Does Your Child Sweat a Lot While Sleeping?

Yes my daughter sweats tremendously. We think she inherited it from her dad cause he does too. She has sweaty hands/feet and sweats so bad at night/sleeping. Its hard cause she has long hair and all of it is soaked.

Hi L.,

My son used to be just like yours. He was totally soaked in sweat evey night. Now (he is 7) it is not as bad, but he is still pretty sweaty. I also asked the Dr. and she said it is normal.

N.

My 3 year old son sweats like crazy when he sleeps. Don't worry about it. I actually sweat alot when I'm sleeping too. I just always thought it was normal.

Some kids are heavy sweaters! I was as a kid. I've got pics of me napping on the couch with long sweaty hair, lol. My daughter is now the same way at 4. One of my triplet boys is always running hotter like his dad and sweats easy, day and night. It's not unusual at all. I've seen and heard of other people's kids being heavy sweaters at night. It's just how their body runs. They out grow it. I know I'm not a heavy sweater at night since I was little, except for my menopause, lol!

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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Sounds like you have a 'sweater'. My daughter's dad, various cousins, great uncles, and 1 great-grandparent are lifelong heavy sweaters. I thought my ex-husband sweated so much because he's always been a pudgy kid/overweight adult, but my daughter sweats herself a river every night (from when she was a teeny toddler), soaks her hair, etc, and she's a string bean, like me. If there's no fever, and your son feels fine, sounds like it's just one of those weird genetic things.
I wish I could sweat like that, I'm usually bone dry when it's hot, and end up with heatstroke a few times a summer.
If he's uncomfortable, there are all sorts of 'wicking' fabrics, usually workout wear, that help evaporate the sweat, and my ex swears by UnderArmor. I have been putting wick-y polypropylene fabrics on my daughter every summer and she seems to feel more comfortable than in cotton. She's six now, and plays sports, always comes off the field with her baseball hat soaking wet. But no heatstroke! Knock on wood.
Also, my ex HAS to have a fan right on him while he sleeps, year round. Now I have a fan on my daughter at night in the summer, she really likes it and it seems to keep her drier. I don't know if your son is old enough to know not to mess with the fan.

Hi L.,

My son, who is almost 9 now, used to sweat profusely also when he slept. I too was worried and asked the doctor about it. Same thing here, "Don't worry about it". As my son got older, he grew out of it.

Hope this helps you feel more at ease :)

L.

Hey L.,

My daughter is the same age and she is the biggest hot body I have ever seen. Same thing as your son where it doesn't matter what she is wearing or what the temperture is. Of course she is worse when it is warmer out. I haven't ever worried about it. I think all kids have different body temps.

Hope that helps!

Beth

L.,
It could be in the jeans. Both of my sons sweat like crazy at night and all year long, just like their father. I'm not sure if mine will ever grow out of it, because daddy hasn't yet. I asked my doctor as well and I was told don't be concerned about it as well. Good Luck, A.

Both my girls go through phases of tis. I thought they were feverish but i would check and they were fine. I chalk it up to growing in their sleep!

My daughter sweats alot everytime she is sleepy and falling a sleep. Her head will be so hot and later she start sweating. The bed is wet I'm wet,she's wet. I asked the doctor about it, and she said that don't worry about it. Usually it's about the kidney, but she said that they already detect that before we leave the hospital when she was born.

http://toddlers-world.com/sweating-while-sleeping-in-todd...

Hi L.,
While it's not an "every night thing", there are LOTS of times when my son seems sweaty through the night (no fever, light jammies, AC on, blanketless). His hair will be sweaty and even his p.j.'s are damp. It doesn't seem to bother him (wake him up, etc).
He is 6 and it has always been that way. I just try to keep the house at a comfortable temp & dress him in cotton p.j.'s.
It was about at age 4 where some mornings he would emerge from his room naked!
I guess if he got too warm, he'd just toss his jammies & get more comfy. LOL
Also, sometimes he just likes to sleep in undies or a big T-shirt

My 3 year old son does sweat a lot to, he does appear flush also. He can sleep through most nights but other nights he wakes up cause he sweating from head to toe. Right now I do know he has a cold but the sweating is a nightly thing. If it worries me I try to remove some of the cover. I am not sure what is going on I will bring it up with his pediatrician the next time I go in, if she gives me the same response I will let you know...

My kids don't, but I do! :) If the docs not concerned, then I wouldn't be. Maybe he has a high metabolism. Does your child sleep well at night, even though he is hot? Then I wouldn't worry too much. If it seems to be interfering with his sleep you could try having him sleep in his undies only, opening the window at night or installing a ceiling fan.

It could be the fabric in the sheets or the p.j's making him sweat. Try all cotton.

our son who is 15 mos also sweats especially during his naps no matter what he sleeps in. I don't think you need to be concerned but I'm curious to see what others say.

Our son is 3 1/2 and he also sweats a lot while sleeping. His hair is drenched in sweat and he's clammy and hot at least during the first few hours of sleep.

My husband and I are trying to figure out the cause of this excessive sweating and we've come up with a possible explanation. We don't think it's due to being too hot in bed, the material of the sheets or pj's but rather a physical issue.

You sweat to rid your body of toxins and that's exactly what we think he's doing. We recently found out that large amounts of dairy is not healthy for your body. Our son primarily drank cow's milk as his beverage of choice.

We feed our children milk to provide them with calcium among other nutrients but calcium can be found in even higher quantities in certain vegetables. We have reduced the amount of milk intake he receives and are instead increasing the amount of water he drinks and monitoring his diet more closely.

We are hoping that a healthier diet will help alleviate his night sweating... we'll keep you posted on his progress. We don't want to treat the symptoms we want to treat the cause. Hope this helps - it's just our assumption.

If you're interested in finding out more read the work of Dr. Young and Dr. Shinya.

Hi my name is L. I am a mother of 7 and currently a grandmother of 5. That is until the count goes up on the grandchildren side. Throughout the years I have had children who did and did not sweat during the night. It wasn't until recently that I had noticed a great deal of amount of sweating from my 2 and 1/2 yr. old grandson when he began to spend more and more time at my home. Being in the healthcare profession myself I decided to surf the web for reasons why this is. So far all I have found is that this is sometimes a heridity condition, If one of the parents have had a history of sweating it is likely that the child could inherit this as well. I have asked my grandson's ped. and the only answers I have received at the present is that this is somewhat of a common concern and that chances are as the child grows the sweating should decrease. I have tried light weight material and have noticed a slight change. The best advice I can currently give anyone is to make the child's eveings as comfortable as possible. If the child is known to sweat excesivly than dress the child as lightly as possible do not try to cover the child with blankets when a light sheet will do. If possible try to keep the room as cool as possible. This will help the child sleep better and some of the sweating may also be avoided. Good Rule of thumb... Dress your child as you would dress yourself. If it is cold outside and the child will be outside dress accordingly if the child is inside try to remember the average temp indoors is usually 70 degrees. You wouldn't wear a coat indoors so don't over dress your child either just use so good old common sense and hopefully the child will grow out of this condition by his or her teen years..Good luck...L. S.

Yes I no How you fill I have a 9 month old baby boy and Ive been reallly concered about how much he sweats. He sweats when he sleeps where his hair is soaking wet and his face is red. I have not took him to a doctor yet but I plan on it.

My daughter is 11 months old now, and has always sweat in her sleep.. to the point of saturate sheets and soaking hair. I never understood why, but started thinking about it a lot lately. When she goes to sleep on her own, I notice she always tries to get one foot outside of her covers lol. I always thought it was cute, but insisted on covering her up so she wouldn't get cold. She is right here next to me, sound asleep at the moment. She was covered with a light blanket up to her waist, and in nothing but a diaper, but still sweating like crazy. I was just remembering about how babies lose their body heat through their head, because their other sweat glands aren't developed yet. Even though her body and even her head felt fine, not warm at all, I decided to uncover her completely and see if it made a difference. Sure enough, 5-10 minutes later her hair began to dry and the sweating stopped completely. I'm shocked, I never thought she would just be hot because her body and head felt fine to me, not even a little warm. But here it is 2 hours later, she is still uncovered completely and still sweat-free. My sheet is actually starting to dry lol. This is a breakthrough for us, because she has dealt with these night sweats for almost a year. Her skin feels a little cool now, so I am going to cover her back up, maybe just her legs. But atleast now I know that it is merely a matter of being temperature-sensitive. Shes now been covered (only her legs) for about ten minutes and still no sweat. Normally she'd be drenched by now. Sorry so long, but I hope this helps somebody out there with the same issue. Goodnight Everyone and Good luck :)

its driving me nuts all i have my 3 yr old covered in is a sheet and a fan on her still her hair is drenched so i tied it back but yet no fever just sweaty its scary i hope nothings wrong with her ....B.

I have been having the same problem with my 9 year old daughter. i have been doing some research and came across an article that may help. Please remember the first thing this article says is not to jump to conclusions and not to panic, but there are a few things they need to rule out. I hope you find the answers you need. i have made an appointment to have my daughter checked out.

http://www.twinmattress.org/when-children-suffer-sweating...

Iam sooo glad that there is other parents out there dealing with the same thing. My 2 1/2 yr old son is a major sweater!!! I thought there was something wrong with him but after reading everyones answers I feel alot better...Thank you!

My son is 6 years old. He sweats in his sleep all the time. It sounds like the same exact things that your child does. I have never been concerned about it because when he walks up he is fine. I have a 2 year old and he is the opposite.

I have a daughter that is 18 now and she would sweat so much her covers, sheets and herself were soaked! It happened right after she went to sleep, but within a few hours she would be dry. She did outgrow this. Our 7 yr. old son does the same thing....his hair is ringing wet.....I don't do this and my children have different Dad's so I don't know about inheritance.

My son is 14 months and has been a sweater since he was born. So far his head just gets sweaty and hot. You should see the poor kid in winter when he fell asleep in the car with a hat on. Looked like he was swimming in a pool. His daddy get sweaty when he sleeps, so maybe it's hereditary.