AIBU to feel worried

[wonderingagain21]

AIBU to feel worried about my daughter's health? Does anyone have any experience of a young teen who goes though some weeks when they are utterly exhausted to the point of falling asleep on the school bus, in lessons and sleeping for easily 15+ hours a day at the weekend, and other weeks when the are completely fine and seem quite typical. My DD's mood and appetite is quite affected too. This has been the case for years but my dr has done blood tests and doesn't have any suggestions.

Don't want to downplay this but are you sure it's not just adolescence?

I was that teenager, and the only issue was that I would sit up reading books until 2am then be shattered getting up at 7.30am for school. These days I'd expect phones, Internet and TV to have replaced the books.

Is she getting enough sleep?

Could it be chronic fatigue syndrome?

I have her devices from 9pm so it's not that. I have other teens who get tired etc but they don't drop off in lessons or by 5.30 of an evening. I think I'm more worried because it seems quite cyclical - weeks or months when she's fine & then suddenly exhausted & sleeping all the time.

I don't know. When I was a teen it was quite common for me to come home from school and fall asleep on sofa, my brother too. Teenagering is like a second toddler hood. Lots of growth needing lots of fuel and rest. Is your dd worried about it?

Does it follow her menstrual cycle?

Is she more fatigued during winter? SAD can really hit hard, my DP suffers really bad and even the SAD lamps don't help much. it could be related to growth spurts, hormonal changes, CFS as suggested above. possibly even sleep apnoea. if you are really worried, talk to her about it and see if a trip to the GP is in order.

I was like that as a teen... I'm still the same now at 23, only I now know I have both hEDS and CFS. Which makes sense.
I wouldn't just write it off, that's excessively tired by any standards. It might be worth speaking to your GP, they may have an input.

Yes my teen DD is the same, she was in bed now when I came in from work, not uncommon for her to be asleep on the sofa after school too. She has been like this for probably a couple of years and as you say it seems to go in cycles. She does seem to be more tired around her period but has been for various blood tests in the past and isn't anaemic and nothing else showed on tests. I have multiple autoimmune illnesses so I'm quite worried something is going on that hasn't been identified yet.

Also as a teen I slept loads but not usually in the daytime, more couldn't get out of bed and she shares that problem too! That was long before ai issues identified though.

Could she be anaemic?

She hasn't got a menstrual cycle yet so I don't think it's that. Her most recent blood tests came back normal although that was a while back.

Does she have any other symptoms other than sleeping a lot? And does she say she is tired or is it more than normal tired?

Could she have a vitamin D deficiency? I have and it makes me really tired.

Is she eating ok?

Are you sure she’s not up half the night with a book?

I was similar after having glandular fever. It's now called post viral fatigue I think, but back then it wasn't understood. Has there been anything like that in the recent past? Not necessarily that virus.

Well she had an episode of post-viral fatigue about 4-5 years ago and had to do 1/2days at school for quite a while. Generally her eating is ok but when these espisides start she can be extremely teary and her appetite drops. She ends up missing meals because she's asleep. Tonight she ate when she got home, slept from 5-8.30 and then had homework to do so only went to be about 30 mins ago.