When do you give fever medication?

J

joannek

Registered User
My daughter is 3 and started a fever Tues at around 6. Due to the recent scare, i bought her to her ped. He said it's viral fever so we just have to wait it out. and gave us ibuprofen & acetominophen, just in case.

my hubby & read did much research & decide that since fever is a sign of the body fighting off infection, and that virus & bacteria cannot live at high temperature. we have decided to only give medication when LO is really uncomfortable. Besides, it always a fight to give medication to her (even it's the syrup type medicine. she'd take homeopath happily but refuses any western medicine). so last night we forced her to take the ibuprofen when she was 40.5C (i.e. 105F). since she's sick, i'm sleeping with her so i'm monitoring her behavious throughout the night.

but my MIL keep saying that the docs on the radio say we should give fever medication even if it's 38C (i.e.100F). my MIL & FIL came from a generation where they abuse the use of antibiotics. she even has some Tamiflu in her first aid kit "just in case".

for my daughter, she's all fine until temp reaches 39.5C. i read that we need only to give medication to relieve the discomfort rather than lowering the fever. so i only give fever-reduce medicine above 39.5C.

Anybody would like to share their opinion & what they do?
 
hi,

I think your analysis and approach is spot on - the fever is a sign of the body fighting the infection and fever medication really is only used to make the child more comfortable. My paedi (Dr KN Chan) only recommends medication when 38 degrees and above - my son who is 3 years old has always had nasty viral infections since he was 6 months old with high fevers (up to 40 plus degrees) lasting 4-5 days so I feel like I know this subject well!! It depends on what your child's pain threshold is and for my son he gets uncomfortable (limp and whiny) when it's above 39 degrees so that's when we medicate him with neurofen and sponge him down with tepid water with a flannel (never cold water as traditionally believed as this contricts the blood capillaries and worsens the situation) which results in alot of protest on his part so sometimes I just use my fingers and run the water over his temples/cheeks/pulse points/neck and the process of the water evaporating will cool the body down....I also keep him as lightly dressed as possible (one layer less than normal)......at night, the doctor recommends you let them sleep through and not wake them for medication (sleep and rest being more impt, I have learnt that if they can sleep through it, they are not THAT uncomfortable) and only top up the fever medication when he wakes and is uncomfortable. Also as much fluids as you can get into them, my son is a great water drinker but when he is ill, water in all it's blandness isn't too appealing so I give him very dilluted ribena, soy milk, apple juice.....you are doing the right thing!
 
my son is prone to ear infections and gets them EVERY TIME has has had even a sniffle.

we medicate around 100F. sometimes, a luke-warm bath, not cool, that could cause him to get "cold". occasionally, we've wrapped an ice-pack in a towel and put it under his head when he went to sleep. he's ok with this as he sees me do it often when i have a headache.
 
Agreed - we uses Voltaren suppository at 40 degrees when the nuerofen doesn't work any more! Basically there is 3 strengths of fever medication that I have discovered: panadol/calpol etc for a mild fever, neurofen for a medium to high fever and Voltaren suppository for very high fever......I don't really bother with Calpol for my son as he doesn't look uncomfortable with a low grade fever.....
 
so u wait until it gets to 39.5 and then give voltaren right away, skipping the panadol & the nurofen? panadol doesn't work much, it only lowers the temp like 1 or 2C.

i remember in the old days, panadol was all we had & it worked. i used to only have fever for 1 day & i was ll fine the next day. and it only took 1 or 2 doses for the fever to completely go away. nowadays, whenever my LO or when i hear my friends children have fever, it always last for at least 2 or 3 days....

what is wrong with the germs now!?
 
they've become "super germs" according to the WHO. Our fault to a certain degree as we tend to over sanitize killing off even the good bacteria.

also, reckless use of drugs especially antibiotics make the bacteria/virus stronger as we do not give our body due credit in terms of fighting these off on our own
 
antiboitics should be used to fight bacteria, not viruses. which is why when you have a cold in hk, turn down the dr prescribed anti-biotics! they won't help a cold.
 
that's the thing. i'm trying to balance letting my child fight it by herself, and giving medication only when necessary. but it's such a difficult call....

luckily, i found a ped who only prescribe anti-biotics to what he truly believe is a bacteria infection.
 
I think Drs are getting better in HK at not over prescribing medicine. Both the GP and pedietrician I take my son to refuse to give antibiotics for a virus. They also both refuse to give young children cough syrup etc.

I think when you give medicine for a fever depends on each child. When our son gets a fever they get very high and he is prone to febrile convulsions so we tend to act on the side of caution and give him medicine as soon as his fever starts.

I have found that panadol syrup does not work on him so we use panadol suppositries or volatrin suppositries.
 
Hi, am reviving this thread because bubs has just come down with his first cold/flu at 6 months. As a first time mom, the above information is very useful, but I have the following questions:-

1. Do babies normally run high temparatures when having colds, or is this more if they have flus ( or something stronger)

2. When should we bathe him in tepid water - is this still useful if he has a low grade fever, or should we just leave out the bath?

3. What to do if baby has stuffy nose? He doesn't have it yet, but I know what it feels like as an adult to have a stuffy nose, can imagine it must be very uncomfortable for them.
 
i go to Dr. Thondup. I went to several very famous ped, but i end up choosing him cos he doesn't give much medication. i've never brought LO to him for colds & coughs cos i give LO homeopath. we go to Thondup when LO has a fever, or sth other than a regular runny nose/cough. LO had rashes all over, he only gave anti-histamine (i also requested it, cos LO was so itchy she couldn't sleep.), and antiseptic bath gel. both used for only 5 days. He said if we felt she got better earlier than 5 days then we could stop the anti-histamine.

He's very understanding of kids & moms. So i highly recommend him.
 
i don't think a cold comes with a fever. a fever is a sign that the body is fighting an infection. as we have mentioned before, it can be viral or bacteria. if LO has a fever & under 1 year old. i suggest you bring him to see your ped, to be on the safe side.

my LO had low grade fever when she was 9mths. but it was like 38C, and she was only whining a bit. i did bring her to see my homeopath, and she got better with the remedies. what i did when LO was under 1 year, i always brought her to the ped to check after or during a cold/cough. I was paranoid of chest/ear infection.

there's this thing (bought from Eugene) that suck out the mucus from bb's nose. not the bulb suck, but a tube thing with a suck on one side & a collection area in the middle. i never used it though, cos my LO would struggle so much if we put sth in her nose. i did try saline nasal spray, which helped a little bit. also raised the mattress, so LO was sleeping on a slight slope. humdifying the room also helped.
 
Thanks joannek. We did take bubs to the docs, and he said it was a common cold but we were told to expect a temperature . bubs was running close to 40 last night and we had to put him on Nufren or something. I would like to avoid fever medication but at that level I suppose I have no choice.

Where can IO get homeopathic treatments for infants?
 
i agree in not overmedicating but fevers of 40 degress (or 39.5) and over I thought could be more dangerous than the illness itself - my son starting vomiting and went limp at 39.5 and i beleive convulsions can also happen (in babies that are prone). a really high fever affects the brain so be very careful. I don't beleive giving them medication and lowering the temp means their body is not fighting infection - just that they are comfortable and can rest which is important to help fight infection. i think it is important to keep the fever down.
 
my baby just had a febrile convulsion this morning....everything was so fast luckily my reaction was to go to the clinic which was just down the road....she was 39.2 and her convulsions lasted for over 30mins...she's in ICU now but they can't pinpoint what caused it...no infection, no bacteria, nothing....they say it's a growth spurth / metabolism that might have caused it, but are still digging for answers....

anyhow, as I read this thread, I'm thinking that with what happened today, I will be giving my daughter medication when she has even a low fever...I know, you grow when you have a fever, but I don't think I can handle another onset of convulsions.....to parents out there who are hesitant about medication....I would really think clearly about withholding it completely.....the experience I went through is not worth it....
 
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