Help with toddler fever…

[dancelikeyoudontgiveafuck]

DS is two and has had a cough and cold all week, fine in himself. On Saturday night he got a fever, he was distressed and shivering so treated with calpol, all fine.
since then his fever has gone up consistently and we’ve had to tag team nurofen and calpol to keep it down (because he’s getting distressed/ can’t sleep because of it). We haven’t given medicine when he’s hot but okay as I know they say treat the child not the fever.

my question is would you see a doctor for this? I’m worried it’s an infection he’s having no luck fighting on his own and needs a bit of help. DH thinks because it can take up to 4 days for fever to run it’s course and it IS coming down with medicine, then we can leave him for tomorrow and see how he is.

his fever is getting up to 39.5 at it’s highest. Calpol and nurofen (never given simultaneously but spaced out, was advised to do this by a doctor) always seem to take an hour to 90 minutes to work on him so sometimes it seems like it’s going up after he’s taken the medicine but then when the medicine kicks in it starts coming down.

he’s okay in himself. He’s been eating, drinking, playing, watching tv, bossing us around. Gets a bit delirious when it’s been really high which is a normal reaction for him but he’s come out of that quickly with medicine once it kicks in.

i think we should call first thing tomorrow to try and get an appointment. Would you wait and and see how it goes or see doctor considering he’s been under the weather for a week before this all started?

thanks! First time mum and always panic a bit when he’s ill. He’s currently got a high temp again but had medicine as I didn’t want it to go even higher while we all slept and I wouldn’t realise, and he’s sleeping peacefully (have taken off some layers so he’s just in a t shirt with a thin blanket)

Gosh sorry that was long! I’m very tired and rambling I do apologise

I think have him seen tomorrow just in case he’s incubating something that requires antibiotics : with my three many times of this (and there have been and still are many including this weekend ) it’s often been bacterial tonsillitis, ear infections and the like. Although there are always the mysterious “it’s something viral “ keep an eye on them thing

after three days of using calpol / nurofen tag team I’d be doing this as sometimes they can mask the issue and manage it temporarily IYSWIM

hope he’s better soon!

Thank you that’s what I thought. Tomorrow will be the third day we are having to do the tag teaming medicine (if it’s still up) and funnily enough tonsillitis did cross my mind as he had a hoarse voice earlier in the week although this seems to have past.

why does it always seem to happen over the weekend/long weekend?

very relieved he’s seemed mostly okay in himself so far, as he is petrified of hospitals so I was dreading having to take him to a&e - his heart rate shoots up so much they always end up keeping him in which makes it ten times worse!

Oh that is stressful re the heart rate. But like white coat syndrome but more upsetting as they’re little.
It does always seem to happen at the weekend / bank holiday weekend
all my three have had Bacterial tonsillitis and gone down one after the other but daughter succumbed this weekend and it’s taken two days and 70 phone calls / complaining to various nhs providers to sort. I kid you not. Total Fiasco

Tonsillitis and scarlet fever have been rife here so may be the case in other parts
hipe he has a settled night and things improve

I'd call the doctor tomorrow, OP. I thought switching up Calpol & Nurofen should be done on the doctors advice anyway. It's great that he's well in himself but the high temp and him being "delirious" would concern me. And the fact that you can't actually keep his temp down and it's been going on for 3 days.

My 2 year old DS has been poorly all weekend too, hoarse voice, awful cough and wheezing and although he had no temp I'm going to be calling tomorrow because his breathing concerns me. thought the horrific winter viruses were finally over 😩

Hope your DS is much improved soon.

Thank you both.
he’s been in hospital before with a viral infection and they said if calpol doesn’t bring a temp down to use nurofen with it as well but with an hour to two hours between, not at the same time.

it does come down, and it has stayed down a bit inbetween but then rises again which is what made me think some kind of bacterial infection.

fortunately we haven’t had any wheezing or anything and his congestion seems to be clearing up, it’s just the three days of fever being tomorrow and I don’t want to keep endlessly medicating him as I know that isn’t ideal or good for him and also will mask if there’s an infection there.

Posted too soon. Hope your DS is much better soon @MulberryBush700 that sounds horrible too.
we’ve been lucky in that aside from fever and lots of congestion he’s seemed completely himself and okay apart from being tired otherwise I would have 100% called 111 regardless.
it’s all such a worry isn’t it

I would make an appointment tomorrow.

Something like this could be ear infection.

My boy had another ear infection. This is number 20 in 14 months. His temp can go like this.

Hope your boy is better soon

Any chance it’s Covid? Dc3 just had his second bout a month ago. Similar to what you described, temp all week, full of cold but negative LFTs. Only that he had a hospital procedure booked and needed a PCR, which came back positive that we found out.
Hope he’s better soon, whatever it is.

Oh! I was going to say no as we have done two lateral flows and both negative but haven’t done a PCR so I suppose it could be…

@daisydalrymple did you find his temp harder to bring down than usual?

i think it came down to 38 or so. But even on the day we got the positive PCR, he was still negative on LFT. He did need a week off school, (which is just as well we kept him off, given he was positive without realising at first!)(he’s 7, so older than your dc), but then started to pick up.
worth checking out for infection though.