Fever Phobia

My daughter had a bad fever yesterday and the night before.   We didn’t know how bad it was because we didn’t have a thermometer on us through the night and the next day got busy and it wasn’t until later when we made it to a store to pick one up.    

How hot is a hot child?   It’s so hard to tell for me.   My husband seems to have a better handle on it than I do but even this time I knew she was hot.   We were doing the medication alternation and overlap method with Advil and Tylenol to try and get the most fever reduction.   If she hadn’t been throwing up in addition, I think we’d have been less worried because we could have gotten liquids into her.  

By the time we got her temperature measured she was at 103 degrees even with fever-reducing medications.    We talked to her pediatrician’s office twice and got some good advice about the Tylenol we were giving her which we’d gotten post-surgery that included some codeine.   She did some math and said there wasn’t enough Tylenol in the dose to affect much temperature drop and we’d be better off with regular Tylenol.

She also told us about something called “Fever Phobia” that parents commonly suffer from.   She said people think a fever is bad, but it’s the body’s way of fighting something and means the body is just working hard.   She said a high fever of even 105 degrees isn’t that worrisome in a child with the only concern being febrile seizures and since my daughter hadn’t had one by before, she was almost certainly not going to have one now.  

She said if we were really concerned we could stop in to an emergency room but that it sounded like everything was under control and we were doing the right things medication-wise, fluid-wise and care wise.  

We talked to the Beaumont post-op staff next who said they though it was likely a short-lived, high-fever stomach bug that would be almost over by tomorrow with nothing but a low-grade fever remaining.

And they were right.    My daughter barely broke 99 degrees today and is a happy child upstairs now, glad to be eating and moving around with glee.   Fever Phobia is something I think parents can get scared of, sometimes it’s hard to think reasonably when you’re worried your child is terribly ill.

The Big Boy Update:  My son had decided he was not going to school today.   He had decided he was the boss, the adult and the one in charge.   This morning after we returned from out of town, my son  discovered otherwise.   To say it was not pretty would be an understatement.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My husband was talking to my daughter about something I can’t even remember now but I know it wasn’t important in the least.   What I do remember was my daughter saying to him, “daddy, you’re making me go crazy.”