Fever in infants and children without obvious symptoms of external and internal fever

  Lu, male, 1 year and 6 months old, was first seen on November 9, 2015.  His mother reported: the child had a fever for 3 days, with a high temperature of up to 39℃, which could subside when sweating, and the fever returned in about 2 hours. He has no external symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, no internal heat symptoms such as thirst and dry lips, bright red throat with enlarged tonsils, red tongue with thin yellowish greasy coating, puffy purple fingerprints, and counted pulse.  This is a warm disease, identified as Shaoyang-Yangming syndromes. The formula is Xiao Chai Hu plus Gypsum Tang combined with Lifting San: Bei Chai Hu 15 g, Temperate Scutellaria 6 g, Radix Codonopsis Pilosulae 8 g, Roasted Licorice 3 g, Small Red Date 5 g, Raw Gypsum 20 g, White Silkworm 6 g, Net Cicada 3 g, Red Peony 10 g, Coix Seed 6 g, Water Semen 3 g. 2 doses, decoction in water, 1 dose daily.  The medical advice: decoction of water into a small half bowl with a thermos cup as tea, a small amount of frequent consumption, sweating fever or stool watery or with indigestible food, then stop the drug.  The second stool was watery with indigestible food but not much, so it was stopped for observation. After the fever did not recur, the appetite was lost, so the child was told to take diet and not to use medicine, and to wait for his stomach to recover.  The child was also treated with Xiao Chai Hu Tang (5 grams of Radix et Rhizoma Polygonati, 5 grams of Scutellaria Baicalensis, 8 grams of Jujube, 3 grams of Citrus aurantium, 3 grams of Fructus Anemarrhena, 4 grams of Semen Parsley, 8 grams of Radix prunus ginseng, 8 grams of Poria, 8 grams of Radix et Rhizoma Polygonati, 3 grams of roasted licorice, 4 grams of fried Shen Qu), and the fever temporarily subsided after use. So anxious to come to the clinic, the prescription is completed, the mother of the child after comparing the former doctor’s prescription to consider the age of the child is too young, the author’s prescription is too heavy, the author advised not to worry too much, this prescription is dedicated to reduce fever, if the amount is not large can not work quickly, and a small number of frequent, the overall amount of medication is not really large.  I do not know that in the current era of the increase in the number of only children, Chinese medicine treatment of infants and young children with fever, if the fever does not go down within 24 hours, parents are immediately anxious and uncertain, often several times a day telephone consultation, with thunderbolt means is really a helpless move.  Infants and young children often see sudden onset of high fever, but no obvious symptoms of external internal heat, to the clinical identification of Chinese medicine brings great confusion, so many doctors commonly use pungent warm agents, such as ephedra soup, Gui Zhi Tang, Ge Gen Tang, Xiao Chai Hu Tang, Chai Hu Gui Zhi Tang, Ma Heng Shi Gan Tang, Gui Zhi two Yue Jin Yi Tang, Da Qing Long Tang, etc., the author previously treated infants and young children with fever as the same as the former doctor, it is because ” Sudden onset of high fever without symptoms mostly due to external cold” concept, the use of medicine often does not leave warm, or cold and warm, but always inseparable from the pungent warm dispersing drugs, failure cases repeatedly in sight, painful.  Fortunately, Mr. Zhang Lei, the successor of Prof. He Shaoqi, instructed me that sudden onset of high fever in children without obvious external and internal heat is often a warm disease, and that the medicine should not be pungent and warm, and that pungent and cool sweating should also be used with caution, and should be used to clear down.  Since then, although the treatment of sudden onset of high fever in children with sutra prescriptions, the idea of medication has also changed to Qingxia, with the majority of medicines being cool, and the efficacy of treatment has naturally improved since then. The original article was published in the Academic and Clinical section of China Chinese Medicine News on November 16, 2015.