My toddler is sleeping a lot! Should I be worried?

[Mama12345678910]

Hi all so about of context. My toddler (17 months) got sick last Tuesday with a really high temperature and lost his appetite. Managed this with medications and by Friday he had most of his appetite back and by Sunday didn’t need medication for the temperature anymore. When he was sick he was sleeping a lot more than normal. His normal routine is 7pm-7/8am and then normal a 2hour nap at either 11am or after lunch at 1pm depending if he got up at 7am or 8am.

I was letting him have as much sleep as he wanted when he was ill as the doctor advised it, however he is still sleeping so much. He’s now sleeping 7pm-8:30-9am and then having a 3+ hour nap during the day. The doctor said to let him do what he wants in regards to sleep but I’m unsure. Yesterday he didn’t get up until 8:30am and still fell asleep at 11:30am until 4:30pm so completely missed lunch. Has anyone else experienced this after an illness and it’s normal or am I right to be worried?

It might be a kind of post viral fatigue maybe?

Is he himself during his awake periods or lethargic? Keep a close eye but I'd probably wait and see if he was otherwise well and acting normally

I’d probably take him back to the GP for a check. Did he have Covid?

Was his covid test negative? I'm assuming so or you'd have mentioned it. It's quite normal to still be sleepy ime after many bugs though. They can take a while to shake but long covid is apparently more common in children with mild symptoms than adults with more serious ones

My toddler DD is going through something similar. She is 2.5. 3 weeks ago she was poorly (covid negative) with a cold virus. Previously she had no naps anymore and would usually sleep 7pm-6.30am. She is now sleeping 7pm-7.30/8am and is sometimes falling asleep during the day for half an hour or so. I think it is definitely related to when she was poorly as it started at the same time, post viral fatigue is most likely. But GP if you are concerned.

Hi all thanks for the replies.
Yes covid test was negative (although part of me worries how accurate this was as he thrashes around when testing him so not sure how good of a swab I did get) and didn’t have any symptoms other than the temperature, loss of appetite, fatigue and a little rash at the end but the gp said lots of children get a viral rash after they’d been poorly and wasn’t concerned by it and this has now gone.

He is back to himself now and will happily play and interact when he is awake other than when he’s starting to feel tired he’ll come for a cuddle and fall asleep on me which he hasn’t done since he was around 10 months old.

I’ve heard of post viral fatigue in adults but wasn’t sure how common this was in children. He’s had colds before and mild fevers but this is the most poorly he has ever been as normally he doesn’t sleep so much and isn’t normally off his food so this was the worst time.

usernotfound0000 I hope your little one is feeling better. Sounds similar to my little one in regards to the sleeping more.

I'm the same in wondering about Covid, not sure how well I swabbed her! But there is lots of other stuff going around at the moment too. She is perfectly fine now apart from seems to need a bit more sleep (I'm not mourning the loss of the 6.30am wake up call!). I would just say give your GP a call if you are worried or if it persists much longer.