Please help - What is going on with my 5 year old? - UPDATE

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Children's Health

1 2 Next

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 7:24 pm

My 5 year old dd has not been at school for 3 days.

I don't know what's going on with her.

This is the story/timeline:

On Monday, she fell asleep after school. (This happens sometimes and is not what I'm concerned about.)
Monday night, she couldn't fall asleep for hours because of her post-school nap. (Again this happens sometimes).

Usually, when this happens, I let her sleep late the next day and when she wakes up I bring her to school later.

But this time, Tuesday, when she woke up, she refused to go to school. Absolutely refused - I couldn't make her go. She said she wasn't feeling well but she seemed fine all day.

Tuesday night - she woke up in the middle of the night three times. She kept saying she couldn't fall asleep and she couldn't get comfortable.

Wednesday morning - I had to let her sleep in because she was up at night - but then when she woke up again she refused to go to school. (This is NOT typical for her).

Wednesday night - she went to bed nicely at a good time and we anticipated everything would be good. Instead, she woke up twice around 1 am, and said she couldn't sleep/couldn't get comfortable. And then she woke up again at 5 am, and couldn't fall back asleep. Again she absolutely refused to go to school. She tried to take a nap around 9 am, but couldn't sleep.

Also, she's been having lots of temper tantrums the last few days. Now that could be because of the not sleeping OR it could be because of whatever is truly going on with her.

Meanwhile tomorrow she has a siyum which she is excited about so I'm curious to see if her "not feeling well" will disappear tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I am crowdsourcing - what could be going on with her?

(I told my husband that I'm going to crowdsource and I'm pretty sure people will say check for strep and check for pinworms. So I'm open to those two ideas. But I also want to hear EVERYTHING that people can think of that might be going on.

I don't think anything happened at school that she's upset about but I can't know for sure.

kiwi strawberry

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 7:55 pm

Check for pinworms 😄 seriously. I was going to say that before I saw you wrote that.

Also sounds like she needs to get into a better sleeping rhythm in general (like early bedtime every night so no falling asleep after school and creating that vicious cycle of late nap-late bedtime-late morning) but you're probably aware of that.

Hope it's something easily identifiable and rectifiable. Hatzlacha!

amother

Teal

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:08 pm

Relax
Strep and pinworms
Work on her sleep. Gove melatonin for a day or 2 to reset if necessary
You don't need any other ideas to make you scared.
Let's start with basics

miami85

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:34 pm

kiwi strawberry wrote:

Some people have a natural circadian rhythm that has a dip around 5pm and it can be very tough to knock it. I know I fought it all through high school. I tried to just go to bed earlier, but I would just be spinning my wheels all evening. During midterms and finals season I just had to take the nap and then do my studying.

amother

Mimosa

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:38 pm

I’d wake her up in the morning and get her on a normal schedule. If she sits at home all day bored it makes sense that she’s restless at night.

anonymrs

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:40 pm

Changing the clock can really throw some people off badly.

rgr

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:40 pm

Clock change can be brutal

Dolly Welsh

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:41 pm

You have bathed her and looked all over her and she looks fine? Nobody hit her or anything?

What do you think of the teacher, and, have you talked, carefully, nicely, to the teacher about how she functions in school, meaning now, since this.

You have carefully looked at her school clothes, well the ones she was wearing when the behavior oddness started. Nothing torn or stained, right?

Is she eating well?

Does she have a bright eye, and good color? Does she move well and in her usual way?

How is her hair? Did any of the other little dears pull any of it out? Does her head hurt? Does she let you comb her hair peacefully or not want you to touch it?

amother

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:45 pm

thank you everyone!

I can't respond right now individually, but some really good points were made.

yes, I thought of the clock change. Wow, that would be crazy if it threw her off so badly but it could be.

and yes, I think the boredom during the day contributes to the restlessness at night but I simply have not been able to get to acquiesce to going to school. (and she is usually happy to go).

and it's odd - about an hour ago, she said she wasn't feeling well, "all over" and she asked me for tylenol (which she dislikes the taste of). I said ok give me 5 minutes and when I finished what I was doing she was playing and laughing with her sister and all evidence of not feeling well was gone.

amother

Teal

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 8:58 pm

amother OP wrote:

My kids get this with strep
Joint pain
Even the 3 year old says his body hurts all over

amother

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 9:51 pm

Ok we just did an at home strep test and it was negative.
I guess if she's not better tonight/tomorrow, then we'll have to bring her to the doctor.

Any way to check for pinworms at home?

(and yes, her routine in general needs work. That we know.)

csstb

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 9:54 pm

Check for an ear infection as well. They can present with a feeling of discomfort all over instead of pain.

HappyMom5

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 10:07 pm

SHe might have strep in her blood. A blood test will detect it.

amother

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 11:03 pm

Yes that's a good idea too.

Thank you so much!

amother

Fri, Mar 15 2024, 12:23 am

I'm almost convinced that it's pinworms - she has all the symptoms except the itching. She has restlessness, irritablity, insomnia and a little stomach upset.

We will have to take her to the doctor tomorrow.

what can I do for her tonight if she has insomnia and restlenssness again?

amother

Chambray

Sat, Mar 16 2024, 9:57 pm

HappyMom5 wrote:

SHe might have strep in her blood. A blood test will detect it.

I don't think you mean strep in the blood. That would be extremely dangerous and he'd probably be septic chv. What you probably mean is chronic strep, drs check for it by looking for elevated strep *titers* in the blood.

amother

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 11:15 pm

Update:
Thursday night she finally slept through the night B"H. And she was willing to go to school so we did that.
She told me that she had a terrible day at school and that she didn't feel well multiple times during the day. (And it was a friday so only around 4 hrs)

Friday night, and Shabbos, and Sunday, and tonight - the temper tantrums continue

Shabbos day, she had a huge tantrum and she said she didn't feel well and I held her and she fell asleep for three hours.

Of course, that didn't help with sleep on Motz.

Sunday - my husband brought her to the doctor. They did another strep test - negative. She took hours (including a tantrum to fall asleep at night - even though no nap AND she woke up again at 1 am briefly). I wish they had discussed pinworms, but the fact is that she is not itchy at all B"H. And we looked with a flashlight and didn't see anything. So I don't think it's that. Her doctor had no ideas.

Today she went to school nicely B"H and got through the day nicely until bedtime when the tantrums started. My husband had to lay down with her to get her to sleep.

I have no idea what's going on with her.

She does complain about tummy aches and "all over" not feeling well - but she is acting completely fine physically. And eating totally normally.

Her symptoms are irritablity/tantrums, difficulty falling asleep, and night wakings.

All ideas welcome

otstud

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 11:45 pm

Does she watch any shows/videos that might be scary to her? That’s the number one reason my 6 year old wakes up in middle of the night.

Dolly Welsh

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 11:48 pm

Some kind of night fears?

Leave a night light on in her room?

Has something big gone on, in your collective family including relatives? Are any of her cousins' parents getting divorced or moving far away, or did anybody in the family die in the last six months?

Over or under her room, if you live in an apartment, are the neighbors screaming or making noise at night? You might not even know that if you sleep down the hall.

Think about all your babysitters or care givers, if any.

amother

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 11:57 pm

Thank you for all your ideas.

I don't think so for any of them....

she typically would tell me if anything like that was bothering her. (except when she's in a tantrum).

I just can't figure it out.

Page 1 of 2

1 2 Next