Chronic fatigue 12 year old daughter possible? Patient

[Thejazzz]

about a year ago my daughter started her periods. She was in yesr 6, I would say around then she started feeling more tired, but my daughter has always had trouble sleeping. She is being assessed for adhd this week.

she started secondary in September and the fatigue has got worse. She isn’t the best sleeper so can’t switch off at night, is a natural night owl according to her occupational therapist. She says she gets so tired she can’t even talk but chats to all friends everyday, she has many and can’t stall talking lol so she doesn’t help herself when it comes to boundaries.

the thing I’m worried about is her blood tests showed low vitamin d and folic acid she has a 4 month Course for the folic acid but not vitamins, but she said it isn’t helping! I saw red explanation mark for a few things ok computer GP only said about the folic acid and vit D. It might have been for white cell? Not sure but just trusted GP knew what he was on about it. ! I have to remind her about vitamins and I’m terrible but we are making sure she takes her folic everyday! We both do it , I know the supplement should come with that.

is it possible my daughter has chronic fatigue at this age? She seems to be masking a lot at school etc but she is still tired in holidays.

her diet isn’t bad, she had mixed fruit, veg, meat etc of course there are days where she gets funny with food, as always been like that but for the most part she does eat ok. She also eats quite well compared to many others. But could fatigue be masking as well? Are neurodivergents more tired than usual?

Did they check her iron levels? My dd13 had low iron after her periods started and around the time she stopped eating meat. I’ve noticed a huge difference in energy levels since taking them.

" her blood tests showed low vitamin d and folic acid she has a 4 month Course for the folic acid but not vitamins,"

I am reading this to mean that she is not taking Vitamin D even though she's been found to be deficient? That could be part of the explanation then.

Get her a good Vitamin D, high strenght - can't recommend one, but perhaps someone else can

Plus, you can always ask your surgery for a printout of the blood test results and then see for yourself what might need supplementing such as iron etc

her folic is low, what are her other results, particularly B12 and iron

My money is in b12 and iron. If she’s not been tested for those she needs to go get tested.

we are all deficient in vitamin d in the uk over winter. So no surprise there. Supplements are reasonably cheap. Sprays or pills. Don’t know if things does them as my gp doesn’t prescribe for me.

I saw the title and came on here to suggest ADHD or autistic burn out, and see you already have an assessment lined up.

The GP was going down the CFS route with my daughter and I happened to mention it to the psychiatrist (on meds already for anxiety) and she said ADHD is often misdiagnosed as CFS in girls.

Oh, and yes, being ND is exhausting! Just existing in the same space as others is tiring, add on masking and being anxious too. My daughter finds all of this so tiring she struggles to do any work in class. She tries very hard, but everything is so much more effort for her. She comes home from school and goes straight to bed for a couple of hours. We wake her for dinner and she’s usually better by then but finds mornings very difficult. She’s very keen to get to school so it’s not a motivation issue. It’s just like walking through treacle.

Kids can and do get chronic fatigue.

it’s very common in teens particularly after glandular fever or other infections.

could be plenty of other stuff as well…

You have two other explanations for her being tired - vitamin deficiency and neuro diversity, why do you need a third (or fourth, as you could count sleeping badly in there as well)?

Also, why are you calling it fatigue? She sounds tired, it sounds like a logical, natural response to not sleeping, having a little bit less to start with nutrition wise and being busy and chatty all day. Kids with less going on are knackered after starting high school. It doesn't help anyone to pathologise a normal bodily response.

Get the vitamins into her, work on getting her to sleep better (less screens, more exercise, weighted blankets etc, see what works). Only when you have the obvious sorted and it actually presents like fatigue, do you need to even consider chronic conditions.

Last two days she hasn’t eaten much! She just says she isn’t hungry. She is back at school.
i told her to eat a meal today at school. I can check on parent pay. She said she’ll drink plenty of water but I told her to eat a meal as yesterday she didn’t eat much had nothing for dinner but could be anxiety going back to school after the holidays.