Blood on cot sheets - gross picture included

[Hullabaloowho]

Posting in hope of reassurance as I know we need medical advice...

About a month ago my 14 month old appeared to cough up what seemed like quite a bit of bright red blood shortly after I put him down to sleep for the night. I was shocked enough to call 999 and we were taken to hospital by ambulance although even with the paramedics he seemed in very good spirits for anything to be seriously wrong. We spent a few hours in A&E where no further bleeding happened and he was discharged with antibiotics for an ear infection (unrelated) - no-one could really explain the blood.

Since then most mornings I've gone in to find patches of blood stained saliva on his cot sheets. It's never been the same colour or volume as the first incident but I'm still unsettled and also his cot sheets are all looking pretty gross now... We have finally managed to get a GP appointment next week to discuss his recurrent ear infections and I will bring it up then but I'm wondering if anyone experienced this with their little ones. Could it be teething related? I never notice any blood in his mouth during the day. He sleeps on his front.

You mentioned recurrent ear infections, is the blood definitely not from his ear? My DS had awful ear infections and bloody pus erupted all the time. I know you said though the first time he definitely coughed it up, I'm just thinking of other possibilities I guess. Definitely raise it again.

Bless him, it's always worrying when kids do things like this. You mention ear infections, I wonder if it's possibly his sinuses causing pressure in his nose then causing a nose bleed but because he's laying down it's running down his throat then he's coughing it up. I might be way off the mark but that's what it was for me when I was a child.

Sorry should've clarified, often sinus and ear infections go hand in hand. I'm still suffering almost 30 years later with both.

Re the cot sheets, surely you'd just wash them in cold water when you find the blood on them, rather than letting the stains build up?

Are you sure the blood is from his mouth not his ear?

@Hullabaloowho is he sicky after milk, or unsettled? I suffer silent reflux and it was partly flagged because I would wake up having dribbled bloody spit all over the pillow. It also triggered night time asthma attacks as I would aspirate in my sleep.

Will the GP not see baby sooner if you mention the blood? It could be nose bleed?

Could it be nose bleeds? All mine suffered especially in the summer when it was warm

Your GP needs to see this sheet picture

I bet it's from his ears

Teething? We’ve had bloody sheets when teeth have been coming through.

We've had this when teething.

Thank you for the helpful suggestions, I hadn't considered that he could be coughing/dribbling blood from sinuses/ears - that definitely sounds plausible. And he did have silent reflux as a younger baby. It seemed to massively improve when he learnt to roll onto his front but perhaps there is still an issue.

I'm a first time mum and have had absolutely nothing in terms of health visitor/access to general parenting support since his birth so really questioning myself about whether I've missed something with his health/development here. It's taken 2 weeks to get this 'non-urgent' GP appointment (same GP who completely cancelled my 8 week check post c-section) so I know I might need to push for an ENT referral.

@Garman err yes. We do wash his sheets every time it happens, but don't always get a chance first thing in the morning as I'm out of the house at work by 7. We don't have a tumble dryer and so the daily sheet washing (on top of the regular mountain of baby washing) is wearing.

@Hullabaloowho my silent reflux comes a day goes. I cam go months without any signs and then (like this morning) I will take a breath and aspirate pure stomach acid and then throw up a pool of bloody spit. It's an absolute pain in the ass but there are things that make it worse,so for me fizzy drinks, alcohol and grease food (had maccys with dd for tea last night) are all triggers. Whilst I am aware your baby is far too young for any of those I do know in babies dairy can be a trigger (in dairy allergic so have no idea if it triggers mine) so it might be worth trying to speak to a gp. Most have a link they send you to upload pictures to so I am fairly sure they will want to physically see your baby when they see that sheet

Are you soaking the sheets in cold salt water before you wash them?

This kept happening to DT2. I thought it was teething but it was too much blood. Then I saw he had severely bit his tongue - very severely. The really bad ones happened twice in total - he’s under a paediatrician who said if it happened again or anything else worrying they’d want to do an EEG but it never happened again and no other signs of seizures. Will he let you look in his mouth? I was shocked by how bad it was.

Can’t people some people here are more bothered about this poor lady’s cot sheets than the query she came here for support with.
I’d definitely insist on an appointment with your GP, there are several things it could be and definitely should be checked out for reassurance

DD1 coughed up a lot of blood after a nap when she was 13 months old. She had reflux which became worse with teething. Her throat had ulcerated and that was the source of the blood. She was prescribed omeprazole which made a huge difference.

It sounds like you're beating yourself up about it. Please don't. You've got him an appointment and for now that's all you can do. It doesn't sound like he's in pain so it's just a case of waiting it out to see the doctor. Go easy on yourself.

nose bleed?
mine had that. blood on the wall & on sheet.
couldn't figure it out until I saw him poking in his nose with his finger the next day - pulled out dried blood🙄

Aren’t gp’s supposed to see under 5’s same day?

If they don’t give you timely appointments, sharpen your elbows. (I hope you get answers soon. First time mumming is terrifying.) 💐

@hellywelly3

Could it be nose bleeds? All mine suffered especially in the summer when it was warm

This used to happen to mine too.

Hope you get some answers soon OP!

This happens to us regularly with teething-she chews her cheeks which results in the additional bleeding.
DD is 21 months and on the final push for second molars. It scares me to death everytime.

I’m also struggling to get the stains out. Do all the right things but it seems a bitch to shift even with sunlight.

Was going to ask if you’d checked his nose as well. My ds likes to pick his nose in his sleep, and he ends up bringing on snotty nosebleeds and spreading it everywhere.