In the opinion of most mothers, sweating in children is a sign of weakness, so they keep giving their children nutritional supplements and taking herbs to regulate their constitution. However, experts believe that it depends on the specific situation, not all children who sweat are weak.
The sweating of children is physiological night sweats The phenomenon of children sweating is called “night sweats” in Chinese traditional medicine, and night sweats are also divided into physiological night sweats and pathological night sweats. The vast majority of children’s sweating is due to physiological night sweats, and this physiological night sweats are not necessarily pathological. Because children have more water in their skin, rich capillaries, a strong metabolism, and the phyto-neural regulation is not yet sound, they tend to sweat when they are active. If the child is too active before going to sleep, the body can increase heat production, or shortly after eating, gastrointestinal peristalsis increases, gastric secretion increases, sweat gland secretion also increases. All these can cause children to sweat more after sleep, especially within 2 hours after sweating. At the same time for small children in the summer when sleeping sweating is more normal, infants and toddlers just fall asleep, head and neck sweating, sweat decreased after sleep; baby games, running and jumping after sweating more, the general situation is very good; winter baby clothes are overdressed, too thick covers at night, plus the indoor air conditioning temperature is too high, making the baby overheating and sweating more. Some babies sweat is limited to the head, forehead, commonly known as “steam head”, is also physiological sweating, parents do not need to worry.
The most basic criterion is that if the child does not suffer from growth retardation, recurrent colds and loss of appetite, there is no need for treatment. As the child gets older and less active, the sweating at night will naturally ease. There is also a phenomenon in the medical clinic that children who love to eat all kinds of snacks generally sweat more because snacks are very energetic, while children who often drink chicken soup, bone broth or ribs soup will also lead to increased sweating.
For physiological night sweats parents should not be too nervous, as children grow older and stronger, this phenomenon will slowly disappear. For pathological night sweats, parents should pay attention to them. Pathological night sweats may be a symptom of rickets, especially in children under three years old. These pathological night sweats are mainly manifested in the first half of the night, which is caused by low blood calcium. In children with tuberculosis, night sweats are characterized by sweating throughout the night. The child also has symptoms such as low fever and weight loss, lack of weight gain or loss, loss of appetite, and mood changes. In addition to excessive sweating, each disease has a variety of other manifestations, and parents need to take their babies to the hospital for further tests. Therefore, if a healthy, active child sweats more while sleeping, it may be a normal phenomenon and parents need not be overly anxious.
Parents should pay more attention to the problem of drinking water for their sweaty children and hydrate them more often every day. When the child goes to kindergarten, parents should also remind the teacher to feed the child more water. Usually parents can also feed their children some light salt water and let them drink more soup and eat water-heavy fruits. Because children sweat like adults, in addition to losing water, they also lose a certain amount of sodium, chloride, potassium and other electrolytes. Feeding baby light salt water can replenish water and sodium, chloride and other salts to maintain the electrolyte balance in the body and avoid dehydration that can lead to deficiency. There is no western medicine that can treat excessive sweating in babies alone. Some Chinese medicines or tonics can be taken to assist in stopping sweating. For example, use 15 grams of princely ginseng, 15 grams of roasted astragalus and 6-8 red dates in a decoction to be taken orally. Take Huangqi granule punch without decoction. Babies with rickets can take Longmu Strong Bone Punch, etc.