Question:
My friend has a week-and-a-half old baby, who has been profusely sweating. The baby even became soaked with sweat while lying in his bassinet in only a diaper and socks. What could be the cause of this? Mom has had to give him sugar bottles because of constipation. She is worried the baby could be diabetic, because dad is diabetic.
Answer:
It sounds like this infant's mom is most concerned about this sweating being from diabetes because of the dad's history of it. Let me say first off that it would be very unusual for diabetes to show up this way — or this early. In diabetes, there is too much glucose (sugar) in the blood because the body either doesn't have enough of the hormone insulin or doesn't respond to it. While diabetes runs in families, and could possibly cause sweating because the body has to work harder to keep functioning, other symptoms such as drinking and urinating more than usual, or weight loss, are far more common.
Some sweating can be normal; it's an important way for the body to get rid of too much heat. A part of the brain (hypothalamus) acts as a "thermostat" to send signals to the rest of the body to keep the temperature in the right range. However, a newborn baby's "thermostat" doesn't always work as well as it does in an older child, and some babies may sweat for that reason. If the environment doesn't allow the body to get rid of heat well, such as when there is too much humidity in the air or too much extra clothing on the baby, this can make babies sweat also.
"Profuse" sweating, though, is less likely to be normal; there are concerns that I think about when a baby sweats a lot. For example, fever or infection could cause a baby to sweat. A congenital (present at birth) heart defect could do it as well — if the heart isn't working as well as it should, it can make the baby more tired and often cause the baby to sweat, especially with feeding. Sweating can also be seen in babies who have a problem with metabolism. With this much sweating, I'd be concerned that the baby could have a heart or metabolism problem.
