Would a temp of 40.4 freak you out for toddler ?

[hookline]

Some people would go to hospital for this kind of temperature.

My boy is 18 months and has had a temperature all day ( no other obvious symptoms).

Temperature was around 38-38.5 all day. I've been giving him paracetamol and ibuprofen. He's been lethargic when his fever was high but when the medicine kicked in, he'd be pretty happy.

Since this evening it's risen quite dramatically to 40.4 just now ( he did sleep on me so it made him hotter ).

He was wrenching a bit earlier, but no vomiting.

I have him medicine an hour ago, but temp has just risen ( but was also sleeping on me ). Anyway it went up to 40.4. I've now taken off his very thin top. His temperature is now 40.

Is a high temperature like this a reason to take them to a and e?

I think if it responds to medication it's probably ok.

Or am I being too relaxed about it ?

I would push for a change to try a different antibiotic if it is bacterial clarithromycin does not always work and it can be resistant - if he isn’t allergic to penicillin move over to that

I am surprised they didn’t give him amoxicillin as the first line

It's because I mentioned that he had a lot of diarrhoea when he was on co amoxiclav a few months ago. It was severe and gave him an unbelievable nappy rash.

The doctor at the time said 'normal side effect'. When I mentioned it to the doctor in a and e, he said that's definitely an allergy and he won't give him anything containing penicillin. The doctor came to the conclusion really quickly. I questioned it a bit and said that maybe it was just a side effect like another doctor said. But doctor in a and e insisted we take this other antibiotic. They didn't have it in a and e at the time and I had to wait and get it the next day. It was annoying and I wished I hadn't said anything.

My son has had Penicillin and amoxicillin before and he was ok, just a bit of an upset tummy. There was only a bigger problem with the co amoxiclav. He's not been diagnosed with any allergies to medication or anything.

No don't worry at all. This is also generally my impression and why they didn't take it more seriously with my son. He's had periods of playing the last couple of days when I've managed to get his temperature down. Which is great news. When I haven't managed to get his temperature down, he's pretty out of it and just wants to lie on me. This is what both my children are like when they're unwell.

The difference this time is that the fever has been so high, it's been hard to get it down to a level where he's well enough to play. Usually they're fevers go up to maybe 38.5-39. They then get sleepy and sad and don't want to play. When I then give them medicine, the fever comes down to 37.5 or even below and they act normal again. With this illness, the fever has been hovering at 40. So we've only really managed to get it down to 39 or so. Which is still just too high for playing. I think it's common to have high fevers with tonsillitis unfortunately.

I really didn't expect it to rise again in the night and this morning thought. He had 4 doses of AB by that point.

But like someone said, maybe I need to wait until he's had 6 doses.

Hopefully the doctor will be able to reassure you at your appointment 🤞

Thinking of you and ds and hope todays app goes well. Please update us
I had my first hospital experience with my toddler last month and it's worrying. I hope he is better soon. Please remember to drink and eat x

Thank you. Im really used to it! My DD was hospitalised at 3 weeks because she was covered in eczema which got infected. She then had to be hospitalised again at 5 months because she had a very high temperature that wouldn't shift, but no other symptoms.

So they did a lumbar puncture and kept her in a couple of days for suspected meningitis.

She didn't have meningitis, it turns out.

Then when she was toddler age, she kept having trouble breathing and needed to go to hospital a lot for steroids as she kept having croup.

Second DC has been through it too since he was a little baby with severe coughing fits ( since 8 weeks old ). He has an inhaler now to prevent this.

He's also been in this year for severe constipation and blood on his stool.

I'm quite used to the hospital at this point. Thankfully my kids always make a quick recovery usually 🙏

@HeadAgainstWall0923 Thank you for that insight, that's really helpful. I was only speaking from my own experience of a child that gets very high fevers and worryingly ill very quickly, but then bounces back quickly too. A lengthy high fever would freak me out.

Fingers crossed the fever doesn't go too high again, OP 🤞

We've just been seen by the out of hours GP who looked in his throat and said it's still full of white spots and swollen. He says the antibiotics haven't worked so has put him on penicillin now. So glad we went. He does seem better since that ibubrofen but I'm now anxious to get him on that penicillin very fast !

DS went up to 40 recently and 111 insisted we go to A&E asap where they then tested for sepsis. But we were told any temperature (even 38/39) requires A&E if it doesn’t go down with paracetamol or is ongoing for more than 24 hours as it could be sepsis.

Glad they switched the antibiotics, really sounds like they weren't working. Fingers crossed the penicillin works quickly and he's better soon.

Hope he gets better soon! All the best.

If you're worried keep going back, the risk of sepsis from a bacterial infection like this is high. There is a sepsis campaigner whose son William died after a similar illness to op son.

I called the ambulance twice for my dd who had a temp of 40, the first one checked her over and said take to GP. The second one reluctantly took her to a&e, once in a&e she developed stridor and ended being intubated for two days.

Trust your instincts and keep going back is my opinion.

He seems absolutely fine at the moment. I haven't needed to give him any fever medicine since this morning. I'm stressing out he's going to get really sick, because essentially the antibiotic he was on hasn't worked. But he seems himself now.

I am pleased he changed the antibiotic as it did seem it wasn’t working hopefully this one should but don’t be afraid to go back if it doesn’t and he needs other ones

OP unfortunately penicillin "allergy" is vastly over diagnosed (basically its not) and its just a more extreme side effects scale true allergy is anaphylaxis and symptoms of like hives etc.

My dad was told for years he was allergic to it, him not having it nearly killed him when he had sepsis markers with a serious infection and the Dr's only agreed to try penicillin based antibiotics as he was so unwell and I was explaining his reaction which showed no signs of true allergy.
Very different if he's showing any signs of a IGE reaction. The yellow nappy cream is really good too can't remember it's name think it begins with M.

He definitely seems so much better, perhaps the initial antibiotics did have some effect.

I'm glad he's on penicillin now though, as I know that's the need one for what he has.

Yes, agreed. I developed anaphylaxis to IV based penicillin out of nowhere. I then had 2 separate drug allergy challenges as an outpatient. Both times there were a few of us doing penicillin allergy challenges. Both times I was the only one who reacted and was deemed to have an allergy. (I wasn’t being nosy but chairs next to each other with an open curtain isn’t very private!)

Hope your little one improves, OP x

It can be so hard to judge. One of mine never really spiked high fevers- the other one has been a proper pain as she spikes high but doesn’t manage it well. She basically gets mega tachycardic which freaks everyone out. Have gone a whole year without though thankfully - last time was strep throat and it is nasty. When I had it I felt rougher than I had for many other things- I could barely keep my eyes open. The one time I’ve seen staff be worried about the temp itself rather than the symptoms was when she hit 41 and at that point they were targeting the fever not the symptoms.

I hope your little one is on the mend. It’s such a horrible time when they’re so poorly.

https://www.what0-18.nhs.uk/resources/parent-workshops/fever

Out of interest are you in USA? Rxing different there

@Scottishskifun are you thinking of metanium?

UK

His fever hasn't returned.. 🙏

He has started coughing now though. And I feel responsible as he probably got a chill from being dressed in light clothes ( t shirt and legs out ) during the night to keep him cool. He gets really bad coughs ( has an inhaler ). 😢

Glad feeling better OP. Our 14 month old has been running a fever for a few days. Yesterday afternoon it hit 40.6. She's a very bouncing, chatty little poppet but she went so quiet and floppy. She would just silently lay on me which is totally not like her. Loves her food but wouldn't eat a thing and just wanted water/squash. Doesn't help that NHS website sort of freaks you out with their 'signs to look out for, for serious illnesses' an has a 40+ temp for babies and toddlers! By the time the emergency doctor called an hour later her temp had suddenly come down and she was jabbering away and mooching her sisters snacks! That 111 service is brilliant, every time I get the call back, my kids miraculous recover and I come across as a neurotic dad 🤣

Oh @hookline, you latest post makes me think you might finally be truly believing your worryingly poorly child is finally getting better. All those worries you’ve held tight inside you until you were confident he was genuinely better might come be crashing in on you all at once now (I find that happens to me). You’ve done a wonderful job these last few days - your posts show that every time you’ve done what you think is safest for your child even when at times it’s been a bit personally uncomfortable to go back in for one more check up when you’ve think it’s highly likely chances they’ll tell you child is fine (which I think most people instinctively feel is feedback they shouldn’t have gone when actually they’re mostly just really relieved to be reassured). You were right your child did need checking. Doctor’s are people and are just as capable of making little mistakes in their jobs as the rest of us are in ours - like over diagnosing penicillin allergies -but little mistakes in their job has so much bigger consequence (as pp pointed out this did happen for her parent who got so ill he had to risk the allergy it turned out was actually just a more extreme than usual intolerance) I think it’s why they always say some version of come back in if you’re still worried. If they say that more than once to me within one visit, I now think they’ve done that because my child has them worried. They’re symptoms me feeling a little borderline- it’s 99.99% likely theyll be ok going home and the doctor has to decide in a climate where beds in hospital are tight if they can live with the risk of sending your child home when maybe they would’ve send for observations if “wasting a bed unnecessarily” wasn’t such a current pressure . They too likel the parents would rather be sure (I’ve also had a doctor call me up the next day to check because my child’s symptoms have been playing on their mind as they said it was ok for me to take them home).

I hope you’re not feeling too under the weather yourself and you get the chance of a good night’s uninterrupted sleep soon as you must be shattered.

Sorry that was a really long way to say be as kind to yourself as you can be right now because I expect you’re shattered!