AIBU to ask for advice with 18 month old fever!

[sinistericecreamvan]

He’s my PFB and always runs warm but last night had a fever of 39.2 when he woke in the night. Calpol brought it down slightly but he was distressed so gave him nurofen which brought it down for a couple of hours.
Since then it’s fluctuated between 37.6 and 38.5 and I’ve only give him medicine when he’s been distressed.
He was fine in himself this morning, ate breakfast and a snack although not as much as usual, was chatting and playing and alert. He didn’t sleep much last night so he crashed around nap time and was really grizzly. Gave him calpol but this didn’t bring temp down stayed at 38.5
Woke from nap really crying and frantically chewing and dribbling so wondered if it could be teething, didn’t give him any medicine as he calmed down and went back to sleep.
He’s just in a nappy at the moment.

He doesn’t have a rash, isn’t limp or unresponsive, has been drinking and had really wet nappies.

His feet and hands were slightly cooler at times when he was feverish but not ice cold, and he’s not bothered by light and didn’t appear to be in pain until he woke up crying. We gave him something cool to bite on and he took it for a bit then had his dummy again and eventually went back to sleep. He’s definitely exhausted as he normally sleeps 12 hours and he slept about 6 last night.

My question is do we need to ring 111 if he carries on with a fever or are we okay to manage this at home? Nurofen seems to work but calpol not so much at bringing the fever down, is that normal?

He’s definitely not himself now although he was this morning. We’ve had a few more dirty nappies than usual but nothing that looks alarming.

I’m a very anxious person and am paranoid about not doing something when I should, so just wondered what everyone else would do?

I can only give one more dose of nurofen today until later on at night due to the 3 in 24 hours so I was only going to do that if he really spikes again or seems very very distressed.

Im not particularly well and neither is DH, we’ve got colds, so I wonder if he’s picked this up from us (we’ve done Covid tests so know it’s not that).

Im not sure what we do if we give nurofen this afternoon if the fever spikes and then it goes back up again before we can give it again?

Thank you!

Hey, my LO was like this and turned out to be a bad case of tonsillitis.
Are you able to look in their mouth? Does their breath smell?
Nothing was bringing their temp down, keep your windows open to let fresh air in this is good for getting temps down (learnt this from taking him to A&E)

Thanks @Moonshine11 sorry to hear you little one was poorly, I ended up in hospital myself with tonsilitis as a child so know how bad it can be.

Fortunately nurofen does seem to be working, it brought the temp down from 39 to 38.4 within half an hour pretty much, but we are keeping a close eye on him and taking his temp regularly. If anything changes or he stops responding to medicine we'll call 111 immediately.

He won't let me near his mouth as he has a tooth that has just broken through (always like this when he's teething) so I haven't managed to take a look at his tonsils but I'll try later. What am I looking for?
His breath isn't great but he refused to brush his teeth last night so that could be why...

See how big his tonsils are and for any puss.
If I’ve skipped a toothbrush I’ve never smelt his breath (for it to bad) this was one of the first things I noticed and realised it was his throat!
I did have to restrain his head and arms in hosp for them to look.

Temp currently seems to be hovering around 38.2 - 38.4, should I be expecting nurofen to bring it down to normal or just bring it down significantly? It's come down a lot from 39 which it was before...

Thanks @Moonshine11 I'll try and have a look with DH later. If he still spikes overnight and doesn't come down lower than 38.2 ish I'll phone GP first thing

If no red flags (eg very lethargic, difficult to wake, not drinking, no urine output etc) then I think I'd probably feel ok to manage at home overnight as long as I could keep him hydrated and fairly comfortable and try to get to GP tomorrow for a check over and rule out an ear/throat infection that needs antibiotics.

If you can get to a drive through covid test site this afternoon you may well have the result in the morning.

I'd keep a close eye (I always have mine in bed with me overnight when poorly) and have a low bar for calling 111. I hope he's better soon!

@Sunshinegirl82 thank you that’s what I’m going to do I think. He keeps clamping his hand over his left ear when we take his temperature, fine with the right so it did get me wondering about ear infection especially since I used to get them all the time alongside teething when I was a toddler!

He’s not long finished a course of antibiotics for an ear infection though so I guess I kind of thought that would have ruled it out but he could have another one.

If his temp stays at its lowest at 38.2 after nurofen that’s not anything to be alarmed about is it? I can’t see anywhere it says HOW much it should come down by when you use it.

Hospital were happy with a temp of 38/just above op

I think if the temp has responded to the neurofen, and he is behaving fairly normally in himself then you are doing the right thing to keep monitoring him tonight, and take to Dr tmw. The doctors IME place more emphasis and concern on how the children are behaving rather than the number on the thermometer. Sounds like you are handling the situation really well!

Thank you, obviously I will call 111 if I get very concerned, I was feeling relieved that it was down to that and just wanted to check i shouldn’t still be overly worried about it
I figured he’s still fighting something off so it’s unlikely to drop right down

It's still coming down, now at 38 and he's eating dinner.
Sorry for all the posts, it's all for me as a record as my sleep and cold addled brain won't remember and is prone to panic. So nurofen definitely working. Tooth definitely has come through.
He's currently happily spooning in copious amounts of baby custard while watching TV which he's never normally allowed with dinner, so he's quite pleased with himself.
Fingers crossed for a better night tonight

No, I think that's a decent drop and as long as he's ok in himself I wouldn't be too worried. I think you have to sort of look at them in the round if you know what I mean. If he's eating and playing then I'd be happier managing at home.

His temp is quite high unmedicated so personally I would want an infection ruled out although the highest temp DS1 ever had (over 40) was with chicken pox so a higher temp doesn't always mean antibiotics but I think it's a good idea to get checked out.

@Sunshinegirl82 yes I’m definitely phoning the GP in the morning as it definitely seems like there’s a nasty infection in there. Strange that nurofen seems to work where calpol doesn’t seem to have any affect (unless it’s just stopping it climbing higher but not taking it down, although it spiked again three hours after giving it to him so who knows)

He’s now his normal self completely but I know how quickly it can change so we are definitely going to keep an eye on him

Unfortunately he will never sleep in our bed so he will be in his own room tonight but we are going to check him every couple of hours

Sorry @sinistericecreamvan just come back to this thread.

Our GP has told us never to put too much stock in how high them temp is relating to how ill they are (obviously unless it's pushing 40). Eg I was less worried when it was 38 than when it was 39.5. But it's not a measure of how ill they are, just that their body is doing its job and fighting the illness. Only try and get the temp down if it's causing them distress and upset as otherwise it's the immune system kicking in correctly.

When my son has a fever it rarely comes down below 37.5 even with medicine but it does make it more manageable for him.

Sounds like a fab plan to get a GP to give him the once over.

Hope you all have a good night

And we also found the same that when he was in the real throws of it, nurofen worked whereas calpol didn't do much.

And don't be fooled by calprofen as for some reason the dosage is 2.5 instead of 5ml so I just stick with pharmacy ibuprofen for kids or nurofen

Thank you @kidneynewname it’s gone back up a bit now and he was getting a bit loopy so we gave him calpol and I’m hoping he sleeps for a bit and it doesn’t increase too much

Never write illness off as teething! scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=does+teething+cause+temperature&oq=does+#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3D2IS8ho4dNXQJ

I don’t think it is teething, but I don’t think teething is helping. His fever is quite high without medication so I think it’s definitely an infection so I’m definitely calling the GP tomorrow but I’m just debating calling 111 or not. Incidentally I was told by our doctor a few weeks back that teething can be behind a fever but it’s usually low grade and easily manageable with calpol.

I think if it continues to rise I will call them as we can’t give him any more medicine until later tonight

@sinistericecreamvan

Thank you *@kidneynewname* it’s gone back up a bit now and he was getting a bit loopy so we gave him calpol and I’m hoping he sleeps for a bit and it doesn’t increase too much

Bless him. When mine was this bad, we set an alarm for 6 hours overnight and checked the temp so that if it had crept up again, we could redose him before he got too upset and get him back to sleep (sorry if that's obvious!)

And when he started freaking out at all the medicine and not taking it from the little syringe, we decanted into a small bowl with a spoonful of ice cream. Worked a treat

Thanks for the tip so far he’s taking the medicine unless he’s really distressed so fingers crossed it stays that way

We are going to go and do a quick in ear check once he’s asleep as last night he seemed to spike while asleep quite quickly but he hadn’t had any medicine at that point so I am keeping everything crossed that doesn’t happen tonight as I’m not sure what we will do if we can’t give him another dose of anything.
Distract him with tv and call 111 probably and hope he manages it okay until we can dose him again

God it’s horrible when they are poorly

So far so good it’s back to hovering at 38 so I’m going to give him another dose of calpol in an hour when I go up as then we will be into the next 24 hours of doses. Hoping to keep him steady without any spikes til the morning when I can hopefully get through to theGP

Hope he has a steady night op

Fingers crossed you all get some sleep. When they are under the weather like this and you're trying to keep on top of a temperature I try to have a bit of a schedule to the calpol and nurofen so that they pretty much always have something in their system.

I normally do something along the lines of:

7am - calpol
10am - nurofen
1pm - calpol
4pm - nurofen
7pm - calpol

That then leaves you one dose of each to cover the night time stretch if you need it whilst keeping within the max doses of each.

Had this problem. Alternatively calpol and nuerofen. Wrapped in slightly damp towels after bath. Suppository helped too. Dororilyte to stop dehydration. Constantly happens at teething.

Thank you! He’s come down to 37.7 and is asleep in just his nappy - should I put a cellular blanket over him? He normally sleeps in a merino bag and a t shirt at this temp but I obviously don’t want to bundle him up and make him too hot incase he spiked again

But I read somewhere you shouldn’t let them get too cold as the body will then try to heat itself up again so I’m not sure what to do for the best!

Thanks so much for all your help

And thanks for the medicine breakdown that makes a lot of sense @Sunshinegirl82

He has a second tooth just about to break through and that cheek is really warm but aside from that he seems okay right now. I’m going to set an alarm to check on him in a few hours