To expect not to have to wait 3hrs for phone call and 45mins in Drs waiting rm with dd (2.8) with a temperature of 104 (40)

[LittleB]

Dd is now getting better thankfully, but was ill last week. High temperature, very high for her, very sleepy and listless, cough, runny nose, but drinking ok and chatting a bit, taking calpol and ibruprofen. I thought prob just a virus and didn't want to take her out in the rain to drs, but thought I should ring them for advice (my dr told me to ring them not NHS Direct). I told them about her fever and my concerns, she said there were appointments but would get duty dr to call me to advise. 2hrs later still no call, rang Drs she said she'd chase it, I said would there still be appointments if I needed to come in, yes she said. Dr rang me an hr later, said bring her in, no appointments so come at 5.30. turn up at 5.30, had to wait until 6.15 to be seen, turns out she has bronchitus so needed antibiotics, by then all the pharmacys in the town had shut (they shut at 6pm) so i took dd home, (just before 7 now - her usual bed time, an left her with dh while I drove to the nearest big town to get her prescription. I then had to wake a grumbly ill dd on my return and persuade her to take her medicine. Should I complain? were they unreasonable to make dd wait 45mins to see a dr when she has a high fever? Or should I have just made an appointment and taken her out in the rain straight away and its my own fault? (dd haa had 2 previous visits to Drs this autumn when its just been a virus and nothing they could do). What do you think?

I can understand your frustration with out of hours services. Temps higher than 38c in children may result in febrile convulsions which although not life threatening can be very scary for parents. I had a similar experience and ended up going to our local minor injury unit. Unfortunately it probably couldn't be helped. If the same had happened and your lo was not responsive and talking and had breathing difficulties then the response would have been different.

Temps higher than 38?

God when my children were babies it was temps over 40 we were told to watch

I wouldn't even medicate at 38 to be honest, that to me seems such a mild raise in temp

I'll start to medicate around 38.5 .. then alternate over 39.5

With DS it won't phase me at 40, with DD it will because she has febrile episodes around here and they are worrying to watch when it's your child.

temperatures are quite difficult, some children appear to cope well with a high temp, whereas others don't. A temp of 38 is a fever, but not that worrying as such, yes twiglett 40 is high. Thing is it also depends on the type of thermometer people use, the forehead ones are notoriously inaccurate, and even the ear ones can vary from ear to ear due to something like wax or just technique.It does amaze me however the amount of people who don't have a thermometer at all

well we have an ear thermometer but I can totally understand why people don't

you can tell if a child is hot by the way their skin feels when you kiss them and the way they are they acting is a far better determinant of how ill they are

38c is a mild pyrexia, yes. However, many children do not cope well with temperature changes and can become hypothermic and febrile very quickly. If you are medicating with calpol and ibuprofen alternately and the temp is still 38-40 then without it the temp would be more like 41-42 IYSWIM. Anything over 38 is a fever. Over 40 is risking convulsions. But like I said, in the absence of other symptoms it doesn't mean much because it takes very little for a childs temp to rise due to immaturity if organs regulating the temp.

I don't have a thermometer, I judge how ill DS is by, well, how ill he appears I suppose. If I think he is ill enough I take him to a doctor, haven;t ever thought of calling the doctor first because they are pretty much reliant on what you tell them on the phone so why not just use your own judgement. Don;t know how old your DD is but after a few bouts of illness you do get much better at separating the "medicate at home with calpol/nurofen" to the "oh shit this looks like its turning into tonsilitus/bronchitus" (both of which DS has had.

Its horrible to see them sick but no point taking it out on the GP's who no doubt think that bronchitus is relatively run of the mill in the grand scale of things.

Hope she's all better now.