Pale and tired 10 year old.

[Foodtheif]

My 10 year old seems to be permanently tired at the moment. He is looking pale and has dark circles under his eyes. I think school is quite exhausting and I’ve told him he needs to catch up on some sleep this half term but is anyone else’s 10 year old like this? He can be quite irritable too but I guess that comes with tiredness and growing up too. He has a chewy vitamin everyday. I guess he could do with an extra hour of sleep but doesn’t ever have a lie in when able to. He probably games a bit more than I’d like and we are stopping that from tomorrow in case that isn’t helping. Any other tips or anyone in the same boat?

Hopefully it's just the gaming.

Although, the pale, dark shadows and grumpy, reminds me of my youngest - who was ultimately diagnosed as coeliac.

Two other symptoms we had were a permanent guts ache and very pale stools. Oh, and another was that she smelt like a wet dog.

I been watching the paleness and it comes and goes. Sometimes he has colour and sometimes doesn’t. He seems to have bags under his eyes but not dark circles. Weird.

Ds 10 has low iron and dark circles under eyes.

Like previous posters, I immediately thought of Coeliac. My 10 year old DD has just been diagnosed. She has the tiredness (a 10 year old actually asking if she can go to bed early!), also very pale and dark circles. She has had some gastro symptoms as well, but the main thing was how tired she was. Definitely worth checking.

Is he at all underweight?

I know you said he's on the chewy vitamins but they don't usually include iron. You can get separate kids' iron supplements, usually orange flavoured crunchy ones, or you could try him on the spatone iron rich water sachets and put those in orange juice. Sounds like he could still be slightly low in iron.

Get him seen by gp ask for a blood test. Could be anemia. My son was like this aged 4 I had to push for it but so glad I did. Almost needed a blood transfusion as was so anemic it put strain on his heart. Taken 5 years to get his levels back up and to stabalise.

He was up at 6.30 this morning. Pull of the gaming. 😢 He wasn’t in bed asleep til about 9pm so a fairly short night. Just wish he’d listen and stay in bed in the mornings. May take his controllers away tonight so he knows there’s no point getting up tomorrow. He is slim but don’t think he’s officially underweight. He would never ask to go to bed but we have noticed a lack of energy during the day. He’s ok to play out and go to football training etc so not completely out of energy or anything but probably a few more rests than usual. Will look at his vitamin in a bit and see if it has iron in it.

I do think it's worth seeing the GP. They can do a blood test and easily check for the obvious things, like anaemia, coeliac etc.

My first thought was coeliac. I think it warrants a GP visit. Basic bloods tests could pick up anaemia or possible coeliac disease. I would also be stricter with the gaming over the holidays and get him out in the fresh air.

What is he eating?
Ideally he would get his vitamins from diet. Usually the amount in the generic gummy ones are very low. A good amount of fruit and veg will bring colour to the skin, a steak for dinner helps with iron, good quality food gives good energy.

Definitely put the controller away during the week and they come out at weekend. What about phone, iPad, .. ?

We had to stop the 'first thing in the morning' gaming. In my house now they can't start till after lunch. So depending on your household, set a time that isn't after breakfast, like 12 noon as a starting time for the gaming. That prevents the early starts.
If he's otherwise well it could be a phase. My son was like this between age 10 and 14. Loads of random pains, headaches, tiredness and 'I don't feel well's, but then when he got a bit older he's much more stable as such. If your son is not actually falling asleep during the day or straight after school, if he can do his homework, play football etc, it could be you are looking at him too closely.

I also think coeliac disease is a possibility. My uncle and niece have it and my niece was pale and tired all of the time, she was falling asleep the minute she got home from school. She also complained of headaches a lot.

If take him to the doctors if I were you just to get checked out.

As for getting up early to game, have a rule thT there's no gaming before 10am of whatever and he may choose to stay in bed if he's tired.

I started giving my son 2 scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast on days he had exercise, instead of cereal. It seems to make a difference to front load the food on the exercise days. Mine would get the tiredness and dehydration 24hrs after doing the exercise not necessarily the same day. I also give him a pint of squash every afternoon too.

As a child I was like this. I was reading too much and not getting enough sleep. I wasn't missing out on loads but over time it just caught up with me.

Why haven't you taken him to see a GP? You can't diagnose him yourself, you know somethings not right with his health and you haven't looked for medical assistance. Genuinely I don't understand your position here.

I think you’re right seaweed. I think I’m looking too closely especially as we’ve had a chronic illness diagnosis for a sibling recently. He is able to play and do stuff but just takes more rest than usual (or that I’ve noticed in the past when not watching as closely). He does look tired and have bags under his eyes but he’s no longer pale. He is becoming more and more obsessed with gaming again and I’m stopping that now and insisting he sleeps in. He was actually up at 6am today so was only 9 hours. Will monitor over the weekend and take him to the docs if necessary. The reason I haven’t already is probably because I know deep down I’m being paranoid and he’s just tired.

You have said that several times. That will stop now, I will remove the controllers tomorrow and so on....
don't say it and do, remove the PS or Xbox for a month, put it in your car and bring it to a friend's house. And put the router in your room at night.
Anyone who spends hours on a screen would look like a zombie.

@lillies and Keep - give her a bit of a break. She's just had a difficult diagnosis for another of her children

Sorry didn't mean to be harsh. It is 5am in Australia. My apologies OP.

I know the sibling was diagnosed at the end of last year but it is not about the sibling. Very often, when one of the children has a diagnosis of illness or special need, all the focus is rightly so on his/her and I guess this is where the increase of hours of gaming comes from.
Now that the family has had time to adapt to the new situation, this shift must change back to where it was.
And because gaming and screens are so addictive and brain-changing, the best and easies tithing for everyone, include the sibling with type 1D, is to take the screens away for a while.
OP had identified the issue, several times over the months (this discussion was created in February) she came on AIBU, not health, to maybe receive a shake up so she does what she knows need to be done. Not tomorrow, straight away.

Buy 3 or 4 boxes of boards games, make two trip to the library to stock on books, order new books and have all the family take a break from screen,unless it is a family movie night, but certainly not during the week.