sweating that should be treated differently. Mom. com Warm tip: Sweat is an important substance in the human body. It can regulate body temperature, adjust body fluids, and excrete waste in the body.
Parents dialectically look at sweating to distinguish whether the baby is sweating physically or medically.
If it is physiological sweating, proper sweating should not only not be a worry, but also be beneficial.
What to do when children sleep physiological sweating? Faced with the situation of their baby sweating during sleep, parents should carefully observe whether their baby's sweating is physiological sweating or pathological sweating. If the baby sweats because of the above reasons, then parents don't have to be too nervous.
1. If a mother finds that her baby sweats a lot, she should first look for the reason for the sweating.
If it is physiological sweating, the mother does not have to worry too much, just remove the external factors that cause the baby to sweat.
In hot summer, windows need to be opened frequently, and if conditions permit, use fans or turn on air conditioners. Be careful not to blow the wind directly on the baby, especially after the baby falls asleep, the skin pores are open and there is sweat on the body. If the wind blows directly, it will easily catch cold.
2. Pay attention to your baby's clothing and quilt.
We advocate that babies wear an extra layer of clothing compared to adults, cultivating their resistance from a young age.
Some mothers, when they feel a child's hand is cold in winter, will do everything possible to add clothes for the child, wear several sweaters and trousers, blankets and so on.
It is important to ensure that infants do not wear or cover themselves with excessive clothing, leading to significant sweating. If the baby's clothes become wet and are not promptly changed, they can be dried by the baby's own body temperature, which in turn may cause chills and lead to colds, fevers, and coughs.
Excessive sweating in babies can lead to dehydration due to the loss of too much water from their bodies.
3. Parents need to replenish water to their babies in time, and it is best to feed them light salt water, because babies sweat like adults. In addition to losing water, they also lose a certain amount of electrolytes such as sodium, chloride, and potassium.
Feeding your baby with light salt water can replenish water, sodium, chlorine and other salts, maintain the balance of electrolytes in the body, and avoid dehydration and collapse.
4. Parents should dry the body of the sweating baby in time.
Families with conditions should clean or take a bath for their baby and change their underwear and underwear in time.
Your baby's skin is delicate, and excessive sweat accumulates in skin folds such as neck, armpits, groin, etc., which can cause skin ulceration and cause skin infection.
5. Bathing frequently: Your baby's skin is very delicate, and excessive sweat accumulates in skin folds such as neck, armpits, groin, etc. This requires bathing your baby frequently to keep the skin clean and dry, prevent skin from ulcerating and causing skin infections.
6. Applying talcum powder: Regularly applying talcum powder to babies can effectively absorb excess moisture from their skin, leaving them feeling comfortable and dry.
Cooling powder can also prevent sweat stinging the skin and allergic reactions and damage caused by friction of clothes.
7. If you notice that your baby has excessive sweating, pay close attention to any other symptoms and seek medical attention promptly to treat the underlying condition causing the excessive sweating.
If infants and young children have active rickets and excessive sweating, they should seek medical attention at a hospital. They can be prescribed fish liver oil and calcium supplements, and encouraged to engage in outdoor activities such as sunbathing.
Upon suddenly noticing that a child is experiencing excessive sweating in the early morning of summer, without any fever, pallor, lethargy, and cold limbs are observed. It is considered likely to have hypoglycemia. Firstly, administer sugar water at home, then immediately go to the hospital for further diagnosis and treatment.
What should be done about pathological sweating in children who are sleeping? 1. Children with rickets.
It is advisable to supplement calcium and vitamin D under the guidance of a physician.
Infections should be treated with antimicrobial therapy.
After the disease was cured, the night sweating symptoms also disappeared.
2. Tuberculosis patient.
Excessive sweating during daytime activities is referred to as "excessive sweating," and night sweats are known as "night sweats."
Should suspicion arise that a baby has contracted tuberculosis, it is necessary to conduct pulmonary X-ray examination or tuberculin skin testing to promptly diagnose and treat the condition.
If the child often sweats in the early morning and has symptoms of pallor, rapid pulse and so on, then it may be that hypoglycemia occurred.
At this time, it is recommended to give the baby some sugar water or eat some pastries, and the symptoms of excessive sweating will disappear.
4. Children with weak constitution often sweat patches on the head, chest and back during daytime activities or after going to bed at night.
It often results from inadequate feeding or poor digestion and absorption, leading to malnutrition.
5. In nursing care, attention should be paid to adjusting feeding methods to stimulate appetite in children, increasing the intake of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
In addition, children suffer from anemia, rheumatism, rheumatoid disease and other diseases will also experience symptoms of nocturnal hyperhidrosis.
Therefore, when a baby experiences excessive night sweats, parents should promptly take them to the hospital for an examination.
Children who sweat excessively while sleeping should be treated according to the doctor's experience. The majority of sweating in children aged 2 to 6 years is considered a "deficiency" manifestation, so it is often referred to as "excessive sweating."
Childish qi deficiency can affect the blood, which in turn affects the five organs.
Over time, a child's constitution can become weak.
If the physical pathologies are ruled out, the following conditions can be managed through Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Type of Deficiency and Impermeability: In babies with a weak constitution, the common manifestation is often due to this type of constitution leading to sweating.
The main manifestation is frequent sweating in the baby, accompanied by night sweats. Generally, the head and shoulders are particularly prone to excessive sweating, with more sweating occurring after play than in other babies.
Such children are prone to catching colds easily, with a pale complexion and cold hands and feet.
The treatment method for this type of sweating should focus on strengthening qi to secure the exterior, and can be selected for treatment with Yu Feng Meng San or by administering Guang Ya Xue Wei Han Ting Granules, which treat excessive sweating with plant components.
Yingwei Imbalance Syndrome: This type of sweat disorder is mainly caused by the imbalance of "Ying" and "Wei" due to various acute and chronic diseases in babies.
In such a situation, the baby often sweats uncontrollably all over its body, shivering and feeling cold or windy at times, accompanied by low fever.
Parents may also notice that the baby is frequently exhausted and has poor appetite.
In this situation, the doctor will adjust "Yingwei" and administer Huang Qi Gui Zhi Wu Wei Decoction to the baby for treatment.
Qi-Yin Deficiency Type: Many mothers have noticed that their children wake up in the morning with sweat dripping from behind, and the bedclothes are soaked. This is called night sweats.
If a child often has night sweats, it may indicate that they have deficiency of qi and yin. This is a condition that many mothers encounter frequently.
Children who exhibit Qi Yin deficiency often appear thin and frail, experience excessive profuse sweating, have poor spirits, flushed complexions, dry mouth, constipation, heat in the palms and soles, and sometimes present with a low-grade fever.
If the baby's excessive sweating is primarily observed in areas such as the palms and soles, chest and abdomen, or if they cry after waking up and have low fever, it may indicate an excess of Yin deficiency. Treatment with Shaozao Ren Tang combined with Sheng Mai San can be considered.
Should the baby have diarrhea, it may be due to qi deficiency. The treatment can include Qi Yi Tang combined with Sheng Mai San.
Spleen and Stomach Heat Type: Babies often sweat profusely, especially prominently on their limbs. Alternatively, they may only sweat on their limbs or forehead, accompanied by abdominal distension. This suggests that the baby might have a spleen and stomach heat type of sweating disorder.
The doctor will prescribe a modified formula of Yi Gong San to nourish the spleen and eliminate heat.
However, Maichi Lian reminds that merely relying on these symptoms to determine the cause of a baby's sweating is insufficient. It is advisable to consult a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor for a pulse and examination to tailor a treatment plan according to the syndrome.
The dietary therapy for excessive sweating, introduced by the plant "Mah-Kee-Lian," suggests that parents can provide their children with appropriate diets and enrich them with foods rich in blood and Qi, as well as strengthening the spleen and stomach, to achieve a state of sufficient Qi and blood.
Among them, dietary therapy has many different aspects, such as nourishing the spleen and Qi.
McGee suggested that parents could use ingredients such as Glehnia root, Ophiopogon japonicus, Pseudostellaria heterophylla, lotus seeds, Polygonatum odoratum, goji berries, Chinese yam, lily bulb, and adzuki bean in their cooking.
For babies with Qi Yin deficiency, parents can brew Pueraria root or Gardenia fruit decoction for their baby to drink.
For those who do not have deficiency of qi, other options can be selected.
If a baby sweats excessively, you can add ingredients such as Schisandra and Prunes. However, all these should be used after a doctor's differential diagnosis.
Below are the dietary therapy suggestions provided by the doctor: 1. * Red Date and Goji Berry Tea**: Take red dates and goji berries, brew them with hot water for consumption daily. This beverage is beneficial for nourishing Qi and blood, enriching Yin and moisturizing dryness. 2. * Black Mushroom and Spinach Stir-Fry**: Soak black mushrooms and spinach in advance, clean them thoroughly, then add garlic powder, salt, and chicken of the essence for quick stir-frying until cooked. It can help reduce blood viscosity and prevent thrombosis formation. 3. * Lotus Seed Heart Porridge**: Soak lotus seed hearts and rice together to make porridge, adding an appropriate amount of rock sugar for soothing the mind and reducing fire. 4. * * Bitter Melon Stir-Fry Eggs**: Cut bitter melon into thin slices and stir-fry with eggs. This dish can clear heat, detoxify, and lower blood sugar levels. 5. * Mung Bean Soup**: Soak mung beans until they open, then cook them with sugar or honey as desired. This soup has a cooling effect on the body and helps relieve thirst. Please note that dietary therapy suggestions are only for reference and should be consulted with professional doctors or nutritionists before use.
1. Astragalus and Red Date Soup: 15g of Astragalus, and 20 red dates.
Add an appropriate amount of water, and simmer over a low flame for more than 1 hour.
Take one dose each time, divided into 2-3 times per day, and continue for 15 days.
This dietary therapy can enhance qi and stabilize the exterior, effectively treating symptoms of excessive sweating due to deficiency in the exterior.
2. Wheat and Dates and Longan Soup: 30 grams of wheat, 12 grams of dates, and 12 grams of longans.
Cooked for 30 minutes and ready to eat, suitable for babies aged 6-7 months and effective in treating malnourishment-induced excessive sweating.
3. Yin-Nourishing Porridge: 10g of white fungus, 12g of lotus seeds, 12g of red dates, 10g of goji berries, 50g of japonica rice, and a small amount of rock sugar.
First, soak the white fungus in warm water. Then cook the lotus seed, red dates, goji berries, and rice until they are half cooked. Add the white fungus and granulated sugar to the pot and cook until it is thoroughly cooked.
Used for excessive sweating in Qi Yin Deficiency type, suitable for babies over the age of one.
4. Plum and Black Seed Decoction: 30 grams of black beans, 10 grams of plum kernels, 12 grams of brown sugar, and 50 grams of japonica rice.
Cook with water for 30 minutes before consuming, suitable for babies over 1 year old, and suitable for Qi Yin deficiency type of excessive sweating.
Bai Wei Bu Qi Zha: 12g Dang Shen, 10g Bai Zhu, 10g Ma Huang Geng, 50g Jing Mi, 12g Hong Sugar.
Add water to boil Codonopsis pilosula, atractylodes rhizome, and Ephedra root for 30 minutes, remove the residue and leave the juice, then put the japonica rice into the juice to cook the porridge, add brown sugar to eat after cooking.
This prescription is suitable for hyperhidrosis with qi deficiency type, and it is suitable for babies over 1 year old.
Children sweat a lot when they sleep. How to prevent it? For people with weak physique, after spring, they should take spring supplements at a timely time under the guidance of doctors. Eat more foods that nourish yin and nourish yin in diet therapy, such as dates, black beans, walnuts, black sesame seeds, blood glutinous rice, longan, etc.
Eat more fresh vegetables, fruits and less spicy foods.
Keep a good mood and have a regular life.
When night sweats occur, it is important to observe the cause of the sweating and seek medical attention if necessary. Do not self-medicate or make unwarranted dietary changes without consulting a doctor to avoid adverse consequences.
*The medical content involved in this text is for reference only.
In case of discomfort, it is recommended to seek medical attention immediately. The diagnosis and treatment should be based on the examination by a face-to-face doctor.