Ear Infection/Fever: Tylenol Question

SoxFan777

Hi,

My son had an ear infection last week.  I'm not sure that the antibiotics (finished 5 days of them) did the trick.  He had a fever of 101.3 at 4pm.  Gave him tylenol, 5mg, most of which he spit out.  Fever is down a bit. 

Quesition: Would you redose before the 4 hours are up (maybe at 3 hours?) knowing that he probably didn't get the full dose?  I want to be sure and get it in him before he falls asleep for the night.  I need to get his fever down. 

preggersin2011

Personally if my kid just finished antibiotics and a fever returned I would have called the doctor. I count any medicine administered as a full dose that way you don't overdose your child. You can give motrin since it doesn't interact with tylenol but I would still place a call to your doctor's answering service and see what they say. Fevers are there for a reason and I don't like to hinder the immune system unnecessarily. 

gatchison

I would try giving a dose of Motrin instead if you can, since it's fine to alternate between the two within the same window. My pedi put the fear of god into us about the dangers of accidental acetaminophen overdose.

iteachk

Is he really uncomfortable, or does he just have a fever?  I don't treat fevers under 102 unless my child is really uncomfortable.  There really is no need.

NJMom050911

My son just had a double ear infection last week and we are stil on antibiotics (10 days worth). His fever was 102 after meds so the pedi had me alternate between Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours. So 5mls Tylenol, 3 hours later 5mls Motrin and so forth until I was sure his fever was down and he wasn't in pain. So we did this for two days.