My 6 year old son had a very high temperature last night. It was 39.5. I told my husband that if itbwent to 40, we would need to take him to the paediatric first aid (I live abroad and this is the general route to follow with any suspected emergency in children).
I did all the tricks in the book, (dressing loosely, cotton sheet instead of duvet, water to drink, Calpol, Nurofen). I checked his temperature every half hour and it came down little by little. A few hours later he wasn't feverish at all and so I was happy that he didn't need any attention. My son didn't really have any other symptoms.
This morning my husband says that I should have just let him sleep and that the NHS website just said to get medical advice if the fever lasted a few days. However, I always thought that 40 degrees was the danger number and therefore an emergency. Is this old fashioned?
YABU: You should let a child sleep off a fever if they have no other symptoms
YANBU: A child with a fever of 40 or over needs immediate medical attention
I'll obviously ask our paediatrician the next time I see her, but am just curious as to what other people have as their rule of thumb.