I. What is physiological hyperhidrosis? What is pathological hyperhidrosis?
There are physiological and pathological hyperhidrosis in children. It cannot be generalized.
Physiological hyperhidrosis means that the child is well developed and healthy, without any disease causing sweating. How can you sweat a lot for no reason if you don’t have a disease? This is because the child’s cerebral cortex is highly reactive to external stimuli, and the child is in a period of growth and development, the body’s metabolism is very vigorous, if a little more excitement and stimulation, it will sweat to evaporate the body’s heat to maintain normal body temperature. Physiological hyperhidrosis is almost always caused by external factors such as high temperatures, excessive clothing, activity, stimulating foods, stress, fear, etc. If these external factors are changed, the sweating will be more likely to occur. If these external causes are changed, sweating can be avoided.
Pathological sweating is sweating caused by a child with a known or underlying medical condition. It is manifested by excessive sweating in situations such as quietness and sleep. Excessive sweating is a common clinical symptom in children and it is important to distinguish carefully between physiological or pathological and to identify the cause.
Second, what causes excessive sweating?
Sweat is secreted by the sweat glands, and the secretory function of the sweat glands is governed by the sympathetic nerves. This is why people often have “cold sweats” when they are nervous, frightened or afraid.
The metabolism of young children is more vigorous, so they tend to sweat more than adults. Some children don’t eat much, are thin, and are usually active (sympathetic hyperactivity), which can easily cause excessive sweating after they fall asleep. A few children with rickets have a tendency to lower their blood calcium and stimulate their sympathetic nerves, so they often sweat more, especially on the head. A few children with tuberculosis and congenital heart disease not only sweat a lot when they fall asleep, but also sweat a lot at dawn, due to the hypoglycemic reaction that often occurs at dawn. For these children, it is important to have them examined by a doctor to find the cause.
The sweat will absorb a lot of heat when it evaporates, which can easily cause children to catch a cold, so you should wipe off the sweat and change the wet clothes in time.
Why is the child sweating a lot just after sleeping?
There are many reasons why children sweat a lot when they sleep, both physiological and pathological. Physiological sweating is caused by hot weather, high room temperature, too much clothing or too thick quilts. Some parents like to feed their children a bottle of milk when they are going to sleep, and after feeding the child falls asleep quietly, but this happens when the child is in the heat production stage after eating milk, so they often sweat a lot. This kind of sweating is caused by the body regulating body temperature, often sweating more when they first fall asleep, and then gradually reduce. Because of the high metabolism of the pediatric period, high water content of the skin, more microvascular distribution, imperfect development of plant nerves, so more sweating, which is completely normal.
Fourth, pathological hyperhidrosis children pathological hyperhidrosis is seen in which diseases
Pathological hyperhidrosis, in addition to excessive sweating, often has other symptoms, we have to judge according to the following aspects.
1, the parts of sweating and accompanying symptoms
(1) generalized excessive sweating, accompanied by fever, cough, general weakness, wasting, joint pain or swelling and other symptoms, to consider typhoid fever, lobar pneumonia, sepsis, tuberculosis, rheumatism, etc. Diseases such as rickets active or malnutrition can also have generalized hyperhidrosis.
(2) Hemilateral hyperhidrosis, mostly due to neurological disorders, sometimes has localization significance. If there is a lesion in the cerebral hemisphere or on one side of the subcortex, the lesion is contralateral to the hemiplegic sweating, which is common in the sequelae of cerebrovascular lesions.
2, the time of sweating
Sweating overnight is common in tuberculosis and other chronic wasting diseases; sweating in the first half of the night is mostly seen in active rickets; sweating in the morning when you get up on an empty stomach is mostly due to sympathetic excitation caused by hypoglycemia.
3, age factor
Sweating in infants and young children is commonly associated with active rickets, while in older children it is more often associated with tuberculosis and rheumatism.
The sweating occurs throughout the sleep process, and there is a lot of sweating. Children with rickets begin to sweat a lot after they fall asleep, especially on the head, which can wet the pillow or pillowcase, and is accompanied by pillow baldness and crying. In children with active tuberculosis, not only do they sweat in the first half of the night, but they also sweat in the second half of the night and before dawn, which is called night sweats. At the same time, the child may have symptoms such as low-grade fever, cough, wasting, weakness, and flushing.
Therefore, if a healthy, active child sweats a lot while sleeping, it may be normal and parents should not be overly anxious.