{"id":441271,"date":"2026-01-31T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441271\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T17:53:09","slug":"young-boy-experiences-alice-in-wonderland-syndrome-during-bout-with-flu-heres-what-we-know-about-the-rare-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441271\/","title":{"rendered":"Young boy experiences Alice in Wonderland syndrome during bout with flu, Here\u2019s what we know about the rare syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a 9-year-old boy contracted the flu and was getting tucked in at night, he told his mom she had looked as if she\u2019d shrunk. <\/p>\n

He described this as happening out of nowhere, where the bedroom would seem to shrink. <\/p>\n

Confused, his mother told herself since he had a fever, that was causing his weird perception. But the next day, the same thing happened again, but with a much lower temperature reading. <\/p>\n

However, the visual distortions became more frequent the higher the fever. <\/p>\n

When he tested positive for the flu, she wondered if it had affected his brain. She began conducting her research and came across what was called Alice in Wonderland syndrome. <\/p>\n

AIWS is a neurological condition where the brain\u2019s ability to process sensory input is disrupted, where it alters a person\u2019s visual perception and can even distort their sense of reality, according to Parents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The good news \u2013 it is temporary and it\u2019s not harmful on its own. <\/p>\n

Though it isn\u2019t harmful, its considered rare. But this could be because research is limited, and many cases go unreported or are misunderstood. <\/p>\n

Experts have even said its normally written off as a vision problem or even a hallucination, though neither are the cause. <\/p>\n

Anjan Chatterjee, MD,<\/a> a cognitive neurologist and founding director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, instead described the condition as a \u201csensory distortion.\u201d He also shared that it often presents as either micropsia, where objects appear smaller than they are, or macropsia, where objects seem larger than they are. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, MaryAnn Mays, MD,<\/a> a neurologist specializing in headache medicine at the Cleveland Clinic shared that some reports indicate AIWS can be the cause of other distortions, including objects in a room that appear flat or the room itself feeling tilted. <\/p>\n

Some have even reported experiencing a sense of time distortion, where time would either speed up or slow down. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere can also be a sense of depersonalization during an episode, where a person might feel like they are looking down at themselves as though they are detached from their body,\u201d Dr. Mays continued.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to if adults can experience this bizarre condition just as much as children, Dr. Chatterjee notes that adults can definitely experience it.<\/p>\n

In fact, Dr. Mays shared with the publication that adults can encounter AIWS just as frequently but might feel reluctant sharing this with others. <\/p>\n

When it comes to what might trigger such a scary experience AIWS causes, possible causes include migranes, epilepsy, viral infections, medication side effects, or the result of a brain tumor. <\/p>\n

In terms of treatment, be sure to note that there is none. <\/p>\n

\u201cParents should know there is no treatment for AIWS other than to treat what is causing it in the first place,\u201d Dr. Chatterjee said to Parents. <\/p>\n

This could mean treating a seizure, a migrane, or letting a flu run its course. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf AIWS is being caused by a migraine, parents should know that many migraine medicines we have available do appear to be helpful in preventing these visual processing disturbances,\u201d Dr. Mays went on to note. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a 9-year-old boy contracted the flu and was getting tucked in at night, he told his mom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[184145,184146,97,149,148],"class_list":["post-441271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-advice-assistance","tag-attentive","tag-health","tag-lifestyle","tag-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}