Warning signs of heat stroke in kids and how to prevent this deadly illness before it starts

• Kids are at a higher risk of heat stroke, as their bodies can't regulate heat as well as adults.
• Warning signs can be physical, like rapid breathing or nausea, or behavioral, like hallucinations.

Heat stroke is a condition in which your body gets so hot it can't cool itself off. Kids are particularly vulnerable to heat stroke, as their bodies can struggle to regulate temperature.

Many cases of heat stroke affect children left alone in hot cars or teens practicing sports in hot weather. In very hot environments, heat stroke can set in rapidly, says Danielle Mercurio, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.

For instance, within ten to fifteen minutes, a child left in a hot car may experience severe symptoms of heat stroke.

If you think your child is experiencing heat stroke, the first thing you should do is get them out of the heat, says Ethan Wiener, chief of the KiDS Emergency Department at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone.

"It's all about removing yourself from the risk-related environment. Kids who are out in the sun and engaging in exertional activity need to get into the shade, need to be offered hydration," Wiener says.

Read on to learn more about the symptoms of heat stroke and how to prevent and treat it in your kids.

Signs of heat stroke in kids and babies

Heat stroke shouldn't be taken lightly. This severe form of heat illness can cause problems from dizziness and disorientation to seizures and even death.

Some symptoms of heat stroke in kids include physical symptoms such as:

• A temperature above 104° Fahrenheit
• Hot, red skin
• Lack of sweat
• Speedy pulse
• Rapid or shallow breathing
• Restlessness
• Headaches
• Lethargy
• Irritability
• Muscle weakness
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea

As well as neurological symptoms, including:

• Confusion
• Seizures
• Delirium
• Hallucinations
• Unconsciousness
• Coma

Because babies and young children can't speak to tell their parents they don't feel well, it's especially important to be on the lookout for heat stroke symptoms in babies.

Signs like red skin, vomiting, and lethargy can indicate that something is wrong before heat illness progresses, says Danielle Mercurio, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. You can also be on the lookout for behavioral changes, like irritability or crying, that might indicate something is bothering them.

Risk factors

The biggest risk factors for heat stroke are behavioral.

Spending a long time in the sun and not hydrating well enough can significantly increase your risk of developing a heat-related illness.

But other physical factors can make your child more susceptible to heat stroke, too.

Conditions like cystic fibrosis, which affect hydration levels, can put you at higher risk, says Wiener. So can other cardiovascular and neurological conditions.

Some research also suggests that people taking ADHD medications might be more at risk for heat stroke. But Wiener cautions that more definitive research is needed.

Social factors can play a role, too: "Any child with any communication inability, even something as simple as autism, they might have difficulty letting the parent know that they're not feeling well," says Mercurio.

Important: If a child can't communicate their symptoms, a parent might not notice heat stroke is developing, putting these children at higher risk of experiencing severe heat illnesses.

How to take immediate action

It's important to act immediately if you believe your child may have heat stroke.

• Call 911. If your child is experiencing neurological symptoms such as incoherence or delirium, you should immediately contact 911, Mercurio says.
• Take your child out of the hot environment. Bring your child into cooler room, ideally air-conditioned. If you can't access a building, get them into the shade.
• Spray your child with cool water or apply cold compresses to their skin, including their face and neck. This will help lower their body temperature while you await the arrival of an ambulance.

The longer heat stroke is left untreated, the more damage it can do, including permanently affecting muscle and brain function.

Moreover, heat stroke can be fatal: Despite being entirely preventable, heat stroke kills 38 children each year who are left in hot cars.

Though immediate symptoms can usually be managed within a few hours, it may be weeks before children are fully recovered and able to get back into their normal activities. Properly caring for your child in the days and weeks after heat stroke is important to ensure no long-term damage occurs.

Signs of heat exhaustion in kids and babies

While heat stroke should always be treated by medical professionals, there are other, milder heat illnesses which can sometimes be managed at home.

Heat exhaustion, for example, is a condition which occurs when you don't hydrate well enough in hot weather and your body begins to struggle to manage its temperature. If left untreated it can turn into heat stroke.

Some of the symptoms of heat exhaustion include:

• Muscle cramps
• Cool, pale skin
• Goosebumps
• Excessive thirst
• Excessive sweating
• Headache
• Fever of 100°F-102°F
• Irritability
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Weakness
• Dizziness
• Fainting

Risk factors for heat exhaustion are similar to those for heat stroke. If you take diuretic medications or have a pre-existing condition that affects your hydration levels, you might be more likely to develop heat stroke.

What to do

Heat exhaustion doesn't necessarily require trained medical intervention. For mild symptoms like cramps and thirst, you can try to treat your child yourself:

Treatment of heat exhaustion is similar to treatment for heat stroke, and includes:

• Bring your child out of the heat and into a cool environment.
• Give them cool water or electrolyte drinks.
• Apply cold compresses to their skin, or spray them with cool water.
• Remove any extra layers of clothing your child might be wearing.
• Babies should not be given water, but they may require more milk or formula to rehydrate.

Once you've applied these interventions, it should take around 20 to 30 minutes for your child to start to feel better, Mercurio says.

If, after 30 minutes, your child shows no signs of improvement, or if at any time they exhibit neurological symptoms like confusion or delirium, you should call 911 or go to an E.R.

Important: Don't let your kid leap back into the hot weather, even if they say they're feeling better. After a bout of heat illness, you should keep your kid out of the sun for at least the next day to allow their body to fully recover. Otherwise, your child might be more susceptible to heat illness in the future.

Heat illness in kids vs. adults

Though heat stroke symptoms are similar in adults and kids, young children are especially prone to developing heat illness.

This is partly due to communication issues: "Like everything, it's oftentimes much more difficult to identify early symptoms in an infant or young child," Wiener says.

But physiological differences between kids and adults play a role, too.

Kids can have a hard time regulating their body temperature due to a host of factors including their faster metabolisms, which produce extra heat, and the fact that they sweat less than adults.

In hot weather, these seemingly small differences can make it much harder for kids to cool off than adults.

How to prevent heat-related illness

While heat illness is severe, there are many different interventions you can use to help keep your children safe.

Hydration is key: When kids are playing outside in the summer, make sure they're drinking lots of water — they should be sipping something every 15 to 20 minutes. Dressing kids in light-colored clothes can also help. And don't send your children outside in the middle of the day.

"After 10 am, that's really when it gets much warmer outside. When the sun is overhead, we want to avoid activity," Mercurio says. That's true for young kids, but also for teenagers playing sports. In hot and humid climates, they should practice inside whenever possible, Mercurio says.

Be careful with your car in hot weather, too. If you leave your car in your driveway, make sure to lock it before you let your kids out to play, so your children don't crawl inside during a game of hide-and-seek.

If you're traveling with a child outside of your normal routine — such as taking your child to daycare when your husband normally carries out that task — do something to remind yourself that your child is in the car with you, like taking off one of your shoes and leaving it in the backseat, Mercurio says.

"The most important thing is, if you're considering leaving a child, a pet, an elderly person in a car when it's hot outside, just don't do it," Mercurio says. "There's always something that could happen that's going to prolong your time outside of the car. [The person in the car] could be going through these stages of illness quickly and unfortunately they could succumb to their illness."

Insider's takeaway

Heat stroke is a condition in which your body is unable to regulate its internal temperature. While some forms of heat illness can be treated at home, heat stroke can be deadly.

If you believe your child may be suffering from heat stroke, you should remove them from the hot environment and call 911 immediately.

"We need to remain cognizant of the potential for significant heat-related illnesses and take the appropriate measures to prevent them," Wiener says. "This is a very preventable condition just with what at some level seems like common sense measures."