My 11 month old son was diagnosed with the flu today. Last night his temperature was 100.6. He didn't have a fever this morning. Now his fever is 102. At what point do I call the doctor? I read 103 on babycenter.com. What will they do if his fever does go up? My doctor told me today that there is nothing availalbe for his flu except ibuprophen and tylenol. All of the medications are for 1 year and over. Thanks!
Try giving him ibuprophen. It always helps my daughter when she has a fever. I know what you are going through. It's tough. My husband is sick and has a fever today. I've been giving him childrens ibuprophen and it seems to do the trick!!
Good Luck M.!!
I fyour childs temp is 102 with tyelnol, then call your doctor. Lukewarm baths/wash cloths can help. No they can't do much for the flu, but if the fever is too high it could signal dehydration. So push fluids like pedialyte and use tylenol and keep an eye on it. If you call your doctors office and speak with the nurse on call they should be able to tell you at what point your child may need medical attention.
if he went to the dr and was diagnosed with the flu -- they already know he's goign to run a fever -- that's just part of having the flu unfortunately. younger children can tolorate higher temperatures better than we as adults can. Now, when my 9 month old wound up with pneumonia and his fever got up to 106... yes, they did suppositories to bring the fever down (and it did IMMEDIATELY) ... so if you can get those...they work great b/c face it, kids dont always want to take meds... otherwise, what I've always done if the fevers got too high was rotate between tylenol and motrin eveyr 6-8 hours. doctors go back and forth about that... seems every pediatrician i've been to have had differing opinions about it but when my kiddo got up to 104 and i took him to the ER... what'd they give me? you guessed it.. a double shot of them... motrin and tylenol at the SAME TIME!
You should give tylenol and motrin for fever control. Take your childs weight and divide by 2.2 which will give you the child's weight in kilograms. You can give 10mg per kilogram of tylenol and motrin to your child. You should give tylenol every 4 hours and motrin every 6 hours. However if your child's temp is 102 or more and it has been at least 4 hours from the last tylenol dosage and 6 hours from the last motrin dosage then you can give these medications together. For example if your child weighs 18 pounds he would be 8.18 kilograms (round to 8 kilograms). The tylenol dosage for a child this weight would be 80mg and the motrin dosage would be 80mg as well. You should also hydrate your child w/pedialyte and popsicles to prevent dehydration since children become easily dehydrated when running fever. Do not allow your child to wrap up in a blanket, however dress them in thin loose clothing and cover w/sheet or thin blanket. Sweating is good because it shows that the fever is breaking and is the body's natural way of reducing the fever. Call your doctor anytime that you feel uncomfortable about what to do, however you should always medicate your child because febrile seizures generally occur w/how rapidly the temperature rises, not necessarily how high the temperature gets, so it is VERY VERY important to control fever before taking to MD or ER. Hope that this was helpful for you, I am an emergency room RN and have been for 7 years. Oh and yes all medications for flu are for over 1 year, so control fever and hydrate your child. Good Luck, hope your son is better soon.
Are you giving him ibuprophen? I would try that to see if it lowers before calling the dr.
M.,
Hello! I usually alternate tylenol and motrin...you can give one now and one in three hours and continue should the fever persist! I was told by SEVERAL drs that it is not how high the fever gets it is how fast it goes from low to high! My daughter had a seizure in August w/a temp of 102.4....they think it could be fever related, but not totally sure. The drs at Childrens, Medical City and my Ped said to NEVER put a child with a fever in cold/cool bath......wash cloths w/cool water MAYBE, but never a bath. Try to tylenol and motrin and monitor the temp. Also if your little guy does not feel like eating that is ok, just make sure he is getting plenty of fluids! Hope he feels better soon!
Call the doctor. He is way too young to be googling and blogging for answers.
You can give your son a bath... warm water, then slowly add cool water till it's all cool. This will help. Don't bundle him up. Keep him in a t-shirt and diaper.
Give the ibuprophen and tylenol as your doctor directed.
M., check the weight of any meds you want to give him, not just the age. My 5 month old is 19 lbs 7 oz, so she can take more ibuprophen than what some of the ranges suggest. 102 degree fever really is not too bad for his age, and frequently I will let my kids run a fever unless I see that they are in pain or seriously uncomfortable. A fever is the bodies way of killing a virus, so unless it continues to go up, or he is obvioulsy miserable. maybe letting him run a fever during the day would help. Now, at night, when we all need to sleep, I give them all of the fever meds I can!! Also, you can rotate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours. So, if you give motrin at 7am, then he can have tylenol at 10am, and then motrin again at 1pm. That keeps you within each medicines time frame of 6-8 hours for motrin, and 4-6 hours for tylenol. The most imprtant thing when he has a fever like that is to give him as many fluids as he will take. Especially clear fluids, water, juice, gatorade, whatever he will drink. A fever will dehydrate a child quicker than no fever, so keep him happy and hydrated. Good luck, I am sure that this wil be a long few days! ~A.~
Hi M.--Try putting him in a cool bath--not cold just cooler than normal. If it gets to 103, I would go ahead and call the doc. Under that, just try to control it with coolness. Maybe have him sleep with a cool wet rag on his forehead. -------------UPDATE---------------I hope you understood that I meant just cooler than you would normally give them--not chilled. I hope all the responses helped and I hope your little one gets better soon.
M.,
With little ones, what you have to be careful of is febrile (fever-induced) seizures. 103 may be ok for some kids, others that may be high enough for them to have a seizure. Every kid has a different threshold. What you have to do is really control the temp with Motrin. It tends to work a little better for most kids than Tylenol does. Our son had a fever of 102.5, we gave him Tylenol and it didn't work...his fever spiked about two hours later up to 104, and he had a very mild (no perm damage) febrile seizure. MOst are ok and kids recover in the first few minutes, but there are those that can be damaging long term, so you really want to watch it carefully. I would not give a kiddo a fever reducer unless then hit 101...this is because your body runs fever for a reason...it uses fever to produce more white blood cells to fight off the invading illness...and because the bacteria and viruses we get prefer a temp of 98.6...but at higher temps, they cannot survive/multiply. However, past 101, I would stay on top of the fever and keep it under 102. You are right about meds...just give your baby Motrin and tons of fluids (gatorade works great) and everything will be ok.
Never put a child in a chilled bath...that is an old wives tale,,,,it can shock their bodies. A cool rag on the head is fine,,,but not the entire body. Cold fluids, fever reducing medication, and a cold rag are best. When a virus is involved of course a fever will spike than go away, then spike especially in the evening...With infants always call your doctor if fever is higher than 102.5.....just for comfort sake,,,,If a fever persists for more than 72hours..time to call the doctor,,,keep fever records to pass onto the physcian as well as other sypmtons....If your child has dirreah and or vomitting in addition to a high fever, call sooner!!
