[Medical Q&A] What should parents do if their baby sweats excessively and has bald spots on the back of the head?

Author: He Tianyi: Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology Medical College

Reviewer: Hao Yan, Chief Physician of Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Medical School

The baby always shakes his head when sleeping at night, and the hair on the back of his head is rubbed off. Is the child calcium deficient? Is he suffering from rickets? The above-mentioned hair loss is medically called "occipital baldness", which means that there is a circle of sparse or no hair on the occipital area (where the head touches the pillow) of the baby. The child often has restless sleep, such as waking up at night, crying, sweating when falling asleep, and baldness on the occipital area. These are the situations that parents often encounter. There are mainly the following 4 reasons.

(1) Physiological heat dissipation and friction: Infants and young children have a high metabolism, but their autonomic nervous system is not yet fully developed. The heat in the body will be released in the form of sweat, resulting in excessive sweating right after falling asleep. Sweat will irritate the scalp and cause itching. Children will relieve the itching by shaking their heads and rubbing, which can lead to baldness on the back of the head.

(2) Insufficient nutritional intake during pregnancy: If the mother does not take in enough nutrients such as vitamin D, calcium, and iron during pregnancy, it may affect the baby's sleep quality, increase friction, and cause baldness on the back of the head.

(3) Environmental factors: A pillow or bed that is too hard may increase the pressure on the hair on the pillow, causing hair to become thinner.

(4) Genetic factors: Sometimes the child’s parents also have a history of rickets, such as X/O legs, rib deformities, etc.

First of all, parents can strengthen care, adjust room temperature, replace soft sleeping supplies, etc., increase heat dissipation, replace sweat towels in time, increase vitamin D supplements appropriately, increase outdoor activity time, and consciously increase sun exposure.

If your baby wakes up at night, cries constantly, and has excessive sweating and bald spots on the back of the head that are inconsistent with the environment, you must go to the child health department of the hospital to check the cause of the disease. The most common and important related disease is nutritional rickets, and the above symptoms are precisely the early clinical manifestations of nutritional rickets.