Sweating While Sleeping?? - Gilbert,AZ

Updated on May 05, 2010
T.P. asks from Gilbert, AZ
12 answers

I Put my four month baby boy down for the night and he has been perfect all day but a few nights a week, after about 15 minutes of him sleeping he wakes up and cries, when i check on him, his body is all moist and there is a wet spot on the crib sheet from where his head has been. Then he goes back to sleep after I re tuck him in and then he doesnt sweat for the rest of the night. He doesnt sweat through the day only after he wakes up the first time at night. Any Ideas Any One??

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D.P.

answers from Pittsburgh on

My son used to sweat like that when he was a baby. Some babies are just sweatier than others!
At 4 months he can just sleep in jammies--no blankets, etc.

1 mom found this helpful

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A.H.

answers from Tulsa on

My son would get sweaty from the vinyl cover I had over the mattress. I ended up having to get a different kind of cover to put under the sheets. I've also noticed that when I laid down in his bed for a while, I'd get the same way, but then my body would regulate my temperature out and I would feel more comfortable.

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A.S.

answers from Dallas on

Dress him in maybe just a onesie or a short sleeved baby gown. If you have cool air blowing or a fan, then dress a little warmer so he wont be chilled, but if not then dress him light.

"The purpose of sweating is to cool the body. Therefore, if a baby is in a warm and/or humid environment, the baby will sweat more. Sweating is an automatic body response to changes in the environment (temperature), and thus is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. This is the same part of the brain which controls whether you are asleep or awake, how you breathe, heart rate changes in response to the environment, blood pressure, etc."

from here:
http://www.sids-network.org/experts/sweating.htm

"Some babies sweat profusely during the deepest part of their nightly sleep cycle and end up soaking wet. Because babies spend much more time in this deepest stage of sleep, they're more likely to sweat during the night than adults or even older children.

While sweating is very common, excessive sweating could mean that something's amiss. Excessive sweating can be a sign of congenital heart disease, for example, as well as various infections and sleep apnea. (Because the baby is working so hard to breathe, he "works up a sweat," says Freed.)

Overheating is a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The room your baby sleeps in should be warm — about 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit — not hot.

Dress your baby in the amount of clothing that you'd be comfortable sleeping in without covers. Resist the urge to bundle him up, and keep blankets, quilts, and comforters out of his crib.

As a rule of thumb, remember that if you're too hot, your baby probably is too. If the house is cool and your baby is dressed lightly and still sweating, talk with his doctor."

from here:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-sleep-habits-snorting-sw...

Avoid the blankets at all cost, babies this age can easily become tangled and suffocate in even light blankets. Be sure there are not any pillows, toys, blankets... in his crib, as they could be dangerous.

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S.B.

answers from Dallas on

My daughter is like this...sleeping and car sears made her very sweaty between three and six months old (she still sweats in her sleep, but it no longer wakes her up). For some odd reason, taking off her socks helped the problem. I guess it cooled her off. I took scissors to all of her footy pajamas too. So if his feet are covered it's worth trying a night with them uncovered.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.M.

answers from Phoenix on

I'm sure a lot of mom's have said this, make sure his room is at a comfortable temperature. It is getting hotter outside, so maybe lighter sleeping clothes, or no blankets and maybe a small fan to help circulate the air in his room (his bed might be located in a hot spot).

Also, if it continues, you might want to talk to his pediatrician. My son has a condition where his body temperature raise when he sleeps instead of lower like everyone else. So, he sweats a lot a night and we have to keep our house cold for him (68 degrees).

Anyhow - good luck with your bundle of joy!

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V.G.

answers from Portland on

My son would do this last summer when he was about 5-6 months old.
It sounds like he's way too hot- I would suggest only covering him with a light blanket or sheet and light pajamas because its very harmful for babies to overheat.
Good luck!

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J.V.

answers from Chicago on

My 5 month old son is a terrible sweater! I've taken to putting him to bed in his diaper and a top, no sleepers that cover his tummy. This seems to be helping, and I'm not changing the sheets after every nap!

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

Sweating during sleep is normal. I was interested to read in Ashley's post that sweating happens during the deepest part of sleep. I am somewhat dismayed about her quotes concerning SIDS. The fact that your baby wakes up wet from sweat does NOT make him prone for SIDS. The two are unrelated.

We do sweat in response to changes in temperature in our environment. And if deep sleep causes us to sweat, and it sounds logical, then this is probably an indication that he gets his deepest sleep during the first part of his sleep. I also want to introduce into that cycle the information that a baby's internal temperature control system is immature and so he may sweat or not sweat at so called appropriate times.

Every baby that I've been around has been damp from sweat every night that I've been around. I now wake up covered in sweat even tho I'm well past menopause. I contribute the baby's frequent sweating to his immature temperature control system and mine to a system that is wearing out. Both the baby and me are healthy. smile

Sleeping on vinyl does cause the sweat to not evaporate. Most crib mattresses are vinyl. You can put a thick cotton blanket between the mattress and the sheet to help absorb the sweat and perhaps he won't wake up as often.

My daughter always slept better as a child when there was a fan to circulate the air in her room. I think the fan blowing air helped her sweat to evaporate more quickly. You could also try that.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.G.

answers from Washington DC on

My daughter used to have the same problem. I would check the temperature, etc. but everything would be comfortable. I asked her pediatrician about it and he wasn't concerned about it. She still sweats when she sleeps but not all the time.

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S.C.

answers from Phoenix on

If this is a recent thing for him, I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that the weather is warming up than anything else. On hot days, the first part of the evening/night is the hottest. After it's been dark a while (and since it's the desert, it still gets VERY cool at night) the temp in the house finally starts to drop.

This time of year, I find myself having to run my children's fans on high when I first put them down and then sneaking in much later (or even very early in the morning) to turn them to low or else the kids get cold and wake up. I keep my thermostat at a constant temp, but that doesn't mean that each bedroom doesn't have it's own climate to deal with.

I also agree with the other mom that suggested putting a blanket between the sheet and the matress. My daughter's head sweated profusely because it was basically resting on plastic, and the thick cotton blanket used as a barrier helped tremendously.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.W.

answers from Albuquerque on

My middle son was a sweaty-head. He was a cranky baby, too. I took him to two different homeopathic docs at two different times, when he was two and six ... both of them, without any prompting, asked if he had a sweaty head at night when he was a baby. He got treatments, and he no longer has the sweaty head. Maybe he just grew out of it. But I did think it was interesting that they both asked.

I don't know of anything bad about it, but maybe another avenue to explore would be homeopathy. You could search sweat and baby and homeopathy and see what comes up.

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J.C.

answers from Fort Wayne on

What's he sleeping in? Try just putting him in a light onesie

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