Fever in children is the most common and worrisome problem for parents. I am going to briefly introduce it so that parents can have an understanding of pediatric fever and have more peace of mind.
Definition of fever
1, the definition of fever is anal temperature (or ear temperature) ≥ 38 degrees; oral temperature (including pacifier thermometer) ≥ 37.5 degrees; axillary temperature ≥ 37.2 degrees.
2, children under six months with ear temperature gun may not be allowed, but can be a reference, and then measure the anal temperature to confirm.
3.If parents feel that the child feels hotter than usual, please do not ignore your intuition —- has 74% is accurate! Hurry up with the temperature dose it!
4, the general body temperature of infants is higher than adults; if wearing too much, or after a hot bath, or hot weather, sometimes it will rise to 38.5 degrees. If you suspect a false temperature rise, you can let your child settle down for an hour and a half and then measure again.
Causes of fever
1. Almost all children who come to the hospital with a fever are over 90% infected with a virus. Only a small percentage of fevers are caused by bacterial infections and other diseases.
2. Please note: teething does not cause fever! (shouting) Please stop this untrue statement today and don’t even think about it.
The correct concept of fever
1.Fever is not the cause of injury: fever is only a symptom of your child’s illness, and it is important to find the cause of your child’s fever, and reducing fever is definitely not a necessary option.
2.High or low temperature is not equal to the severity of the disease: good or bad activity of the child when the temperature is reduced is the important indicator of the severity of the disease.
3. Fever will never burn your head: Please meditate ten times to get rid of the misconception in your mind. Only about 4% of children will have heat cramps when they have a fever, and that is a physical condition that does not happen to everyone; even if your child has heat cramps, as long as the convulsions last within a few minutes, they will not cause brain damage. In the past, it was thought that fever would burn the brain because many children who had fever had encephalitis, such as Japanese encephalitis, measles, and bacterial meningitis. These people got brain damage because of “encephalitis”, not because of “fever”. Let me give you a simple example, a child with pneumonia has a high fever, but not a bad head; on the other hand, a child with encephalitis does not need to have a high fever, but his head is also in danger. So parents should be able to understand.
4, fever is a good thing: fever can enhance the effectiveness of the immune system, a large number of antipyretic drugs will instead reduce immunity, so that the virus is less likely to be killed.
The following are all normal conditions.
1, with antipyretic medicine still does not go down, or recede and then fever up again, higher than before — this is normal!
2, a high fever when the hands and feet are cold and shivering (chills) — this is normal!
3, the child is lazy and uncomfortable when the fever is high, but after the fever has gone down, he is alive and well again — this is normal!
The correct care of children with fever
1. Drink more water, but you don’t have to force it. Feed water in small amounts many times, hot or cold is not taboo.
2, since fever is good, do not easily reduce the fever. The purpose of reducing the fever is to make the child comfortable, generally above 39 degrees children will feel discomfort, then reduce the fever can be, but the situation varies from person to person. If the child is sleeping peacefully, do not dig him up to force the fever.
3, the introduction of antipyretic drugs: paracetamol and ibuprofen, water formulations are (weight / 2) ml, that is, 10 kg children drink 5 ml each time, and so on. Paracetamol can be given every 4-6 hours, ibuprofen is every 6-8 hours; each time the drug is used to wait two hours for the effect to play, about 1-1.5 degrees of body temperature can be reduced.
4, only antipyretic medicine has a “real” effect of reducing fever. Other auxiliary methods such as antipyretic paste, ice pillow, warm water wipe, etc., are only the symptoms, and will not have any effect on the center of the body temperature; at this time the child’s body temperature up and down are their own body balance each other, and you give the ice pillow, etc. have nothing to do with it, do not deceive yourself.
5, antipyretic plugs are only used when the child vomits and cannot take medication; use plugs to retreat fast, fever up faster, often therefore shivering with cold.
6, children’s hands and feet cold when wearing more, children sweating when wearing less, do not go the other way.
7, wrong care: alcohol wipe, use of aspirin, crazy use of fever reducing plugs, forced sweating.
When to see a doctor
1.Your child is less than six months old
2. You are not sure if your child has a general viral or bacterial infection, such as
(1) Fever reaches 40 degrees or higher.
(2) For more than 24 hours, the fever remains only feverish, with no cold or gastrointestinal symptoms.
(3) Fever of more than three days.
3. Your child has symptoms of bacterial infection: depression when the fever goes down (most important!) (3) Your child has symptoms of bacterial infection: depression even when the fever goes down (most important!), even unconsciousness, seizures, etc. Bacterial infections include encephalitis, pneumonia, otitis media, sinusitis, etc. Each symptom is different, but the only common denominator is poor mental health.