Would you get DD4 seen for 40.7 fever ?

[poorlya]

It only started in last night and responds to medicine.

But she keeps shivering and spiking up to 40.7.

I need to give meds every 3 hours at the most before it spikes that high again.

I don't know where it's coming from. No cough, cold, throat looks ok to me ( I'm not a doctor ).

She's been to the bathroom fine, I've been making her drink lots of water etc / trying to keep her cool.

I wouldn't usually go to seek help so fast, but the fever keeps spiking so high.

a fever alone is nothing to worry about unless baby under 3 months old. Fever is a sign body is working properly to fight infection. If fever lasts longer than a few days you would seek advice, but high fever alone is NOT an emergency without any of the other red flag signs (google them). If that’s the only issue and she’s drinking and weeing and breathing ok then she’s just got a virus, calpol and a cuddle and chill! But if in doubt / instinct says she’s seriously poorly then of course call someone actually medical rather than listen to randomers on a forum :)

No, I look at my child not the number on the thermometer. My youngest can be playing with a temperature of 39°. It’s when he stops I worry.

The height of the temperature isn’t necessarily an indicator of how ill they are. Everyone has a different threshold. Hence why some children have febrile convulsions.

You can be septic with a low temperature.

Oh I know, my youngest decided to do that with a UTI, 35.4 and couldn't get her warmed up, just sweated herself colder!

Kids! You only know the one you parent!!

It totally makes sense. You need to rule it out.

I guess mine always had good oxygen levels ( so far ), which meant they could rule sepsis out.

But they have all the other symptoms like high respiratory rate, high heart rate, high fever, but I guess in the absence of a low oxygen rate - it's all just normal.

Interestingly at the GP earlier, he looked in her throat first and said, yep she has tonsillitis and that's what's causing this high fever.

He didn't really examine her after, he just asked if she had a cough and I said no.

Then I said that it's interesting she's not complaining her throat hurts and also when I've asked her directly to her throat hurts of if anything hurts, she's said no. He said oh ok... and then he got out the oxygen / heart rate monitor for her finger. And I did think whether maybe after my comment he thought ' let me be sure this is really coming from her throat and not something else '.. he didn't say that of course, but it did cross my mind that it made him just double check. Or maybe he was going to do that all along, but I got the feeling he double checked because of what I said. He literally only looked in her throat before I said and started writing on the computer immediately. It seemed like he was sort of done.

Both my kids seem to run a degree above normal, always have, and when they come down with something bad, their temp spikes over 40 every single time, and like you op, I've kind of got used to it, although it's still always concerning, I know this is sort of normal for them. Dd2 had a bout of getting high fevers, which would results in febrile seizures, which was really frightening! We were once sent an ambulance after she had a febrile seizure, which happened when her temp reached 40.7. The paramedics said to give nurofen interspaced with Calpol every two hours (so give nurofen, then two hours later give Calpol, then two hours later give nurofen again) until the temp had stabilised, and hadn't gone back up over 39.5 between the two hours, and this was the best way we found to control the temp, and stop the seizures. I know what you mean about not wanting to waste people's time, when you know what is "normal" for your child, but also feeling worried, as everything online leads you to believe anything over 40 is awful. Hope she's feeling better soon x

Aren't febrile convulsions also linked to how quickly the temperature goes up or even down ? Hence why you're not supposed to cool them down super quick or throw them in a cool bath all of a sudden ?

Yes it’s thought they’re linked to the speed the temperature goes up rather than how high. And giving anti-pyretics (calpol etc) won’t prevent them.

My son's seizures have been life threatening, ambulance, resus, hospital stay after each one.

See my kids run cool, 36.3 when we'll, constantly, as soon as they hit 37 I just write off the rest of the week in my head.

But also, unless we had a seizure a 40temp on its own wouldn't take me to a and e.

The features in the ops case that would are a temp not coming below 38 am hour after alternating calpol and ibuprofen and no clear sign of origin of fever.

That's when it's tonsillitis, ear infection, UTI territory and they need checked over and likely antibiotics.

In this case it was tonsillitis and required antibiotics, the reason I'd go to a and e is we have a kids hospital a and e and were encouraged with kids to go there if they are likely to need swabs paediatrician or admission for IV antibiotics

5% of kids are prone to febrile seizures. 2% of that 5% have complex ones like my son.

It's linked to way more than temp, it's linked to the development fo their hypothalamus and the cytokines of the particular virus.

Eg my son was 40degrees with chicken pox for 2 days, no seizure, 37.7 with adenovirus, almost died of ongoing seizures.

My point being knowing what I know about seizures unless you have a kid whose prone to seizures only 5% will ever have one and 97© of those will be completely harmless and well under 5 minutes.

The fever itself as I say isn't the worry, it's the not coming below 38 despite Max meds and no obvious cause such as snotty flu

@Cmonluv you know what's weird with her fever today, sometimes the meds help, but other times they don't help that much.

I gave her nurofen at 4:30 and she was still feeling cold and seemed really unwell. It didn't really move her fever that time. Then I gave her paracetamol at 6:30, because she was really really hot again (40.3) and that's really worked and she's up and about and doing stuff

She was properly down and out earlier, even after the nurofen. It didn't really help at all. I don't get it.

It's going to be a long night I think.

@Philthedendron wasn't the only poster who thought your "likely septic" post was overly dramatic and could cause distress. You're the one who seems to think you know it all here.

She really wasn't "out of line". Your knee jerk defensive response was really uncalled for.

You don't have to lash out when people criticise you, you know? You could just fuck off and think about it...

Tonsillitis is miserable, it’s also the only times I’ve had fevers over 40. I’ve been so unwell with tonsillitis.

Plenty of fluids, however she’ll take it. Ice lollies, water, lemonade (although the bubbles sting!). Hope she’s better soon.

I came on to say tonsillitis! But I see I'm a few hours late 😁. My 2 only ever got that hot with tonsillitis. Antibiotics and they bounced back in 24 hours. Then I spent the next 5 days chasing them round the house trying to syringe the rest of the medicine into them!
Btw there is an awful lot of shite advice on this thread. It is not recommended to try to cool a child with a fever particularly if it's coming down with calpol/ibuprofen.
And a high temp with shivers doesn't mean it is sepsis ffs! I've had various ailments over the years (eg flu) where I've been boiling hot according to the thermometer but felt freezing and was shivering. That's just a fever!
I hope a few posters have at least learned something.
Best wishes to your little one OP, bet she'll be back to normal in no time 😊

Hardly! you can move along if my response isn't for you. This is not an election - I am not posting for likes.

The lesson is to seek medical advice rather than diagnose a child you don't know and haven't seen online. It could be anything!
Hope your child is ok OP.

Yeah I know those fevers, only ever bacterial tonsillitis or chest infections but it seems to be all the meds hit their system properly at once. Neurofen doesn't work well for my son unless it's an hour after calpol but for my daughter neurofen is the first thing to bring her temp down. Seriously, kids and humans in general are weird.

@Cmonluv yeah I think you could be onto something there.. this morning nurofen worked really well..

Also those sayings eosis versus anxious parent... The thing is you don't know. You as a parent, we as parents are looking at reason to get a kid checked.

Temp over 40, not coming down, no obvious source, lethargy all COULD be sepsisit COULD also be flu but the thing is when there are enough risk factors you get prompt medical attention just incase. Because if your child is the 1% or whatever who is about to have sepsis you want to be in the right place when it hits.

Eg, my son's first seizure he was 39-40 degrees, it wouldn't come down and he was wired, no signs of illness at all but couldn't get to sleep and yhen felt super hot. At out of hours he was running round (10 months old) climbing into cupboard and laughing but they sent us to kids hospital due to temp and a heart rate of 170, 15 mins after arriving at the kids hospital he had a grand Mal seizure that took 30 mins and 3 lots of medication to stop and required resuscitation as he stopped breathing. Had we not been at hospital I strongly doubt he'd have survived it.

It was just tonsillitis and a course of antibiotics and a couple nights in hospital he was right as rain (until the next time) but at each point he just had enough risk factors to get him seen, then send him to kids hospital then suddenly he was an emergency.

Most of us aren't saying it WILL be serious just there's enough with a temp of 40 not settling and no source of temp to get checked.

Yes!

That sounds so scary !

When I put the request in at the GP, they called me back within 5 minutes to offer an appointment.

I think they really do want to see a child in this situation quite quickly, to rule out that it's something very serious.

Sepsis is more likely to present with a low temperature (below 35) - my son has had sepsis and his temp was 34.8. This was the main reason my GP pushed for hospital admission

My niece is often the same with temps over 40- also only with tonsillitis. They don’t ever admit her and always seem quite calm about it at a and e. Interesting that is tonsillitis causing it with yours too.

Makes sense, but two years ago my DS had a temp of 40.5 that wasn’t coming down with alternating Ibuprofen and paracetamol. I was worried so called 111 and was told he didn’t need to be seen unless he developed a rash or started convulsing and then I could should call 999. I had to insist on an OOH’s appointment, which was scheduled for 2 hours later at 1 am. We arrived to a completely empty waiting area. DS was diagnosed with an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. From the responses on this thread it sounds like NHS guidelines vary in different regions.

It's more that 111 post COVID was awful and everyone was left unless clearly dying. Thank goodness it's all more normal now.