sick with fever, advice needed

tstephens410

I don't post very often, but I am in need of some advice. Here is a little back story. My baby is 9 months old today. He has been sick a few times since since he was born. He had broncilitis when he was about 6 weeks old and has had a few good colds and in the last month and a half he has had 2 ear infections. Well, Wednesday a week ago he woke up at 2am running a fever of 101.4 temple thermometer at the highest and not feeling good. He was congested, slight cough, etc. My husband took him to the doctor that morning, but when he got there he was not running a fever I think there thermometer is wrong because they use the kind that they just roll over forhead and the pedi said he just had a normal cold, but told us to keep an eye out and if he got worse to bring him back. So as far as fever went he didn't really have one. His normal temp is high 97 low 98, but his temp all last week was high 98 low 99 and they say for babies that it is not a fever unless 100.4 or higher. Well, Sunday came and I could tell he just wasn't himself and he was starting to pull his ears again, so, on Monday morning I took him back to the doctor and the pedi now tells me he has the early onset of ear infections in both ears and that he is in the home stretch of getting over the croupe. So his pedi put him on antibiotics he's had a different antibiotic for each ear infection. We started the antibiotics on Monday night and now here it is Friday and he is back running another high fever. With his normal thermometer it says 102.1 and when I took it in his rectum it was 101.4. He has had maybe 10 oz of formula since 2:30am, he did eat pears for breakfast this morning, but that's it, he won't let me put him down, and he will only stay awake for 30 minutes before he is going back to sleep for another hour. This has been going on all day! I called his pedi earlier today to find out what I should do and his pedi is suppose to call me back, at 3pm I still hadn't heard back so I called them again and the nurse told me she has a note on the doctors desk, but hasn't heard anything yet, but said come morning if he still has a fever to bring him in they have a Saturday clinic and they will get him checked. As of right now he isn't dehydrated. He has had one poopy diaper and one wet diaper I know that is not a lot since 8am but he is still producing tears. Everytime I lay him down he starts crying immediately or when I go to change his diaper or check his temperature. The nurse told me to keep trying to give him water, juice, pedialite, and ofcourse milk. So, after all of this, my question is, what do yall think I should do? Should I wait til morning or should I try to get to urgent care or the er? I do apologize for formatting or possible misspelled words, I'm bumping from my phone. And thanks in advance for any advice!!!

bhead81

That is a pretty low grade fever at this age.  Could he be teething on top of his cold?  I would say keep with tylenol and motrin.  We were just at the ER on Sunday for fever (104) and they have us doing tylenol and motrin every 3 hours (rotating of course) so he is getting a dose of each every 6 hrs.  He is teething on top of the crap he has so he is pretty fussy, lethargic, refusing to eat and tired. 

namara5532

First of all, it's very strange for a doctor to not take a rectal temperature.  It's the most accurate temperature reading you can take on a young child.  When you bring him in again, make sure they take his temperature rectally for the most accurate reading, especially since you suspect their other thermometer isn't accurate.

One wet diaper and one poopy diaper is out of the norm, but I wouldn't call it an emergency.  It's Saturday morning now, so hopefully you're on your way to the doctor already.  If LO doesn't have another wet diaper today, I would say that warrants an ER visit.  It's what I'd personally do at least.

PsyDr04

Oh I am so sorry you are going through this. We went through something very similar with DS a couple of weeks ago. He was extremely fussy/crying, would not eat hardly anything x 4 days, cried every time I put him down, ran fever for several days, it was a total nightmare. There were multiple things going on. Turns out he had an ear infection (second one in 3 weeks), had a really bad cold which made it impossible for him to breathe through his nose despite sucking out his nose with saline and the bulb constantly, and he was cutting his first teeth. I thought I was going to lose my mind, but it got better. We just kept alternating children's Tylenol and children's ibuprofen for the fever and teething pain, sucked out his nose regularly, and tried to feed him what we could. It's more important for your babe to get fluids right now, so just try to give water, pedialyte, whatever you can. We had better luck when we gave things to DS on a spoon.

Hang in there momma, this too shall pass!

tstephens410

Thanks for yalls replies. I ended up taking him to urgent care last night because he got to the point of screaming uncontrolably. He was still running a fever even though I had given him ibuprofen just a couple hours before. The Dr there was not a pedi, they don't have pedis in the urgent care department. Anyways, he said his ears were cleared up from his antibiotic, but that his throat was red swollen and had a few puss pockets. They ran a strep test but it was negative. I had my doubts last night that it wasn't accurate because when doing the test they have to swab the very back of throat and infected area and they couldn't or didn't hold his tongue down and it looked more like they were getting the back inside cheek rather than throat. The doctor did prescribe him a steroid for a few days and said to continue with the antibiotic that he was prescribed on Monday for his ear infection. Fast forward to this morning, I called Lucus' doctors office this morning and gave them an update on what the urgent care doctor said last night. The doctor on call wanted me to bring him in and wanted to check him for dehydration. Well, here's the outcome, he still has a double ear infection that is no where near being healed and he does have strep with the whole back of his throat covered in puss pockets. And as far as dehydration goes, he isn't quite out of the woods. He isn't having enough wet diapers, but he is still producing tears and his mouth is still wet. So I have to keep an eye out and make sure it doesn't get worse. We have a new antibiotic that is stronger than what he was on and he is to keep taking the steroid to help clear it all up. We are suppose to call Monday morning and let them know how he is.

PsyDr04

Oh my gosh, that is horrible! I feel so bad for you and your baby and hope that he gets to feeling better very soon!! Hugs to you both!

tstephens410

Thank you. He is still sick, but he is doing a little better. His appetite is slowly coming back. He has been able to eat a little today, which is great! His stomach has been upset, he's had 3 diarrhea diapers today. Hopefully by mid week he will be back to himself! Thank you for your kind words and I hope your little one is doing better as well!

PsyDr04

Thanks and I'm glad to hear your LO is doing a little better and hope each day brings more health back to him. Mine ate well today at daycare and is still able to breathe through his nose (thank goodness). I've lifted his crib mattress in the hopes that any drainage will have an easier time going where it is supposed to rather than back up into his ears. He's currently napping even though it's after 5 pm. I know that means a later bedtime, but at this point he needs the rest and we've been trying to put him down later in preparation for daylight savings. I'm hopeful he will stay fever free until Thursday (and after!) so we can at least get him to the pedi for his well baby appt.

Take care of you. Best wishes for baby's speedy recovery!