4 year old crying over sore tongue

[warmmfeet]

DS aged 4 has woken up crying and looks to be in a lot of pain, stating he has a sore tongue.

I can't see anything on his tongue, it looks normal to me at the moment.

He's not settled back, DH is just with him. He's really very distressed. I've given him calpol.
No other symptoms as far as I can tell other than he's been quite irritable the last few days oh and had a cough for a week.

Sorry - forgot to finish off by saying has anyone got any ideas what this could be? Anyone's DC has similar?

Thank you

Have you had a good look at his throat? Maybe he's saying tongue because he doesn't know the word for throat (my DD would complain of a sore neck when she had tonsillitis)

Could he have bitten his tongue or been chewing on his tongue whilst he's been asleep?

Could be hand foot & mouth? https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hand-foot-mouth-disease/

i was going to suggest as a Pp did that it may be their throat as they can’t always explain the location of a pain. My Ds 4 once said to me ‘it hurts,’ and couldn’t explain where. It turned out he had scarlet fever and his tonsils were very large and swollen. I couldn’t see his tonsil as they are too far back but the doctor used a wooden stick and a flashlight to examine.
Im not suggesting it’s scarlet fever btw. Just an example of a child of the same age and pain.

@Thequeenofwishfulthinking oh thank you. No I didn't get a good look at his throat and he's just fallen back to sleep but I will have a better look in the morning. He's had horribly infected tonsils twice in the last year. Maybe it is that. He doesn't have a temp at the moment.

I wondered about hand, foot and mouth but can't see any spots apart from 1 solitary red spot on one of his toes.

@LancashireSquirrel I wondered about that but it seemed to go on for longer with the pain getting less and then worse again. So I don't know!

@CharlotteFlax thanks I will check his throat properly tmw or when he next wakes up

Hopefully it’s nothing and he’s caught it when eating or something. It does hurt I do it a lot.

I'd be looking out for Strep A/ scarlet fever symptoms. PP make a good point about it maybe not being his actual tongue that hurts.

He's awake again in a lot of pain. His throat seems ok but he's now saying it's his tongue and his ear. I guess he's got an ear infection

Scarlet fever causes a swollen sore tongue, I would call the gp

Well it went on for 2-3 hours, got him in bed with me and he was crying and thrashing about in pain, kept saying his ears hurt and popped when he yawned. Eventually he passed out. He slept until 6 and has woken up full of beans like nothing happened.
So weird!

Probably means throat. 4 years olds don't distinguish areas of the body that well.

Hi! Can you update with what this was? My almost 4-year old is in a similar situation except the doctors don’t see anything wrong with his tongue, throat, ears. No sores, no ear infection, strep negative. I’m desperate to help him!