What is the highest fever your DS has had and how have you managed the fevers?
We have had a very long weekend with DS being pretty sick. We took him to Patient First on Friday night when he was diagnosed with an ear infection (no fever at that time). Saturday he had a mild fever 101.5-ish and was acting fairly normal, but tired.
Today was a totally different story. He was completely lethargic, just sleeping/laying on me for most of the afternoon. We went back to Patient First when we found he had a 103.8 fever after his nap and he was diagnosed with a double ear infection and we got new meds. He then layed on me, etc. for most of the afternoon and we kept his fever sorta-managed and then it went up to 104.1 and we got very worried. We gave him Tylenol (we had been cycling Motrin & Tylenol and thankfully it was time for the Tylenol) and decided to give him a cool bath and then didn't know what to do so we decided to go to the ER.
On the way his fever totally dropped (lowest it has been all day) and he started drinking again, so we went back to Patient First (twice) to ask the doc there some questions. They were SO nice and answered all of our questions and also took his temp for us. It was 99. We then went home and he has been playing and running around for the past hour and we put him to bed.
What would you have done? Would you have gone to the ER? We did call the on-call pedi and he gave us some info that was sorta-helpful, but he didn't call back when we called a 2nd time...
Fevers freak us out, most likely due to him having meningitis when he was 5-months old. I am not sure if our reactions are 'normal' or not. I know that DH is one that immediately wants to take DS to the ER, no matter what his temp is.
Re: Highest fever? (long)
I think you did the right thing. I would call your pedi tomorrow and give them a piece of your mind for not being very responsive to your calls about a high fever!
I probably would have taken him right to the ER after giving him the Tylenol when I saw 104, but you did the right thing in getting him a cool bath and getting his fever under control.
Hopefully he is on the mend! Sorry you had such a sucky weekend!
Your reactions are totally normal given his history. I dated a guy whose brother had meningitis...he FREAKED every time my oldest had a fever over 99.
The highest we have had was last weekend...104.7. We did not go in. I am a nurse and I knew if I could manage it, keep him drinking, and move the fever in the downward direction then we would make it through the night. The next afternoon it started going up rapidly and we did take him to the ER at that point. One incident was fine, more than that and he needed to be seen. The ER did NOTHING. They did not clean the wax from his ears and therefore did not see the raging infection. Only think I got from them was I could give Tylenol and Motrin an hour apart for a really high fever if it was not breaking.
Sounds like you have a great place you can go other than the ER and that would always be my first choice after hours. I hope this passes quickly for you
DS had a fever that high but at the time wasnt really acting lethargic. I called the pedi and we strarted cycling motrin and tylenol. His temp was still high but not quite as high. Then later it spiked again and he was acting lethargic. We ended up calling the pedi again and he was given tamiflu because he was having the flu-like symptoms.
I probably wouldnt take him to the ER unless his fever stayed up, he was really lethargic or unresponsive and tylenol/motrin wasnt working and his pedi recommended it.
Fevers arent necessarily dangerous, it means your body is fighting something and in most cases we should just let them work. Kids are going to get sick, that is how we build immune systems.
That said, you are his mom. Only you can decide if he needs to go to the ER.
-----Lisa-----
I think you did the right thing. DD has only been slightly higher at 104.5 (or 8 don't remember). I hope your ds stays feeling well.
My dh wants to DD to the ER when she has a little fever at night (or when pdei is closed)
~
Our beautiful son was born July 2008.
2010: 2 IVF's,1 FET = 2 BFN's, 1 c/p
Feb 2011-Unmedicated FET= BFP!! DS #2 born Oct 2011!!.
Thanks girls... I hate that any of our little ones have had these fevers, but at least I know that we aren't totally off. We just didn't know what to do. We wanted someone to tell us exactly when to go to the ER for a fever and we couldn't get that; it was so frustrating. We finally got some great info from a nurse at the Patient First and that really help calm us down and understand what we should/shouldn't do. She was the best part of this whole mess... Well, DS feeling better is actually the best part, but you know what I mean.
We LOVE our pedi, but do not like some of the on-call docs and that can be pretty difficult b/c it seems that DS gets sick on the weekends most of the time.