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Sleepy Child
My usually active and cheerful 8 year old has been unusually sleepy the past six days. She would sleep close to waking up in the morning, in the afternoon and late evening until the following morning. Additionally, she has no appetite. At first she said it’s because she’s bored but I don’t think that’s the case. Boredom will not let her loose her appetite.She has a white layer on her tongue more than usual. And red tip tongue.
She developed a cough last night, and a sore throat. No fever. I took her to the doctor, the doc said to give her paracetamol and ibuprofen which I wasn’t convinced with as I need to find the root cause and the right treatment.
I requested a blood test, including iron levels and vitamin D , and urine test. The CBC is out (attached) and waiting for the rest.
What other tests do I need to do? Do I need to do a liver function test for her?
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5 Replies
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Urinalysis, Ferratin and vitamin D results. The Ferratine is quite high and the vitamin D is low. I can supplement with Vitamin D , but how can I lower the Ferratine? And why is the body not absorbing the iron?
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@Maryam Al I’m going to highlight the out of range markers and link a few videos from the Understanding Basic Blood Chemistry to help you better understand what might be at play:
Clinically low WBC: something is suppressing her white blood cell production. Please watch my explanation in THIS VIDEO starting at 1 min 38 sec if you want to skip the intro.
Clinically low Neutrophils: this is our first line of defense when we get sick; this usually goes up when there’s an active or chronic bacterial infection. When it goes down as lymphocytes increase, it’s usually a pattern of a viral infection. Could be acute or chronic and transient. Think of a virus that is dormant, but may at times reactivate. Please continue watching the same video above as I explain the different patterns of these white blood cell differentials.
Clinically high ferritin: please watch THIS VIDEO (start at 2 min:10 sec). This will explain why the body is not absorbing iron. The body is smart and trying to protect her body!
Clinically low vitamin D: does she get daily sun exposure? If so, ask why vitamin D may be low, keeping in mind that it’s a fat soluble “vitamin” that needs good liver/gallbladder function and bile flow for absorption, and needs a good amount of magnesium for active conversion. Please watch THIS VIDEO from the Mineral Balance course (start at 2 min 16 sec) to see if the low vitamin D is related to inflammation or not given the higher ferritin.
Knowing nothing else other than these results and the symptoms you’ve shared, it seems as though the pattern points to the possibility of a chronic reactivated viral infection, which in itself can be suppressing the immune system and possibly creating a secondary simmering microbial infection which is causing the sequestering of iron.
What do you do next? Support her immune system!
Knowing her immune system is struggling, I would want to measure and optimize her vitamin D, A, RBC zinc and RBC copper as a starting point. If RBC zinc and copper aren’t available, then I would measure these in serum and also request ceruloplasmin along with it.
I would also want to make sure she has the raw ingredients needed to make WBCs. So measuring B12 and B9 as well, although it’s much better to measure these in organic acid metabolites (urine test) versus serum. These are called methylmalonic acid (MMA) and formiminoglutamic acid (FIGLu).
This is also where a conversation about diet comes in. Do you think she’s getting in these nutrients in optimal amounts from food and sun?
Hope the above has helped you better understand the picture being presented, and with your mom instincts and knowing your daughter, can hopefully add more to this picture.
Let me know if you need clarification on anything.
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@Bernadette Abraham wow! A lot to think about. I will rewatch the video and keep you posted.
In the meantime, what I understand from what you’re saying is that she is possibly fighting a revisited virus or bacteria, which her body is choosing sleep as a fighting mechanism. This in addition to low vitamins, correct B
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B = ? Typo
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@Maryam Al well we don’t know if she has low vitamins, but it’s worth testing to see where the suppression of WBCs is coming from. Once you watch all of the video links I’ve shared, go back and reread my reply. You’ll understand it a lot better.
But yes, her fatigue could be from her body fighting a possible low-grade viral infection. When we get sick, aren’t we tried? It does that on purpose to help our immune system put all of its resources on fighting the invader. Makes sense?
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