my son has hallucinations whenever he has a fever

[Unregistered]

I've read all these responses and I must say, there are some very funny ones here (e.g., electromagnetic fields or demons heheehe). But seriously, I'm writing because I had the same thing occur when I was about 5 years-old. I had a fever of 105 and hallucinated terribly, screaming and thrashing until my mom came into the room and woke me up. Thank goodness I've never had them since then, but I do feel for your son because it's incredibly scary to go through that. I had PTSD-like symptoms for the next...10 years or so because of that one incident, with any "trigger" I encountered setting off the same symptoms of terror, so I cannot imagine what children go through who experience this repeatedly, with nearly every fever. As I see other posters with children who have the same problem, there MUST be some answers for this and hopefully, some treatment for it. Keep looking for answers. Forget your doctor. If he/she is not being helpful, shop around. Do your son a favor and find a doctor who gives a ****. This is not night terrors, it's not demons and it's not microwaves for god's sake. I wish you and your boy all the best.

[ottermom56]

I have decided to seek help for a strange problem my son has had since he was about 7. At first I thought it was a fluke, or just some strange side effect that would accompany a fever. But whenever my son has a flu, or cold that is with a fever, he will wake up in the middle of the night having severe panic attacks, hallucinations and confusion. He is now almost 16 and he just wandered into our room crying, "I don't want to die, what the....? what the..." He was swiping the air, and his heart was pounding. He was sortof crying out, and mumbling.

He had a bit of a sore throat this evening and took some ibuprofen and went to bed. But he woke up with the pounding heart, terror, and hallucinations. Some of his hallucinations are: that the world is "hardening" the air is "hardening" and he has severe confusion and rushing words that make no sense. He will then become lucid and ok and he wants me to help him, hold him and comfort him. Then he starts panicking again and he seems disoriented and terrified and starts mumbling again. This happens almost every single time he has a fever. Even if it's a slight fever. He has hallucinations that are chaotic and filled with terror. I'm very worried and sad and have not even a clue as to what is the deal. He's a very intelligent, quiet boy. He's a vegetarian, but I don't agree that he should be. He doesn't have a good diet. He's too picky, but for ethical reasons he refuses to eat meat. I'm not sure if this is diet related or what, but I know I'm really scared and finally I need some help. I realize that this is long winded, but it's complex and strange. Any help at all would be great. Jacob has had this problem ever since he was about 7 and he had a flu with very, very high fever (105.8). He had hallucinations that demons were streaming into the room, crashing around and screaming chaotically. I am so worried. Please help if you know what may be going on.

Oh thank you! My son has the same problem, he doesn't have episodes very often, he is generally healthy but if he spikes a fever due to a mild infection he will have terrifying hallucinations with his eyes WIDE OPEN! It is very upsetting. I thought he would out grow it but he is 18 and recently had another episode where he was severely distressed and insisted he "killed somebody". We were beside ourselves. He had been to a party the night before and we thought he was telling us something that had happened, but immediately after that statement we realized it was the "hallucinatory fever state" he experiences. After the episode he slept soundly for 4 hours and sweated profusely while sleeping. Obviously throwing off an infection. When he was a little boy he would cry and shout and insisted that men were raping him, and other really distrubing images. I understand what you say about the demons hallucination, that would be right up the alley with what my son has experienced. I am taking him to the nurse practitioner later this week. He starts college this Fall and i want to get some explanation for this bizarre phenomenon. Please write back!

[Freddd]

I have decided to seek help for a strange problem my son has had since he was about 7. At first I thought it was a fluke, or just some strange side effect that would accompany a fever. But whenever my son has a flu, or cold that is with a fever, he will wake up in the middle of the night having severe panic attacks, hallucinations and confusion. He is now almost 16 and he just wandered into our room crying, "I don't want to die, what the....? what the..." He was swiping the air, and his heart was pounding. He was sortof crying out, and mumbling.

He had a bit of a sore throat this evening and took some ibuprofen and went to bed. But he woke up with the pounding heart, terror, and hallucinations. Some of his hallucinations are: that the world is "hardening" the air is "hardening" and he has severe confusion and rushing words that make no sense. He will then become lucid and ok and he wants me to help him, hold him and comfort him. Then he starts panicking again and he seems disoriented and terrified and starts mumbling again. This happens almost every single time he has a fever. Even if it's a slight fever. He has hallucinations that are chaotic and filled with terror. I'm very worried and sad and have not even a clue as to what is the deal. He's a very intelligent, quiet boy. He's a vegetarian, but I don't agree that he should be. He doesn't have a good diet. He's too picky, but for ethical reasons he refuses to eat meat. I'm not sure if this is diet related or what, but I know I'm really scared and finally I need some help. I realize that this is long winded, but it's complex and strange. Any help at all would be great. Jacob has had this problem ever since he was about 7 and he had a flu with very, very high fever (105.8). He had hallucinations that demons were streaming into the room, crashing around and screaming chaotically. I am so worried. Please help if you know what may be going on.

ANY VEGETARIAN who does not supplement b12 is going to be deficient. It will cause no end of problems including hallucinations. Some people, becasue of genetic reaosn have to have active b12s only becasue they can't convert the normally given inactive ones.

[bubba b]

I, too, had hallucinations when I had a high fever. They happened, as I recall, from the ages of 6-13. It might have happened when I was younger, but I have no recollection of it.

The nature of these things were that, I would experience phantom aches and pains (as if someone were pressing the dull side of a butter knife into my hand and feet), I would occasionally experience OBE (generally floating up towards the ceiling: appeared magnified, as if 1 foot away), and I would have delusional belifefs. (The most extreme example: I somehow believed I'd gotten trapped inside the electrical grid of a city.)

The good thing, if you son follows my pattern, is that with greater experience with these symptoms (and greater experience with life in general), I came to realize my delusions were just that. That is not to say they didn't "seem real": they did. However, I had schooled myself to be initially untrusting of "unusual" beliefs I deveolped while under a fever.

The thing that concerns me is that your son is still experiencing this at 16: I had this happen for the last time about 1 year post-puberty. Was your son a "late bloomer" in this regard?

Finally, has your son experimented with hallucinogenic drugs? I'm not asking that because I believe it best describes the symptoms; it's just that it seems sensible to rule out "obvious" explanations first, plus the fact that the MD will probably ask, too. If you ask your son this, try hard to do it in a way that does not suggest you doubt the cause of his symptoms.

[Unregistered]

My son as well has the exact same issue, and it started at about 9 years of age - and in the same circumstance- he had a fever of 105 and he was sleeping on the couch and suddenly jumped off the couch running in circles screaming incoherently.
Since then every time he has a cold or flu with a fever he has these episode through the night. They stopped altogether for at least a year if not longer. Then just started again last night. He has a pretty severe head cold with a very low grade fever if any fever at all. He asked me earlier in the evening if he was gonna have a "nightmare" because of the cold - (he's now 12) and I said "no you haven't had one in a long time you've outgrown it" to our surprise - 11:30 that night he awoke screaming - it always seems to be the same "hallucination" for lack of a better word - he is very scared - very confused - and repeating " my hands are tiny" "My hands are so small" "Something is wrong with my hands they are too small" He is awake during the ordeal and can be very coherent atone minute - knowing where he is and who I am. One minute he's letting me hold him and is calm - the next second he is saying don't hold me i have to walk around " my hands are so tiny please help me" He will be screaming and crying - then will calm down - i try to keep eye contact with him and when he is calm all of a sudden his eyes will change and he goes rigid - then the screaming and crying starts again along with teh "my hands are to small" "Im scared get me help I'm gonna die"
Then he eventually seems to get over it - calms down - will even laugh if we get him too then he will settle back into bed and goes back to sleep and usually fine the rest of the night.
He has a full memory of the event the next day as well.
Because he is only 12 I'm trying desperately to find an answer for him or some sort of relief - he worries non stop about it every time he gets sick. My family Dr. has offered no advice other then it's "night terrors" it obviously isn't that at all.

Maybe you have figured this out already, but what your son seems to have is " Alice in wonderland syndrome". Sounds funny - the medical name is "Micapsia".
Do a google search on the words. I've been searching because my son has similar hallucinations ( but he feels like everything is twice as large). Night terrors are different. Find some respectable places to do some print outs and bring to your doctor. They may want to do additional testing. If it happens again, reassure your child that his hands are normal size... and that the feeling will go away soon, and be calm .Hope that helps!

[Unregistered]

Oh my gosh, please contact me at Bncindy8@aol.com, my daughter which is 13 has the same exact problem. She gets a fever also and at night she panics and wakes me up terrified and tells me that everything is hard. She shows me her blanket and tells me that its so soft but it gets really hard. Last time she told me that she was really scared and that someone was in the house. My husband had to yell at her and almost had to slap her to bring her to get her to stop freaking out. Did you ever find out what was wrong? Now Im thinking of taking her to the doctor and finding out what is causing this. I have 2 other children that dont do this at all. Crazy thing is she remembered what she told me the next day. Please help!! What did you do?? Cindy..........

Hi Lifeiswaycool,

Sounds like it could be symtoms of b12 deficiency. I have had lifetime b12 deficiency problems until the past little while. I have been healing from the damage for almost 5 years now. Methylb12 is the natural form of b12 that is used by the brain. It should be taken with at least a b-complex. In cases where hallucinations are caused by b12 deficiency they usually clear up very quickly, within days.
http://forums.wrongdiagnosis.com/sho...ed=1#post92803
Come on over and make your post over there and let's talk about it. We have somebody recovering from b12 deficiency induced hallucinations over there.

[Unregistered]

Stop giving him anything with Ibuprofen. My son had a temperature of 103 and the motrin I was giving him, was making him have freak out hallucinations. I stopped giving him Motrin and now I give him Tylenol. He doesn't have them now. I've heard so many cases of children reacting to the Motrin.

I have decided to seek help for a strange problem my son has had since he was about 7. At first I thought it was a fluke, or just some strange side effect that would accompany a fever. But whenever my son has a flu, or cold that is with a fever, he will wake up in the middle of the night having severe panic attacks, hallucinations and confusion. He is now almost 16 and he just wandered into our room crying, "I don't want to die, what the....? what the..." He was swiping the air, and his heart was pounding. He was sortof crying out, and mumbling.

He had a bit of a sore throat this evening and took some ibuprofen and went to bed. But he woke up with the pounding heart, terror, and hallucinations. Some of his hallucinations are: that the world is "hardening" the air is "hardening" and he has severe confusion and rushing words that make no sense. He will then become lucid and ok and he wants me to help him, hold him and comfort him. Then he starts panicking again and he seems disoriented and terrified and starts mumbling again. This happens almost every single time he has a fever. Even if it's a slight fever. He has hallucinations that are chaotic and filled with terror. I'm very worried and sad and have not even a clue as to what is the deal. He's a very intelligent, quiet boy. He's a vegetarian, but I don't agree that he should be. He doesn't have a good diet. He's too picky, but for ethical reasons he refuses to eat meat. I'm not sure if this is diet related or what, but I know I'm really scared and finally I need some help. I realize that this is long winded, but it's complex and strange. Any help at all would be great. Jacob has had this problem ever since he was about 7 and he had a flu with very, very high fever (105.8). He had hallucinations that demons were streaming into the room, crashing around and screaming chaotically. I am so worried. Please help if you know what may be going on.

[Unregistered]

I am 37 male now and had thosed as well when I was under 10. It was kind of a panic attack, not knowing where you were, but off because I always managed to find my way to my parents and then it started. A pusling, dying, falling feeljng. I am basically fine now. In High School several times during a test, or deep thought, I could slip lightly into these type of deleriums, but vert rarely. I had one sever panic attack when 27 and thats been about it.

[Unregistered]

Whenever I have a fever I fell just this way. Im 13 and these hallucinations make you feel horrible and like the world is going to end. Eventually I get over it and feel fine afterwards.
Even when I have a slight fever I feel this way as well and I do not know that there is anything I can do about it.

[jenhart]

I have 2 9 year old sons (step-brothers) who both started the same thing about a month and half apart from each other. Both started having these episodes when they spiked a fever, but both have continued about once a week. They get up about 45 minutes after falling asleep. They run around, screaming and crying, terrified, both say they feel like they have to get out. Both say their mind is "rushing" and that everything gets very big. They both have full memory of the episode. Today, one of them had a modified expisode at school - about an hour of this vision change where everything looks big, and he said everything seemed to be moving very fast. He didn't have the normal terror he has when he wakes up like this at night.

We talked to their doctor about it, and he said nothing to worry about, said it was sleepwalking, and told us to take them to an eye doctor to have the vision change evaluated.

I am so relieved to know others have experienced the same thing. Comeone must know what this is!