Question
My child is seven months old, and there are often sweat beads on both sides of their ears when they sleep, with less or no sweating on other parts of the body. This phenomenon also occurred a few months ago, but it recovered normally on its own. However, my child doesn’t like taking naps during the day, and the doctor recommended supplementing calcium. We started…
Answer
This is a common occurrence of sweating in infants, which is usually not a sign of illness but rather physiological sweating. Because infants have more skin moisture content, abundant capillaries, and vigorous metabolism, their autonomic nervous system regulation function is not yet mature, making them prone to sweating during physical activity. If the child is overly active before bedtime, leading to increased body heat, or if there is an increase in gastrointestinal motility and stomach acid secretion shortly after defecation, this may result in more sweating during sleep, especially within the first two hours after falling asleep. Pathological sweating is often seen in rickets, especially in children under 3 years old, and is characterized by sweating during the first half of the night due to low blood calcium levels. Children with tuberculosis may exhibit whole-night sweating accompanied by symptoms such as low fever, weight loss or no weight gain, decreased appetite, and mood changes. When discovering that a child is sweating, it is important to promptly identify the cause and provide appropriate treatment. For physiological sweating, it is generally not recommended to use medication for treatment; instead, adjust lifestyle habits and eliminate heat-inducing triggers from daily life. For children with pathological sweating, treatment should be targeted at the underlying cause. For example, if sweating is caused by a deficiency of calcium, appropriate supplementation of calcium and vitamin D should be considered. For children with tuberculosis-induced sweating, anti-tuberculosis treatment should be administered. The above suggestions are for the question “My child sweats while sleeping,” and I hope they are helpful to you. Wishing you health.