Opinions please temp of 40.1 after Calpol an hour ago.

[56Marshmallow]

I've rung 111 and a GP will call back but it could be hours.

My 9 year old developed a sore throat on Wednesday night. He also has a cough.

Tonight the temperature started 39.4. Gave a dose of Calpol an hour ago. Hot all over including feet and hands. Temp now above 40.

He's drinking lots, wearing only pull ups and a thin sheet on lower half of body.

Refused dinner (absolutely unheard of for him) and sleeping lots (straight after school).

From experience, will this just pass or do I need to worry?

I find Calpol does naff all, is try some neurofen. Hope he's better soon

Do you have any ibuprofen you could give him?

Thanks. Does law, looked in the cupboard for Nurofen, only about 2.5ml left in bottle.

Maybe I should nip to a supermarket....

Sods Law! Bloody autocorrect!!!

Ibuprofen is better for bringing temperature down, so I would go and get some.

I wouldn't like that. Was this the first dose or he's been taking it for a while? Max dose for age/ size, is he big for 9yo? As pp said, try liquid ibuprofen if you have it too, they don't interact so giving both is fine. Keep him hydrated and cool.
If no improvement in a few hours with above or worsening symptoms, and no call back, don't hesitate to call 111 back or go to A&E.

He's had 4 doses of Calpol in 24 hours. He huge for his age (height of 12 year old, at least 45kg, probably more so Googled how much he could be given in 24 hours) He's had 2,000mg over 24 hours.

Have you opened window in his room? Turned heating down?

So often we don't think of logical things when we're worried.

Weather cold here but my flat roasting !

Hope he's doing better soon.

My dd tends to spike a very high fever with the slightest bug even now (she's 18 now) I know it's no longer recommended but quite honestly the only thing that worked with her was wiping her down with a lukewarm wet flannel BUT I only did so on medical advice because she was a bugger for high fevers - check with someone before doing anything like that.

Be careful with the calpol, I could be wrong here but I thought they changed the guidelines a while ago for kids so that its not calculated by weight but liver age? I’d definitely get some nurofen if you can as I find it more effective too. My toddlers have had this a couple of times and both times they’ve had an infection needing antibiotics. I hope 111 call you back soon.

I have had 36 hours of this with my 13 year old OP. 40.3 degree temp - she always gets v high temps.

Nurofen does make a bigger difference. I am alternating it with paracetamol every three hours.

A nurse at our local hospital told me that Ibuprofen/Nurofen (not on an empty stomach) was better at bringing down a temperature than paracetamol and that it was probably best to alternate the two.

Hope he feels better soon, my mum used to put a cold cloth on her stomach or feet (alternatively) to bring our temperature down - don’t know if this is scientifically correct,but it always seemed to work!

We’re on day 5 of this, nightmare isn’t it.
No advice that hasn’t been offered but hope he’s feeling better soon.

Running him a tepid bath will help to bring the temperature down.

As others have suggested, alternate ibuprofen with paracetamol.

If his temperature continued to rise (after all of the above) I would personally take him to a&e.

If out of hours haven't rang you back by 7:45, give them a ring

Thanks everyone. I went and got Ibuprofen at the shop. Gave it to him and the doc called for him to be seen at Out of Hours. He was delirious at one point, not responding, doing strange things, not noticing that I'd put a onesie on him to get to out of hours (he said "I need a onesie" when I'd just helped him put one on). He then started doing strange things with his hands, putting them in a claw like shape but didn't respond when I'd asked him what he was doing. That really worried me!

Got to OOHs and temp down to 38ish. Doc says viral.

Will take not about the Calpol/Nurofen.
Thanks all!

ibuprofen is much more effective. You can give it on top of the Calpol. If it doesn't bring the temp down then take him to a&e. My ds got super high temps starting at 2 months old. Calpol did nothing at all. The only thing that worked was ibuprofen and even then he needed higher doses than on the bottle, so I always ended up bringing him to the gp or a&e to get a doctor to approve the higher dose.

Woke up at 11am to going him shivering with blue lips and grey looking skin! Thought "this is ridiculous, I can't see another doctor for the third time in 24 hours!"

Took him to the local pharmacy and the pharmacist agreed with me about the blue lips. Said he shouldn't be shaking after all the doses of medicine. Said that it was most likely a bacterial infection and not to be fobbed off!

Took him back to out of hours and been given a 10 day course of antibiotics. His SATS were at 98 when we got there and, sods law, blue lips gone and skin back to normal.

Just a lesson for me to trust my instincts. Felt guilty taking him to the second doctor but now I know I did the right thing.

We all know our kids and him falling asleep after the school run and not eating were totally out of character for him. He even fell asleep on me in the waiting room at 11am after sleeping for 12 hours.

OP sounds like you’ve covered a lot of bases but please read up on signs of sepsis as high temp that’s hard to control, the delirium, and the grey skin thing, are all red flags. It might be worth taking him to a&e to get checked over. Hope he feels better soon.

Thanks Mini. I saw an poster for it in the out of hours and there were a couple of things on there that made me think that. He's had two doses of antibiotics and is definitely perkier than before.

My little girl now has a temp but at least I'm on it this time!

How are you doing?

My 11 yr old was like this. Temp and coughing, not eating, sleeping a LOT. GP said viral chest infection. On Calpol and Brufen for 5 days. Went back to school on Wednesday and Thursday but temp and aching all over yesterday so off school again. Better today.

But if you can keep him off school. Let him rest

I agree with the pp. Its not the high temperature itself that's the problem, it's the fact that it CANT be lowered. That's my red flag, personally. A fever is a healthy immune response and means that its fighting something off but a fever that keeps rising and cant be lowered is a sign that its fighting something and losing. I'm sure it's not that simple but that's my general rule of thumb.

Temperature that cant be controlled = bad in my book.

My ds would always get a secondary bacterial infection with every cold/virus. So even if the initial issue was viral, he would still need antibiotics to treat the ear infection/lung infection/sinus infection that came a few days later. Ibuprofen and antibiotics were our friends for most of his childhood.