Help! 4 year old often unwell with repeated fevers

[PeaTea]

I have a 4 year old daughter that is currently on day 4 of a high fever. She has cold symptoms and is covid negative. Her fevers often reach 39.5 to 40 degrees. I took her to see doctor and apart from a sore throat and a trace of blood in wee nothing much up with her. They sent her wee off to lab.

she seems to be constantly sick. What would be a mild cold in my other kids, turns into 40 degree fevers lasting for 4 days, coughing til she vomits for this poor kid.

So far this year:
jan: covid, very unwell
feb: very unwell 40 degree fever (hospital trip)
march: chest infection (antibiotics)
june: fever
early July: fever (no reason!) 39 degrees
late July: chest infection (antibiotics)
september: ear infection 40 degree fever on antibiotics
early October: fever
this week: fever for 4 days up to 39.9

Last year was similar.

when she gets unwell she gets all shivery, tired, looks poorly, wants to go to bed. She sometimes gets blue lips too when in peak fever mode. I give regular calpol and ibuprofen. I just went up at bed and she was delirious and vomited from a coughing fit. She’s off her food since it started.

I’ve been to GP, they say she is “unlucky”
Ive paid for a private paediatrician who ran bloods and said she was just unlucky. Some doctors have blamed lockdown.

my thermometer is accurate. My other kids are normal! My other kids may get a few mild bugs a year but nothing like this many.

She eats well, very well in fact. Is doing well at school.

Is there something I am missing? This isn’t normal is it?

I'm sadly I've no advice but I will say that my eldest was like this at the same age. It was constant and exhausting and yes, worrying. He's 15 now though and it did stop when he was about 5ish down to more normal levels of colds etc.

My child was like this aged 4 while she was still at nursery. It was constant colds/coughs/sickness bugs/fevers.

A doctor told me it’s not a bad thing getting all of these illnesses younger as it builds up a better immune system for them.

Since starting school she hasn’t even had a runny nose!

Thanks. I hope it is just one of those things and that she grows out of it soon.

We’ve had on/off illness in our house for the last 3 months so I know how you feel. A fever by itself isn’t a huge concern. My boy runs a fever if he has a sniffle. He’s just had a 24 hour temp and then it just came down yesterday lunch and he’s fine again now. It’s really disruptive to work though.

If she has these blue lip episodes I’d be buying an oximeter.

Mine is like that. We’re going to see a paediatrician soon but I’m not holding out much hope. Do you get urine tested?

Yeah urine sent off this time. They will call if they find any bugs in it. No symptoms of bladder issues.

@KangarooKenny Her oxygen was good in hospital. Her pulse was rather high though… 140s

Is 4 days of fever normal? It seems so over the top for what looks like a regular cold.

My 3yo is exactly the same, she had tonsillitis 3 times, an ear infection and 2 chest infections all within 5 months, it honestly felt non stop.
The GP just said to take her back everytime she was poorly like it, but because she's 3 and at nursery it's quite normal until she's around 5yo

If she’s not improving then I’d see the GP/practice nurse. Twice recently my two have seemed relatively well and actually have needed antibiotics.

Hi OP. How is your daughter now?

She is doing well. Still quite a sickly child (just recovered from a sick bug that took down half the family).

things are improving though and certainly not getting worse.

she’s a funny little thing bless her as she eats loads but is much slimmer than her siblings. She clearly has very different metabolism and very different immune response to even the same bugs. I’ll monitor and hope Things continue to improve as warmer weather comes.

That's great. Glad to hear she's better!