VERY tired 3 yr old. sleeps lots.

[UniS]

I have this little brother he is small and very tired.. not quite charlie and lola , sorry.
3 yr old DS sleeps lots, 12-15 hours over night and often a 2 hour nap as well ( he would probadly nap longer, I wake him up after 2 hours). But he always looks and often behaves tired, he says he is "very tired mummy" and his behavior surgests hes knackered a lot of the time, melt downs over trivia etc. But hes not lethagic, rides his bike for miles, swims, bounces around, plays football etc in the park.

I'm wondering if he is normally tired or abnormally tired. This growth spurt seems to have gone on a long time if its growth spurt that tiring him out.
He starts preschool next week, I'm already dreading getting him up early to make a 9.15 start time, in the last week hes only woken before 9 on 2 mornings and had a nap both those days.
any ideas? Is a GP going to laugh at me over this one?

No they wont. They will probably get a blood test done to determine if he is difficient in any nutrients. My guess is hes lacking in Iron. I would take him to see the GP and IF he does laugh at you, tell him where to go and see someone esle. Push it forward till you get someone who will listen.

What is his diet like?

um, diet.. typical toddler I think, he will eat most veg if he doesn't know they are there, if he can see them its cucumber and carrot or apple only. Is a bread fanatic, but also eats other carbs- rice, spud, oat cake.

Has he always been like this? What about meat/fish in his diet? He does sound anaemic to be honest. You should take him to the GP.

Ok. Breads good, as it contains Iron, but if he doesnt get enough Vit C his body wont absorb it. So orange juice/cranberry juice and broccoli are good sources.

Why dont you try Bassetts soft and chewy vitamins. They really good and contain all the vital vits for children.

Does he drink enough water throughout the day, about 2 pints? This could include fruit juices and milk.

i would also suggest that you try the cow n gate follow on formula for toddlers in the individual bottles. it contains all the reccommended daily allowance for Iron, and may make a differce compaired to normal cows milk.

water- now theres the challenge, no he doesn't drink enough of anything to be honest. Any tips for getting a child to drink... only thing he will guzzle is fruit juice if its un diluted or banana milk.

I'd say that banana milk and fruit juice isn't the right things for him to be drinking. Milk does little to quench a thirst and is very thick, juice is also thick so wouldn't help him to rehydrate. I water ds's down, he can not tell the difference.

Has he got a favourite cup? Will he drink diluted squash? If he does then give it him in his favourite cup (go shopping with him and ask him to chose one, and say this is the one we drink squash out of). Just Brush his teeth!

Actually 80% of our fluid comes from food so children can get away with drinking much less than you think and not be dehydrated.
Infact you could have been writing this post about dd1 Tiredness, irritability etc.
I took her to the GP who recommended multivits. He refused to test for anaemia because except tiredness she has no other symptoms. Multivits haven't really helped and like you I don't think its normal. Again we also have issues with not wanting to drink and poor appetite. Although these are other symptoms he did not consider them relevant. I don't know what to do nextc either and am watching the thread for suggestions.

I dont know whether you would consider this relevant, but..

DD used to sleep all the time. Shes rarely get up to play. If she did shed have major bursts of being really active. Then Shed sleep every 2 hrs like a newborn. She never really drank much fluids but ate loads. (She was never interested in water/juice etc... Also she was underweight since hittin 5 months old.
DD had to go to hospital with the tummy bug 2 weeks ago. She was severely dehydrated (although would eat and drink(little) she'd sick it back up again). We fed her dioralyte (not that this is of much concern to you)We also think she had a blockage in her bowel from since she was born, but after the illness had passed, we gave her vit C and Iron liquid and since having this, she has perked up so much. The blockage in her bowel had gone and she drinks more now than shes ever done before. I think the dioralyte shifted the blockage. Shes now full of life, doesnt nap like she used to, maybe 1 a day for 2 hrs. She eats so much and she has chunked out.

I think the reason for her being lethargic so much was she wasnt getting enough extra water. She got water from foods but not drink.

fluffy- I wish my my DS was like yours then, this one can and does spot its watered down, dilute too far and he will not drink it. you can give a child drink but you can't force them to swallow it.
To be fair he does drink squash at a regular sort of strength, just not very much compared to his peers. I'd rather he drank banana milk than nothing... and some days that is the choice.

What did he drink as a baby? Did you feed him water or juice?

Chellesgirl I gave both of mine water at the beginning. They refused it point blank and infact hydration is far more important than dental hygiene (from a dentist btw). Dehydration can actually create poor appetite and lethargy, poor diet can lead to anaemia and this leads to poor appetite and so the battle continues.

UniS, this sounds exactly like my DS. he is a bit younger at 2 yrs 3 months, but I have been woryring a bit about the amount of sleeping he does.

I think my DS is awake a lot in the night scratching though as he has eczema. We shared a room with him the weekend before last for the first time in ages and he kept waking us up with his scratching.

My DS does drink loads of liquids, but he could be a bit anaemic as he has a lot of allergies so his diet is a bit restricted.

Yes Dilly, I know. As the hospital always says, if they want to eat, let them, if they dont, dont force them, but they have to drink fluids!

chells- for the record he was breast fed to 6.5 m, then BLW and Breast milk , gradual introduction of water and cows milk from 10m, tapered off BF from 14 months added juice and squash, stopped BF at 24 m.

I'm not worried about WHAT he drinks. I'm not worried about what he eats- pretty much the same as I do, but less veg & less salt. I'm not overly worried about him full stop, hes healthy and growing - 75% centile on height and weight so not a wilting daisy by any stretch of the imagination.

Just wondering if SOOO tired is normal, sounds like a trip to GP at some point might be advisable to talk about multi vits.

i was just wondering what he drank, as this could be a reason as to why he doesnt like things watered down now.

If he is tired all the time I would take him to see GP. but theres no harm on giving him the chewy ones now. You may find theres a difference within a few days.

Hi there

I just want to add some words of encouragement.

I have 2 boys, 8 and 5 yo.

8 yo has always been active.

5yo has always been sluggish and tired. He has had mild asthma which has contributed to it, but other than that it has been largely unexplained. (always ate and drank well).

I never took him for a blood test (but he was at the doctors fairly regularly due to asthma), but am happy to say now that he is 5, he seems to have "woken up". He is coping well at school (at kindergarten he was always asleep when I arrived to pick him up!).

PS. When they get to 5, you stop getting every bug going round too... your house stops looking like a pharmacy - hooray!

Hi UniS!!! Ds is 4. He has a good 12 hrs sleep at night, sometimes a bit more if we can get him to bed early enough - this doesn't affect his rising hour though! He regularly has a 2hr sleep - although he will sometimes 'fight' against this, he still really needs it - when he's at school (nursery) he can't have it, so catches up at the weekend - he can have a 3hr nap some Sat/Suns quite happily. However, when he is awake, no one has any concerns about him - he is fully on-the-go 110% of the time and very active. When he is overtired, everything takes longer and we get frequent melt-downs. Your ds doesn't appear to be getting much less sleep than ds - however, its difficult to tell whether you have the high activity to balance it out.

Iron - which others have mentioned - really easy way to get iron in is to get some carob powder and add a teaspoon to breakfast cereal - ds asks for it as a treat! Very easy to absorb, natural, I've never come across any sideeffects...

Thats a good idea I haven't heard of carob powder. Do you get it in health food shops? I could add it to yoghurt?

Yes - proper health food/wholefood shops - Suma do it. Its not hugely expensive, a packet goes a long way - yes its nice with yoghurt (ds has 'stripey yoghurt' with it too)(and he likes having carob milkshakes as well)

Thanks mistlebrush I will definately do this and thanks for the milkshake suggestion, dd1 likes them too.

I hope it helps...