Almost 5 year old constantly tired.

[Hoolahoophop]

My almost 5 year old is permanently exhausted, bags under her eyes, emotional, she's getting clingy, definitely low self esteem (lots of do you love me mummy questions) she sleeps 8pm to 6.30 am on average. I'm worried about her. I'm not sure if it just tiredness (I've always been a tired person, mild auto immune problems which cause fatigue) or the stress of school, or something else. I'm going to speak to her teacher next week. Last time I mentioned it to the doctor they dismissed my concerns. She has a younger sibling who has some issue so probably gets treated a little differently. I'm worried. I wondered if her sleep seems OK for her age? She sometimes wakes and complains of nightmares, always askes what she should dream about at night. Thanks.

I think 12 hours is the recommended about if sleep for this age.

I would take her to the doctors she may have low iron levels

Also you could always try putting her to bed an hour earlier and see if that helps ?
Or maybe get her a multivitamin they do the chewy strawberry kids ones and make sure she isn't dehydrated

Do you wake her at 6:30 or is that when she naturally wakes ?

She could also have mild auto immune problems.

This didn’t start after her MMR booster, did it?

My 5 year old DS is similar. Same bedtimes as you. We took him for blood tests as we were so worried, all came back fine.

He regularly looks completely washed out. Pale, dark under the eyes. Low energy. Then he'll go through a spell where he's completely fine. We've put it down to growing pains.

Not much help but think it is fairly common for some children to be like this.

Is this her first year of school? DSS was notably tired and clingy that first year and he was an August baby, so was last in his year to turn 5.

Other things to consider would be chewable vitamins and perhaps getting her to bed a bit earlier if she's prone to waking at 6:30am. Has she mentioned anything about not liking school?

What does she do when she gets in from school?

I have one like this. Now 6. I've decided it is a type of cfs or post viral fatigue. She has ups and downs.

She gets 12h sleep and we find a paracetamol before bed helps her stay asleep - wakes with joint pain.

Am currently exploring vitamins

My 6 year old is a bit like this.
What would happen if you put her to bed earlier? My 6 and 4 year olds sleep 7.30-7.30 usually. They are noticeably more tired if they get less than 12 hours sleep.
The things that have helped with my oldest are plenty of sleep (we don’t tend to do anything that will mean a late night, it may be somewhat limiting but it’s not worth it), a daily multivitamin and probiotics, plenty of iron (red meat and green leafy veg) and making sure she gets lots of outdoor exercise.

I think being at school is a huge adjustment. After a nice break over Christmas my 4 year old is really struggling with tiredness and getting back into school. He's not 5 until the summer. Last year I was worried as he was very pale with dark rings under his eyes (again same time this year and he's the same). We had blood tests to rule out any deficiencies and all were fine but he does have large tonsils (grade 3). They don't want to operate because he's not getting any infections or illness, so we are just to monitor him. But tonsils and adenoids can cause children not to have a thorough sleep, does your daughter snore?

Although, they are very young children and I think school is pretty full on at their age. We have limited clubs to just swimming lessons once a week as he needs his downtime and rest.