Hi moms.
my little one (2years next Feb.) is never sick. but we have been passing around a head cold and she has not been feeling well today.
she just fell asleep in my arms and i was able to slip a thermometer in her mouth and it read 103!
that seems really high to me. is it hospital high?
we gave her baby ibuprofen, and she is resting.
at what point do i need to get worried? when should i consider a cool bath. (she asked for a warm bath twice today, i thought it might make her head feel better)
How do you know when to go to the Hospital??
Thank you so much, Mommies! she seems to be responding to the ibuprophin. she is up and running around at the moment and asking to watch the cat in the hat. but still wants to spend allot of time in my lap and or nursing. i wish i could call my peditrition, buit no way to get ahold of him or his nurse after 5pm.
i thnk her fever is down, but i cannot take her temp when she is awake. she has never been sick to speak of, so i dont have a thermomiter for her ear or anything. i will be picking one up.
**Edit well we did end up taking her to the hospital. i didnt realize i dould alternate tylonol and motrin at the same time. so they gave her another dose of motrin, even tho it was not yet time, and her fever dropped. they think it is ear infection and thrush. thanks again ladies fro being there for me.
**EDIT
we will keep her temp down with ibuprophin tonight, and call doc in morning if she is still running hot. and hospital tonight if she gets high again.
thank you so much, ladies!
103 is fine. It means their body is fighting an infection. The ibuprofren should bring the temp down and make her comfortable. You can call the Dr. in the morning if you are worried, but that is all a part of being sick.
See if the temp goes down/responds to the ibuprofen. If so, that is a good thing. Try to get some liquids in her...gatorade, water, juice (not milk) because not drinking and having a the fever will cause dehydration which will fuel the fever. You can also give her a cool bath to help keep her comfortable.
Keep in mind, a fever means her body is fighting something and therefore her body is doing it's job. You don't have to treat a fever except to help keep her comfortable and too keep it from getting too high but a low temp is not a bad thing.
You can slip the oral thermometer under her arm for a temperature reading. Just hold her arm down.
If I called my daughters' doctor with your situation, she would say that when the child is acting extremely unusual is when you go to the ER. If she is super sluggish, having trouble breathing, develops a rash, etc. Otherwise a fever indicates that the body is fighting off an infection and should be allowed to run its course (and if the fever comes down with medication, chances are you don't have anything to worry about). But, your child's doctor may say something different. Call. If you are really worried, go to urgent care.
You know when your pediatrician tells you. We are not doctors, and I think a call to her Dr. is very much needed.
Please call your pediatrician and ask to speak to their advice nurse or pediatric triage. Temperatures can mean different things combined with different symptoms, and I would be remiss to advise you otherwise.
103 isn't hospital high, but it is high. This is a time to give a fever reducer, but do call the pediatric nurse, as I suggested. Symptoms have a lot to do with when a child needs to be seen; temperature is only one indicator.
And people are correct in posting that severe temperature changes can cause seizures and/or shock. Cool compresses on the forehead will be less dramatic than a cold bath.
once I took a sick child to the pediatrician.. he looked at teh child sitting up on the table and talking.. and the dr said.. well she doesnt look that sick.. hmmm.. I thought... the dr went on to say that you can tell a lot by how the child acts so a child that is laying down probably feels pretty bad. a chld that is running around is probably feeling OK..
so from then on I paid more attention to the behavior than the thermometer. my kids often spike fevers of 103.. genereally fevers are highest in the evening. lowest in the am. I never go to the hospital unless the child is in serious serious condition. I will wait to see our dr. during normal hours. That means sometimes on thrusday I make an appt to make sure we dont go to ER on the weekend.
call the dr in the am.. you do not want to go to the ER and spend 6-12 hours there to find out the child has an ear infection.. or just a virus..
just keep an eye on it. Usually if it's 104 or higher then you should take them in. Since you gave her some motrin, then she how she does once it kicks in. I hope she feels better soon!
Call the doctor's office and ask. The nurse will ask you all the right questions to help you decide what you need to do.
Good luck! Hope your little one feels better soon.
PS - Use the thermometer under her arm for a temp reading.
_____________
Give the meds 20-30 minutes to kick in and if the fever is still that high, put her in a cool bath and call the doctor.
103 is really high and can be dangerous if untreated, but little kids do get high fevers. If the meds don't help, that is cause for worry.
Any doubts, call your after hours nurse right away.
i would wait to see if the fever reducer works n if it helps keep it down n if it spikes back up id take her to the hospital
I'm glad shes feeling better. 103 is high, but I wouldn't go rushing to the hospital for anything under 104-104.5. Is there an afterhours pediatrics/urgent care you can call?
I wouldn't do a cool bath, but I have heard a warm bath and let her play as the water cools down. Take her out before it gets cool.
As long as she is responding to the meds shes good. Just remember a fever is the bodies way of fighting off whatever is going around. Try not to overmedicate.
If she is lethargic (scare-ly so) not responding to meds, skin color change, lips color changing, those are hospital cues.
I'd call your pediatrician. He/she will tell you what to do based on your child's medical history.
My oldest had febrile seizures so any fever would warrant a cool bath for her - per the instructions of her neurologists at Children's National Medical Center.
We also did Tylenol AND Motrin. Tylenol is every 4 hours and Mortin is every 6. So sometimes she got both.
I would definitely call your pediatrician like others said. Mine always said that if my son did not respond to tylenol or motrin in an hour or two that it was necessary to bring him in.
Do not give her a cool bath. It's an old wives tale and while it lowers the temperature of the skin, it usually causes shivering, which will increase her core temperature (exactly the opposite of what you want to do).
You'll get too many answers on here to make a good decision. Call your pediatrician's office. They should have a paging service if they're not open. You have no idea who you're getting information from on here. While I'm sure most of us are who we say we are, you never know.
you call the doctor. if they say kkep her home then you strip her down, you can give her a bath but it shouldnt be cold or relly even that cool it can send them in to shock. when did you give her the meds?
i would call her doctor normally over 102 they ask you to take them to the hospital. but call her doctor just to make sure. because she is so young a temperature can be very dangerous to her. hope everything goes okay.
The best thing for you to do is to call the hospital ER, or your Dr.s office if they have a nurse on call. 103 is pretty high. But there are different degrees of worry varying by age etc. Is she staying hydrated? That's very important. And also take in to consideration any other symptoms. A cold can turn in tp pnuemonia, bronchitis etc. Play it safe, call a professional. Good luck!
My youngest has had a temp as high as 105.1 & we have been told to do the whole dosing her out on motrin thing - check temp every 1.5 hrs b/c that is when the motrin takes it's fullest effect, repeating it as often as necessary - cool compress on neck and cool bath. If you feel most comfortable going to the e/r then by all means.....go. I would normally call our pediatrician's answering service up until around 10 or 11PM and then go to the E/R any time after that. Best of luck to you. It can be very upsetting for everyone when you are going through this, but you know your child more then anyone so you honestly have to go w/your gut. One of the many things I love about this site is the advice that you get, it is so from the heart and you can feel all of the people who care about you and your situation. Hope everything turns out okay for your sick little girl:)
I definitely would not just stick her in a cold bath because you don't want to bring down her temp too quickly. You can wipe down her head, face w/a cool washcloth. How drinking, keeping fluids down? We make my daughter slushies w/the freezer pops and 7Up...you crush up the freezer pop & put it in a cup (kids size cup) of the 7Up let her sip not drink (the popsicles that you usually find in the juice isle in a box then have to take home to freeze)Then you worry about dehydration if she is not. How many wet diapers (if she is not potty trained) does she produce tears when she cries. How is she acting? Is she lethargic? Do she seem confused? You definitely want to get her seen ASAP. We are not doctors & you should trust your momma instincts; you know your daughter better than anyone if something doesn't seem right take her to the ER. Hope she feels better soon.
Call your Pediatrician.
They can be reached by an emergency number/pager/physician's exchange ANY time of day or night.
That is what they are there for.
Do not hesitate.
Tyleonol or Motrin... only reduces the fever and discomfort. It does not "cure" the illness.
The fever WILL return, as long as the person is still sick.
Fever can reflect a virus or bacterial infection.
There is no way to diagnose this, unless you see a Pediatrician.
since you did the oral temp then you need to realize that it is actually higher than that, the most accurate temp is an anal temp. If she just got the fever then I would give tylenol and check her in about an hour. If it hasnt gone down at all then i'd take her to the hospital. If it is starting to go down then i'd just take her temp often and keep up on the tylenol. Remember, fever means infection. Some moms think that babies and small children just need to suffer needlessly through a fever, not caring about the potential dangers. I am not one of them, I watch them closely and take care of them. If they get to high or get high and stay that way off to the hospital we go. We have never been told to go home or that we were over reacting. Just watch her closely. It could seem like nothing but turn very serious quickly!
generally what I use to decide when to take them to the doctor is how they are acting. If she's just laying around, not eating and sleeping all day etc. I would call and try to get her in to see her pediatrician ASAP at the very least first thing in the am.
My son a few months back, at that same age, ran a 104 fever for 4 straight days. i was worried and thought for sure he was really sick, but when medicated he was fine--fever went down he played around with his older brother no problems. I did take him in, everything checked out fine--I thought for sure ear infection or something. It was just viral. Since your little one already has a cold I would be worried about a secondary infections like the ear or chest. But if she's acting fine, I would just put a phone call in and see what your Dr. thinks....
