My five, almost six year old seems to be always tired.
She sleeps 12 hours a night 7:30 to 7:00/7:30. She will quiet often nap on weekends and honestly a lot of the time could use one after school too. She’s always loved to sleep, in fact I often felt a bit obnoxious as a new mum because I have never had that sleep deprived stage that seems to be a right of passage, in fact it’s always been the opposite. She just sleeps and when she sleeps she sleeps like the dead. Every morning we struggle to wake her up for school, every time we have an event she needs a nap or she’ll sleep till lunch time the next day. We’ve had her iron tested, blood count down, thyroid and everything as part of the process of an adhd diagnosis last year and it all came back fine.
I’m aware it sounds humble bragish. My kid sleeps and so many don’t, and I’m not trying to be. We’ve spoken to her dr about it, and he’s like she probably just likes to sleep. Except when she can quite easily sleep 14/16 hours a day if given the chance and so cranky when she’s not able too I’m starting to get worried.
She does and always has snored and as weird as it sounds we have noticed her ears smell occasionally and usually it coincides with her needing more rest than usual. She’s very much a life of the party kind of kid when she is awake so it’s surprising when she crashes and burns so hard.
Again dr says this is normal? Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue?
7 Replies
I’d get her checked by an ENT and a sleep physician.
People including doctors underplay how debilitating having a sleepy child can be.
I have a sleeper (although he is an adult now) it took us a long time (years) to get an actual diagnosis for his condition.
And while your child may grow out of there sleepiness and may just be nothing to be found, I think doing a few appointments with two specialists are what I’d do, just to make sure
Yes, second the ENT appointment. It sounds as though she has sleep apnea which is a reason to have tonsils and adenoids out. If she's also having problems with her ears she may need gromets or it could be that swollen adenoids or tonsils are clogging up her sinuses. My son was the same for sleeping, also snored really loud he had knocking tonsils and once they were gone he was fine! Wakes up a lot easier and not so tired throughout the day.
Perhaps Coeliac?
I was the same as a child.
I was around 13 when I finally got to see an ENT and went on the waiting list to have my tonsils and adenoids out. I went on the public waiting list.
I’m 33 and still have them. Unless I pay privately they’re not coming out.
I don’t snore all the time, but when I’m run down I snore like a trooper and sleep 16hrs and never feel rested.
I did a sleep study when I was 18 and it was interesting because at that time I wasn’t snoring (I was actually feeling good) and I still slept for 12hrs. I was never formally diagnosed with anything other than “pitted tonsils and abnormally large adenoids”
Get her checked for type 1 diabetes asap if you have access to a glucose monitor check her or get the Dr to asap
Also if you notice her breath smell fruity or a strange smell can be a sign of T1D and sleepiness.
You are describing my daughter a few things where up with her but wouldn't have been checked except i pushed. She was a mouth sleeper , which besides the dental issues it causes, is normally a symptom of something ENT related, so def check that out. My daughter was always super skinny, ate heaps full of life, however the minute she was plugged in to the car she would crash no matter what time of day, i pushed for coeliac disease testing (as i have this condition) turns out that's exactly what was cause her to be so tired. we removed all gluten and she woke up, was alert for long periods of time. total game changer