Sick Child - Davenport,IA

I suggest, since he's able to sleep, to wait until morning to call the doctor. An ER visit is definitely not needed. Keep in mind that there are all sorts of germs in the ER to which none of you want exposure. The ER is for life threatening conditions. If his fever goes up to 105 or more than a trip is warranted.

He may or may not have pneumonia. I've had several upper respiratory illnes with those symptoms and didn't have pneumonia. They were all viral infections so I went home to drink plenty of fluids and to rest in bed. The one time I had pneumonia I did not have difficulty breathing or pain. I had had a low grade fever for weeks and was tired Which prompted a visit to the doctor. I was given aantibiotics and told to rest. It's rare to be hospitalized for pneumonia.

Know that a fever below 105 is a good thing. The fever is fighting the infection. We give acetaminophen or ibuprofen to make the child more comfortable not to cure the illness. I do not wake a child to give meds. Rest/sleep does more to cure than either one of those.

If his fever continues to go up and acetaminophen or ibuprofen doesn't bring it down and it continues to rise then it's time to call the ER advice nurse.

Since you are so anxious I suggest you sleep near him so he'll wake you if he needs you. You need sleep so you can deal with a sick child tomorrow and/or work.

I think you should call your child's doctor and she what he/she has to say. The nurse on call will be able to ask you questions and help you determine whether or not an ER visit is warranted.

I didn't see this until this morning so I don't know what you decided to do. But if he was sleeping, I'd have left him alone and not taken him to the ER. If he was struggling for breath, that would have been another thing.

t wouldn't medicate that fever unless he's really uncomfortable. A fever is a sign of the body's efforts in fighting something off. If his chest is still heavy, then I'd take him in to the pedi for someone to listen to his chest. That will help tell you if you're dealing with bronchitis or the start of pneumonia. Usually bronchitis and croup have different but distinctive coughs. But you never know. Definitely do not medicate him for 4 hours before the visit - you want the doctor to see your son how he really is. I used to keep track of the temps before a visit too just to help my memory and let the doc know what the pattern had been with and without medication.

My daughter complained that her chest hurt and it hurt to breathe. She had a fever for one day only and it went away. Because her cough kept up and she complained it hurt, I took her to the doc. the doc ordered an xray. She didn't think it would be anything. But it turned out to be pneumonia. My daughter got antibiotics and was fine the next week.

Now, the reason I took my daughter in was because a month aftr I had my son, I got a fever. It kept coming and going. Then about 3 days of this I was in bed, barely able to get up. I went to the ER and ended up being admitted. The one thing I remember is them telling me that they could not believe I was not coughing a lot and did not have pain in my chest since mine was in both top and bottom lung. So those 2 things present in my daughter made me take her in. I do not want you to freak, but this could be it. But with antibiotics, she should be fine.

Sounds like pneumonia. Get him checked out and on some antibiotics.

Hope he feels better

Go to the ER immedetly! His fever will just get higher

If he's really in pain by all means, take him in to the ER. If he's able to sleep then I'd sleep by him or lay by him and read or something so I could keep an eye on his fever. If it goes up much I'd take him in.

I have caught my granddaughter every time when she's first started running a fever. I always took her in and they'd say "It's nothing serious, just an upper resp. thing". Then they'd go ahead and run tests just to prove I was being silly.

Every time her blood work would show that her body was in the process of starting pneumonia. Then they'd do an X-ray and if they were looking really really close they'd see where it was starting. Then they'd come back in and by that time they could hear it.

So, because I knew how my granddaughter did when she was getting sick she was treated very quickly and if she had to be in the hospital she would get better quickly.