Overheating

This is the 7 day weather forecast where we live!
It's definitely not typical summer weather for
the state of Oregon.

It got me to thinking though about the issue of
overheating. Of course, overheating is a concern
for anyone in these excessive temperatures that
we're having outside now.

Many times when a child has Agenesis of the Corpus
Callosum they can have difficulty with overheating
and regulating their body temperature when it's
warm outside or hot.

My own child, Matthew, who has complete ACC
overheats easily when it is warm and not just
on hot summer days.



I can remember clear back to when he was a baby in
my arms around 9 months old he would get listless
if he got too warm and he needed to be cooled off
immediately by stripping him down to his diaper and
getting out of the heat and sun and into a much
cooler temperature.

He rarely ever wore long sleeved shirts all year long.
In fact, you will almost always still see Matthew in
a short-sleeved shirt year round.

Even in the winter time if a room is kept too warm
he will begin to overheat, get red cheeks, sweaty
and I need to get him undressed and help him cool
himself off.

I have also always had a difficult time being sure if
Matthew has a fever because sometimes he won't
even be warm or hot on his skin.

When he was little he had a few febrile seizures
that were very scary and I never knew he even had a
fever until after the seizure was over. It wasn't
until then that his body would get hot and show
outward signs of fever.

I learned when he was younger to be alert for any
signs of Matthew being maybe a little bit tired or
slower and even though he didn't feel warm or seem
really sick I would take his temperature rectally
and this is the only way it would show a very high
temperature. Taking his temperature rectally was
my only way to know for sure if Matthew had a fever
when he was sick.

Matthew's fevers are not controlled with Tylenol
alone. It takes using Tylenol and Motrin on a rotating
schedule (per doctor's instructions) to keep his
fever under control when he is sick. Even using this
method of rectal temperature taking and double
dosing with fever reducing medicines, he still
had a febrile seizure a few times when he was
younger.

I have seen some other parents who have a child
with ACC in an e-mail support group I belong to
also mention that their child overheats easily
when they get too warm.

It definitely doesn't take much for Matthew to
wilt in the heat of the sun or in a room that is
too warm in any season of the year.

Needless to say, today we're inside the house
with the air conditioner going and Matthew is
happily playing his Casio keyboard in his room
where I just heard a few giggly laughs bounce
off his walls and warm my heart.