Very Worried- DS has painful swollen gland on back of head & night sweats. Can anyone help?

[owlelf]

DS (5) has just told me his head hurts, I found a biggish (blueberry sized) swollen gland on the back of his head.

He does have a bit of a cold at the moment.

He has also been having night sweats for a while now. His pyjamas and hair are getting wet due to his sweating. It seems to be for the first 4ish hours of sleep. He has always been a 'hot' child with night sweats when he is unwell, but now I think about it, he seems to have been sweaty for a few months now.

I feel so stupid for not having seen GP about the night sweats before now. I have a tendancy to worry about him so told myself it was nothing. Now I've found this lump I am panicking about childhood cancer.

I've made an appointment to see GP this morning.

Should I be worried? Can anyone advise me whether I should mention to GP that I'm worried that it is serious (without worryin DS obviously. I want to respect the fact that he is the expert but equally I don't want to get told "not to worry" if DS should get checked out more thoroughly.....

Apologies for the blatant PFB panicking, I am trying to keep a grip, honestly.

Hi I can't help but hopefully this will bump so someone knowledgeable comes along.

Just to add my DS always sweets buckets for the first few hours I think it because the house is warmer then so are you sure it's a new thing the night sweats.

Hopefully the GP will be able to calm
Your fears and don't apologise for the panic - its natural with your child. Heck I even have these panics about myself but then I'm a panicy type of person!

Thanks Doodle, glad I'm not the only panicky one!

I think the constant night sweats are new. He has always been a 'hot' child and prone to overheating at bedtime. However, the sweats are usually either just before he gets a cold or during the cold itself.

Well, the gland could be up because of the infection and blueberry sized is not huge at all. Sweats- my DS always sweated a lot in bed for the first few hours he only grew out of it a year or so ago (he's 10).

See the doctor, sure, but I wouldn't necessarily panic, tbh, and I'm prone to panicking.

Also in children you can feel the nodes more (the paed said that) and that has always been my experience as well.

Bump for any more responses.....

I've had my da to the doctor for swollen glands. It was like a pea on the back of his head kind of in line with the middle of his ear, if you see what I mean. Doc said it was just due to the cold he had and sure enough it went down. All my ds's get hot through the evening when in bed. Ds2 will have damp hair... I think its because we still have our heating on and he wears full pyjamas! if he wears shorts or nothing then he's much better. I'm sure it will be nothing but take him anyway, why not x

we've had 2 referrals to paeds with enlarged lymph nodes...DS had one the size of a big pea and the other more like a malteser...blood work came back normal and the paediatrician wasn't at all concerned

He said that 99% of these things are harmless and any that arent tend to be in the clavicle region and very large (think golf ball rather than blueberry!)