Conflicting advice - medicating a fever in a child?

[Embelline]

DS is three and gets frequent fevers whenever he is unwell - which is a lot as he goes to nursery! - sometimes as high as 40.
we’ve been advised in the past to treat the child not the fever so we only do back to back meds when it hits 40 or when he’s obviously unwell/shivering/clearly not feeling right.

we had a GP appointment this week as I have Strep and he’s started to show symptoms of it and she asked how high his fever had been and whether I’d given medication. It had got up to 38.8 but I hadn’t given calpol because he was happy, eating and drinking and watching tv. She said quite abruptly that that was a high fever and I should have been medicating and should do back to back medicine throughout the night.

ive Been feeling terrible ever since like I’ve been making him suffer unnecessarily but he was honestly fine apart from the number on the thermometer.

this afternoon he has a fever of 38.5 and is shivering and upset so I’ve given him some medicine, like I normally would.

I was just curious as to what everyone else does?

You're advised NOT to give ibuprofen and paracetamol to keep the fever down? Maybe it's more specific but in our case it's because he suffers clusters, in kids who have more than 1 seizure pee episode of sickness evidence shows it reduces the risk of clusters and multiple seizures. I'm really interested to know if your child is the same? We've had 2 status epileptics, the most recent lasting almost an hour though and further clusters could be fatal hence our preventative meds at this point. Does your child see a rheumatologist for something related? Sorry, I don't know any other parents of kids with complex seizures, only simple seizures, I don't mean to be nosy.

sorry wandering Post button.

I only take their temp if they are feeling out of sorts or clearly looking ill, so I only know they have a fever if they are uncomfortable. I don't recall being aware of a high fever in a child who seems perfectly well and happy.

Never owned a thermometer. I always went how they felt on chest or back.

I think the "let non-dangerous fevers do their job unless it makes the patient too miserable" school of thought is perhaps more common now and it does make sense when you think about it.

I mean, you can ask different doctors the same question and get totally different advice.

Our old GP (who I adored) always said at vax time "now the leaflet will say only use calpol if the baby gets a fever afterwards, save yourself some hassle and dose the baby up before the vaccination so they won't be so miserable afterward!"🤣

I can usually tell with DS when he’s getting a fever from chest and back and the fact his feet and hands go ice cold and he gets a particular look.
I usually take his temp then to check he’s not above 40 - ever since he hit 40 we’ve been advised to just keep and eye and make sure it doesn’t spike over hence being more handy with a thermometer these days!

@Forgooodnesssakenow and there is also evidence to show administering calpol and anti-pyretics during fever may indeed be the cause of some seizures. Always good to remember the innate intelligence of our body is always working for us.

YANBU to treat your child and not the number. You've unfortunately been given advice by an indoctrinated healthcare professional. Not only is a fever a critical part of the immune response and you can utilise it to your advantage, but paracetamol isn't the angel of all medication the vast majority of people believe it to be either. Using it sparingly is exactly the thing to do, just like we should be with antibiotics.

I’m a paediatric nurse and agree that it is best to treat the child not the fever. If the high temperature is making them feel miserable, dose of calpol, if not leave them be.
I will say that not all GPs are as clued up in paediatrics as they should be and as a result are often over cautious. The number of times working in CAU, we were sent a patient via GP referral, only to tell the parents to give paracetamol and manage at home was ridiculous. They were referred simply because the GP wasn’t confident or was reluctant to diagnose a baby/child so sent them to hospital to see a paediatrician.

@unconventionalopinion thanks. Unfortunately we still have to use it and ibuprofen pretty frequently when he’s unwell as he regularly gets very high fever with illness that makes him distressed and feel poorly. But that’s another reason I try to make a judgement call, he has to have the medicine a lot anyway so if I feel he’s okay and doesn’t need it I’m not going to give him to him for the sake of it!

Im hoping he outgrows the frequent fever with illness (doctor expects him to) and hopefully as his immune system gets better he won’t need the meds as much anyway as it really worries me that he has to have it often!

Can you link to this evidence because the aetiology of febrile seizures doesn't support that

OP I can give you anecdotal good news on outgrowing fevers. My eldest ran 40 degree temperatures with anything that even looked like an illness until about 6 and now…has barely had one since and certainly not with simple colds any more.