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4 year old so tired after school - is this normal?

2 replies

Spookybat5 · 13/02/2025 16:27

My DS started Reception in September, I thought he’d have adjusted by now a little more but he comes home from school exhausted every day.

He gets home and is either super upset and tired or he just wants to sit in front of the telly and will ask for some alone time.

Ive been told it’s normal but I am getting a little concerned. He has been having night terrors since starting school too, which I’m sure are caused by and also adding to his tiredness unfortunately, and he’s never been the best sleeper as it is. He currently goes to bed around 7.30-8pm and wakes around 6.30am but he does wake in the night once or twice too.

Another worry is that he extremely fussy, he isn’t allowed to take juice to school and his water bottle comes home full every day as he just won’t drink it. He has very weak diluted juice at home, I have tried cutting it out but he would genuinely rather drink nothing at all.

I make sure he has a smoothie in his packed lunch to at least get some liquid in him, but he isn’t eating a lot while he’s at school either. At home he is definitely a snacker, he grazes on things most of the day and will have a bigger meal for tea, but he is very distractable and finds it hard to sit still to eat when there’s a lot going on. He’s told me he hasn’t eaten his lunch because he wanted to play outside a few times.

It’s worth mentioning I am neurodivergent and I see traits in my son too but I know he is young. He gets very overwhelmed by social interaction and I’m sure this isn’t helping as he just wants quiet time when he’s home, the school have said they have no concerns.

GP hasn’t really given much help to my concerns either other than telling us to attend a healthy eating workshop and to take a multivitamin (which is also virtually impossible due to the fussiness, I have tried probably 20 different ones, gummies, chewable, drops, spray, he can taste them and spits it out).

They have said it’s normal at his age and will settle, but surely it should be a little better by now? He’s usually so full on energy and running riot, but I feel like I’m just getting nowhere when I speak to the doctor or school.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

OP posts:
frenchnoodle · 13/02/2025 17:52

My youngest was like this, it turns out his Iron stores were low.
That might be something to get checked.

And as for his water bottle, break the school rule and send him weak diluted juice. It's better he drinks something than nothing.

TinyMouseTheatre · 14/02/2025 21:33

I think it's a good call to ask for his iron and vitamin levels to be checked.

I think it is also worth reading up on ARFID. What you're experiencing ciukd be normal fussiness but usually DC are beginning to grow out of that by now.

I think it's also getting a bit old for waking in the night so regularly.

As well as reading up on ARFID and getting his blood levels checked I would do this simple progress checker and let us know the result Flowers

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