Some friends that read my blog know that Robert has been sick since last Friday night. Fever was his major symptom and we had no idea what he had. Fever Fever and more Fever. We managed sometimes to get it to 38.5 but not less than that. Poor little guy we was annoyed and it annoyed us too!
He was sick of being sick and drinking liquid fever reducers. Here I just wanted to share what we do when he has fever and things I have learned from other parents and doctors too. Hope they help someone out there!
1. Focus on controlling. Fever is a way of the body fight back something that is not supposed to be there. My husband for instance thinks that we need to get rid of the fever once and for all. While for some this might sound fever is a good sign that the body is doing its job, so I always remind him that the important thing is to control the fever not to get too high higher than (39.5-40) rather than getting desperate because it doesn’t go away.
2. Switching medicines! Acetaminophen (Tylenol ) is the #1 option to reduce fever among parents and doctors. But sometimes is not enough. One thing I have learned is that if the fever does not goes down with Tylenol alone, switch to Ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin) every 2 hours (using the same dosage as every 4 hours) until the fever reacts to it by going down (usually one degrees). Then go back to the Acetaminophen routine. We have tried this with Robert since he was a baby and it works like a charm. This time though we noticed that every 3 hours did the work.
3. Suppositories. HAVE THEM ALWAYS HANDY! I have the Acetaminophen ones. He uses the 325mg ones. Yesterday night my son wasn’t tolerating anything by mouth, so by applying suppositories we controlled the fever plus delivered faster relieve. He now prefers the suppositories over the mouth bubble gum flavored liquid!
4. Compresses. Old school way to attack the fever… I have used fresh (NOT COLD) water compresses and fresh water with Eucalyptus Oil compresses. Both work great! I prefer to use the eucalyptus oil in baths though… BUT HERE IS THE TRICK… Arm pits and genitals (at least in boys)! When applying compresses to these areas the fever goes down faster. Believe me I have tried… now my son knows about it, even though he hates it, he even reminds me that it makes his fever go away faster. Try it and get back to me!
Also so the torture is more tolerable, we count. Every time I place the compress in some parts of his body (like neck, forehead, ears, tummy, back, arms, and legs) we count to TEN and switch. When placing in his arm pits and genitals we count to TWENTY. Is psychological for him but it helps to make it more manageable and makes him cooperate instead of screaming, complaining and pushing out.
5. Water baths. As I said before, I prefer to add Eucalyptus Oil (say 2 drops and swirl). I leaves the body with a freshness impregnated from the oil. The same as compresses if they just sit there for a few minutes covering their genitals, it will do the trick. The thing is how to convince them to stay there! So be creative, use bubbles, count, talk, sing…
6. Cold food. If your kid tolerates food, keep feeding cool food like popsicles, Jell-O, ice-cream, juice, water, fruits… anything that is light to their stomach and cools it! You will definitely see the difference in their faces. It lights them up!
All I can say is that to this point Robert is tired of the liquid medicine, so now that he is in antibiotics (he has the Strep) we expect his fever to go away once and for all. Meanwhile a combination of these methods will make it easier and less annoying!
Hope it helps somebody! If you have any more tricks LET US KNOW! :) PLEASE! SHARE!!!! :D
2 comments:
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Great and helpful post! I agree with you, a fever is not bad, in the sense that it is your body's way of fighting infection. If the fever is low-grade, I usually don't give Tylenol in order to let the body do its thing. I concentrate on comfort measures (soup, liquids). Almost always, it goes down on its own within a short time.
Been a while since I've visited .. hope you are doing well. And I agree with Lydia ... your blog looks beautiful!
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