Happy New Year! 

First off, I want to let you all know that I am alive and well. It’s been five years since I last posted on my blog. I hope you are all doing well. I’ve missed you! While I wasn’t active on this platform, I was still involved in the Hyperhidrosis community. 

Most recently, I was featured on NPR podcast, Audacious with Chion Wolf as I talked about what living with excessive sweating meant for me. I was so grateful for this opportunity. When I was first approached, I almost said no. It was my gut reaction. It’s hard to talk about Hyperhidrosis publicly. I wasn’t sure I was up for it. But after learning more about the series Chion was doing on rare conditions (although Hyperhidrosis really isn’t as rare as it was once thought to be) I gathered my courage to say yes and help bring Hyperhidrosis awareness and understanding to a larger audience. 

Chion was down to earth and personable. She really wanted to learn about my experiences and her interview questions were so thoughtful. She even stumped me when she asked, “What would you want someone to say to you if they noticed your excessive sweating?” I remember thinking about that question long after the call ended and realizing that I really just wanted my excessive sweating to be invisible. If no one saw it, no one would need to say anything. I’ll just deal with it myself, as long as no one else knows what I’m going through. But Hyperhidrosis has a way of sneaking into our daily social lives. By the way, I don’t think that question made it to the final cut in the podcast. I’d love to hear how you would answer that question. Please let me know if there’s anything someone has said to you that has helped or something you wish they would say.  

Also last year, I had the honor of counseling a branding firm that was going to help relaunch Dove Clinical antiperspirant deodorant. It was a humbling experience to teach Hyperhidrosis from my first hand experience to a group of people trying to gain a deep understanding so that they could communicate it to the world. We talked about the spectrum of Hyperhidrosis and how every person is unique. Products may work differently for each person. Discussion about the Hyperhidrosis spectrum was really interesting to me and a topic I would like to dig more into.

Over the past five years, I have also had meaningful conversations with many of you! Although I wasn’t active on my blog, I had lovely emails, phone calls, and video calls with many of my readers about Hyperhidrosis. If we haven’t met personally, I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me at justalittlesweat@gmail.com. 

So…five years. 

A lot has changed! I am basically a new person haha. I’m a mom! 

I have two boys – a 4 year old and a 1 ½ year old. My husband and I are living the family dream and we’ll be celebrating our 8 year wedding anniversary in April!

You may be wondering – do my kids have Hyperhidrosis? What is taking care of babies/kids like with excessive sweating? Have you told them you have Hyperhidrosis? Do they even notice you have it? How do you feel about all this? 

Well, so far I am happy to report that I do not notice excessive sweating in my kids’ hands or feet. First of all – yay!!! You may have read about Hyperhidrosis and heredity. It can be hereditary. My aunt on my mom’s side has Hyperhidrosis. Her two boys have it. 

Hyperhidrosis can appear at birth/shortly after birth, or even later in life like during puberty. My parents noticed that I had excessive sweating at least by my first birthday. So, I guess this is to say that I’m not ruling anything out. I’m keeping an attentive, but not obsessive, eye on my kids for excessive sweating. I will say that although not confirmed, my older son does express some cranial excessive sweating symptoms. This is brought on with exercise. He’s an active and athletic kid, so this is all probably normal, but I do notice he’ll be sweating more than the other kids along his hairline, and pretty noticeably too. The good thing is that it has not bothered him once and besides me, I don’t think anyone has said anything about it. The other kids haven’t commented to him about it. 

What’s it like taking care of my kids with sweaty hands? It hasn’t been too much of an issue. Sometimes their clothes will get a little wet from me changing them or holding them, especially when they were babies. Most notably, their little hands can easily escape mine when we’re holding hands to walk across the street. If I’m able to, I ask my oldest to hold on to the stroller instead or hold my husband’s hand if he’s with us. 

I haven’t told my kids that I have Hyperhidrosis or what it is. My oldest might be at a point where I can start that conversation. Where we are right now, they haven’t really noticed. I think it’s just them being young and not aware of it yet. 

I fear the day one of my kids may recoil with disgust if I try to hold their hand in my sweaty own. This is why I need to get ahead of it. I will start speaking out loud about sweat positivity. I want it to be normal in our house. So far, I’ve hinted at it a little – like when it’s bath time after breaking a sweat at the playground. I remember doing a double take when I was talking with my son. I had said something like “we need to wash the sweat away,” but then I caught myself and said, “but sweat is normal and healthy!” Sweat will be a thoughtful topic in our house and an ongoing conversation. I’ll let you know how it goes and please feel free to send any suggestions for talking with kids about sweat. 

As for me, I’m still working from home. I have told others that it’s been my “cure” for Hyperhidrosis. It’s a place where I can manage my own temperature and environment. There are no unexpected handshakes or high fives. I still sweat, but it’s a lot more manageable when I’m in a controlled environment. Outside experiences are a different story. 

I started taking piano lessons. I’ve been taking lessons for a little over a year now. Piano – and most musical instruments – have their challenges as someone with Hyperhidrosis. I am proud of myself for having the courage to start and continue. The lessons are at my house where I can control the temperature. During lessons, I turn my heat down or AC up so I can be cold. Sometimes I am too cold, and worry that my teacher is uncomfortable, but it helps my hands from sweating too much when playing. When my hands are sweating, playing piano is incredibly uncomfortable. It’s a negative cycle physically and mentally. It’s also really not enjoyable if my hands are sweating, so I try to control the temperature and what I’m wearing so that I can get ahead of it as best I can. At times, I’ve had to stop and take a step away to get a towel or run my wrists under cold water. If I’m able to control my sweating with these techniques, which really is more than not (thankfully), I do enjoy playing and plan to continue. 

I’m still fanning my sweaty hands with anything I have on me, wiping them off and holding on to towels. I’m not currently using any treatment. My next trials may be with lotion that helps excessive sweating. Please let me know how you’re coping with Hyperhidrosis and what techniques or products you are using. 

Thank you for reading and finding my blog. I am so humbled that many of you reached out to me over the past five years even when I stopped writing here. Thank you for sharing your stories. I wish you all a happy, healthy, and dry 2024! 

Caryn