Mamas & Papas -
Our DS (3) runs a normal temperature when awake. When asleep however, he can prove a little boiler. He heats up, and sweats through his jammies and bedding. Our apartment runs warm, and there is little we can do about that. Recently though, when he wakes in the morning, or after a nap, he is cold, even shivering, and needs to snuggle under a blanket for a bit before ready to embrace the day.
Anyone experience anything like this? Does it warrant a doctor's visit?
I remember my mom being after us to put on dressing gowns upon waking when we were little so we wouldn't catch a chill. Our apartment wasn't especially hot, but I never wanted one. My hands and feet were often cold to the touch, but my core was warm, and I didn't feel the need for one.
Thanks for your advice.
F. B.
His PJs might be wet and clammy and he gets cold once he gets out of his nice warm bed. Try a lighter blanket or PJs with no feet and no socks. That will keep him cooler at night. Use breathable fabrics, too.
It sounds like he's over dressed or has to many covers on his bed. Bring it down a notch or two. Cotton pajamas instead of fleece or polyester so they breathe. This can help reduce the sweating as fleece or polyester traps the body heat in.
My oldest always ran hot so we had to dress him down a step from what the rest of us were wearing. He still runs a little hotter.
My granddaughter does this. They are nice and toasty and a bit sweaty. Then wake up and it is cool. They shiver u til they adjust that they are not all snuggled up.
My kids (11, 8, and 3) always come out of their room wrapped up in their comforter. They usually stay in them until it's time to eat breakfast.
I think it's normal.
L.
I do this if I have sweated a lot in the night. I get up and go to the bathroom, put down a dry blanket to go back to bed on, and the air is chilly and so I start to shiver. Sometimes I will shiver for quite a while before I finally get too hot and have to take off a blanket again. I think it is probably normal for people who get too hot at night.
I would recommend sleeping with a fan or the window open a crack. I know it sounds odd, but that really helps me. I remember in college, our dorm room would get so hot that we would open the window at night to let the snowy air in so we could sleep. (I was in North Dakota, so it really was cold.)
I hope that helps.
Soaking wet kid waking up and crawling out from under the covers experience a temp change. It's often hotter lying down too. The mattress reflects our body heat and the sheets and mattress pads shoot the heat back at us too.
So it would seem normal that he'd feel cooler until he was up and moving around a bit.
Try giving him a high protein snack before bedtime (he can brush his teeth after snack time).
It might be low blood sugar.
Our body temp drops a bit when we sleep - that's why we need blankets, etc.
The heat is escaping so to your touch they feel warm.
Shivering is literally a response our bodies have to increase our core temperature - blood flow switches a bit away from the outer surfaces and keeps more to the body core.
In other words I just think his night/day body temp switch over mechanism works this way for right now and he'll grow out of it sooner or later.
It's probably nothing to worry about.
Is he actually cold, or just shivering?
I know if I get super tired I "shiver". I'm not cold, just my nervous system wigging out.
If he's sweating too much and becoming chilled upon being uncovered, then he may need less blankets or clothing while he sleeps. A bathrobe or a smallish blanket ( a couch throw) he can waddle around under in the mornings might be a good idea.
This is why God invented The Robe.
Our daughter is like me, she runs hot.
While up in College, she had to crack the window open, her dorm rooms were just too hot. She also always had a fan running. The constant heat gave her a headache..
She said of course in the morning, she could get the shivers, so she would turn off the fan and close the window till she warmed up and had a cup of tea.
