Elevation of body temperature is a usual reaction to any infection. Fever stimulates immune response and helps to fight infection. However, when the body temperature is very high it can cause seizures and it can make your child feel meserable. So, if your child has fever…
What to do:
1. Offer your child water or other clear liguids frequently to keep up with increaed water loss through sweating.
2. Remove excessive clothing and in cases of very high fever, remove all clothing to allow body heat to radiate.
3. Turn on airconditioner to keep room air temperature under 25 degree C.
4. Use lukewarm water sponging of the entire body to induce body heat loss by evaporation.
5. Give propper dose of tylenol (12-15 mg/kg up to 500 mg per dose) every 6 to 8 hours
6. Add propper dose of ibuprofen (10 mg/kg up to 600 mg per dose ) every 8 hours.
Tylenol and ibuprofen can be alternated every 4 hours.
Dr. Sergey Shushunov, pediatrician, received his medical degree in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1977. Soon after graduation he immigrated to the United States where he was trained in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care at the Universities of Illinois, Florida and Minnesota. He received American Board of Pediatrics certifications in general pediatrics in 1989 and in pediatric critical care in 1990. He worked for many years at different hospitals in the US, practicing and teaching Pediatric Critical Care medicine. He moved to Vietnam in 2016, working in Hanoi until 2018. Now Dr. Sergey Shushunov practice is located at City International Hospital, HCMC, Vietnam.
What not to do when your child has fever
1. If your child has fever – cover your child with blanket or place additional clothing – this could make body temperature to get higher.
2. Use mentol skin patches. Mentol stimulates cold skin receptors fulling body into believing that it is being cooled down. The body reaction is heat retention, which in turn may increase body temperature.
3. Use tyleonl more often than 4 times a day. This can cause serious side effects.
4. Use antibiotics without prescription. Many infections causing fever in children don’t respond to antibiotics and inappropriate use of antibiotics can lead to drug resistance in microbes that often live on the body without causing illnesses.