I can't go back to A n E immediately, can I?

[InTrussWeTruss]

Ds (14 months) has been having a bad cold and high temperature for 5 days. I just took him to A n E because he's just sleeping and csl%ol and nurofen aren't really bringing the temp down significantly and he hasn't eaten anything for days. Anyway we spent ok afternoon there and they checked him over and said it's just viral (probably rsv) and he should be better in a few days. I asked them when to worry and they said no wet nappies, lethargy and cold hands and feet.

We've been at home for an hour and now he's worse than ever. He's having chills. His temperature is 40.3C and his hands and feet are cold. His skin is mottled. I have just given him nurofen again and he's sleeping now. I don't know what to do. Surely if they've just seen him it can't be that serious right? Chest, ears and throat they said are fine. No UTI.

I'm sure if I call 111 they'll send me to a n e. They always do for small kids. Ugggh.

There's too much other shit going on as well but I'm really worried for Ds.

It takes 30 seconds to scroll down a thread to check if an OP has updated. It probably takes the same length of time to compose a post. I can see why it gets wearing when people go “A&E now!!!!!!” when she’s done that ages ago.

I don't mean to scare you, OP, but after 5 days with a temp there is a chance it could be kawasaki disease? Very rare so often goes overlooked but DS had it when he was about 12 months old and I just thought he had a cold and a persistent fever. He had zero other symptoms but ended up with some damage to his heart because I had never heard of it and it was too late before someone mentioned it.

I’m a nurse, you damn well can. Parents know best. Stand your ground and don’t worry about upsetting anyone in the department. Trust your intuition.

sending love.

@Hall84 thats not correct re high temp and seizure. It’s the speed it goes up not how high it is. Febrile seizures are also not dangerous albeit scary.

Take him immediately it sounds like Sepis not trying to frighten u I live in Ireland lots of kids are contracting meningitis here at the moment two have died under 4 in the last two week after been sent home from A&E wishing you and your little man all the best x

Good update OP.

I hope he gets better soon xx

He's wrong, my son suffers with them. Its the temperature being high that caused them. My son had scarlet fever and started getting them at around 5 days in and after antibiotics

And how quickly it raises*

I think he's better today. He woke up with a high temperature and was miserable but then really perked up with neurofen. Same thing happened after his nap. Temp shot up to 40.1 and he was miserable when he woke up. After neurofen he seemed perfectly fine. I've given up on calpol and just been giving neurofen every 6-8h, not as a pattern but because it seems he crashes every 6h. FFS just realised I don't remember when I gave him the last dose so I'll have to give him calpol next to be on the safe side. To the poster who asked I only give the meds because he's miserable with the high temperature.

Anyway, he's eaten a bit today, which I'm taking as a positive. Not as much as he normally would but a significant amount. Also he's just had one (even if long) nap and didn't seem so tired. Hopefully he's slowly on the mend.

Thanks for the suggestion..I'm so sorry your son had lasting damage. I remember that some kids developed something like Kawasaki disease after COVID as a rare complications didn't they? Anyway I just looked up the symptoms but except for the high temperature he doesn't have anything else.

Yes, I know. It's because he's so poorly with a high temperature. If he was well and happy I wouldn't. I don't wake him to give him meds and his temperature really spikes then. Apparently it's because our cortisol levels are lower when we are sleeping, which seems to allow the temperature to rise more.

Thanks everyone for taking time out to post and for your concern. Much appreciated!!

I hope he recovers soon OP but if you have any doubts please go back to AE or GP.
And remember you can’t give nurofen/ ibuprofen on an empty stomach.

My kids have had mottled skin when they are running temperatures. Usually stripping them down to singlet and undies/nappy has done the trick, also I have sometimes found that if the heater is on and the house is really warm that cooling the house has made a big difference to their temperature.

Same with them cuddling against you, if they have a high temp the extra body heat from me has also made a noticeable difference.

Try a cool bath (not cold just not super warm either) and letting your child play in it for a while, if nothing else, water play always seems to make my children a bit happier.

Really? Why? I didn't know that. He's been barely eating anything so he's been having ibuprofen on an empty stomach almost every time.

Oh no. Just googled it.

Go back please, trust your instincts. Hope all is ok.

Go back doctors get it wrong he sounds like he’s going downhill needs to be admitted Good luck keep your strength up 111 don’t like advising on young children

This, 100% trust your instinct, mothers instinct is often right even when symptoms aren't defined. Emergency depts are encouraged to listen to worried parents for this reason.

Have they done a blood test yet? I think go with your gut.
i had something similar years ago with my son. He was 9.5 months old, what seemed like a cold but constant high temp and because he was presenting ok the gp felt he was ok and said come back after a few days if still high temp. After a few days we did and the gp still couldn’t find anything so said leave it a couple more and if still high then come back. He got worse but was still active enough as he’s always been a very active happy smiley child we could see he was different but for them he seemed a normal baby even though we knew he wasn’t.
in the end on I think day 5 or 6 I actually didn’t give him any calpol in the morning and took him to the gp again as didn’t want to mask any symptoms. He had a very high temp and was tachycardic so they told us to go to the children’s unit in the local acute hospital and we did where they assessed and took bloods. He did end up with an extremely bad nappy so they put us in a side room and they eventually came back and his crp markers were at nearly 200 so we were admitted whilst they did more testing and waited for some cultures on bus bloods. Over the next few days they still couldn’t get to the bottom of it, chest X-ray showing nothing obvious and tried a lumbar puncture but couldn’t get it because he screamed blue murder and is a very string boy - could support his head very very early when new born - they did more bloods and crp was over 250 so there was some form of infection which they just couldn’t find the route cause of. When it got to 289 they decided the only option was iv antibiotics which did the trick and after a couple of days he was able to go home. We were in 4 nights. They eventually concluded they think he had a chest infection because the radiographer could detect what might have been a shadow. But the thing is there was some form of high infection which was causing the temperatures.

6 years on and he’s had an on off temp for the last 8 days (3 days clear in the middle) we self medicated him at home to manage the temps (didn’t involve nhs at that point) and after 4/5 days appeared better although still had a cough. His temp was back up again and last night to 39.2 so gp examined today and even though all seemed clear aside from the chesty cough and sunken eyes, they have prescribed antibiotics and an inhaler for any wheezing because of previous history.

seems odd that your child isn’t getting any treatment given the age and duration of temperature?

Just go back. Mottled skin is something that has to be checked. You're most def. not being unreasonable!

How are they today?
Any improvement?

Apparently this year they are seeing a lot of kids presenting similarly ie with a high temperature that takes about 10 days to resolve rather than the 5-7 days that they normally see with the coming cold. They think it's rsv (respiratory syntactical virus) and having read the symptoms of that (thick yellow snot, high temperature for 10 days) it does seem to fit. I think I've read that because of lockdown rsv (ahd other respiratory infections) has become so common.

Anyway Ds sounds exactly like your son 6 years ago. Life of the party a couple of hours after taking neurofen (oe whenever we were at the hospital), good vital statistics (ie heart rate, oxygen saturation, etc) but they just refused to do a blood test at A n E.

Anyway, I took him to the GP
today. When he woke up today he was in good spirits but felt really cold and his temperature was consistently below 36.5. so I thought I might as well get him checked over. The GP said that his ears and throat are slightly red but nothing to be concerned about but he has actually prescribed antibiotics just on case as the high temperature has been going on for so long. So I started him on antibiotics tonight. I was in two minds as he actually seemed better today..I only had to give him neurofen once after his nap when his temp was 39.9 again and he was very poorly but since then he seemed much better and his temperature has been normal. I wasn't sure if it's a good idea to give antibiotics when he might be on the mend anyway. Anyway after reading your post I don't feel so guilty about it anymore.

Go back now! You can go as many times as you need. Better to be safe than sorry