To think illnesses can't come on this quick

[Talkabtit101]

Went to London Tuesday - went to Harry potter studios, and then stayed in a hotel for a couple nights, used swimming pool and went shopping on the Wednesday.

DD (5) got back home this morning and fell asleep a few hours after around 4 then woke up with a 38.5 fever and crying saying she didn't know what was wrong but felt poorly.

Now in our history of illnesses has rarely had a fever so I've succumbed to a wee bit of panic.

Just looking for some advice on do illnesses happen this quickly?? Could've been the only way we'd caught it as was WFH the few days before and DD is homeschooled.

I've gave calpol around half hour ago and fever is now at 38.2.

Posting for traffic and maybe a hand hold because I do have anxiety and ocd and I'm never good at handling illnesses, especially fevers. Thank you in advance.

Definitely can get sick that quickly. I remember putting DS for a bath and doing my makeup in the bathroom mirror while he played behind me. I turned around 2 minutes later and he was absolutely covered in chicken pox.

I look after the sickest people at work and it doesn't cause me any unrest but the second my children are sick I fall to pieces. I have no rational thoughts because they are my whole world. I take them in bed with me and wake at least hourly to check they are OK. I actually tend to not check their temp, I know when they have a fever and treat appropriately, the numbers don't add much. Also paracetamol tends to not bring the fever down so much for my kids like ibuprofen would. Your DC doesn't have any worrying features to me at the moment, sounds quite par for the course with a 5yo viral infection. Hope they feel much better soon

Yes, very normal. That temp isn't particularly high either, I'd be giving Calpol or ibuprofen as she's probably feeling a bit miserable but I wouldn't be worrying at all. Definitely "oh FFS, not another dose" territory rather than anything worrying.

The NHS has a good article on fevers in kids, have a read of that and be aware of the symptoms that are concerning - you'll likely not see them!

Go by the child not the number on the thermometer. It's probably your run of the mill virus that most kids get a few of every year.

In adults (not sure about small children), illnesses that come on very suddenly with a high temperature are more likely to be an influenza variant. Illnesses that creep in over a few days with tiredness, a sore throat, etc., slowly getting worse, tend to be common cold viruses (rhino- or coronaviruses). Covid is a bit more like a cold in having a slower onset than like a flu.

I had a child go home normally at 5.20 parent messaged at 6 to say now covered in spots and temp of 40

Very normal and a fever is a healthy sign of a fully functioning and robust immune system. You don’t need to give calpol for the sole purpose of reducing a fever and actually, allowing it to do its job will usually reduce the duration of the illness.

Try not to worry. Lots of rest, cuddles and regular sips of water. It will pass ❤️

You’ve been lucky if you’ve got to 5 without too many nasty illnesses.

I’ve generally found with both of mine that they manage fevers pretty well until they hit 39 plus and then they seem to be unwell. Ive only seen drs concerned about the actual temp twice. Once when one of mine hit 41 and once when the same child had a raging kidney infection and her heart rate was through the roof so wanted to get the temp down to try and bring heart rate lower. Generally they’ve always seen fever as part of a picture (eg if a child is well a fever in isolation isn’t a problem as such).

@Butterbean21 yes and yes 😅 when my kids are sick I'm ridiculously unreasonable. Due to my background, I'm collecting data and forming spreadsheets, checking them 24h until I see improvement then I nap longer at their feet. It's so scary to love them so much!

I was just going to type that exact time frame!
Was getting ready to go to Badminton Horse Trials, and felt a bit “headachey”
Within half an hour I was vomiting hard- and was puking on and off for 24 hours.

I was sooooo grateful it had come on before I’d left home.

Had to cancel friends- she replied “ You really MUST be Ill to miss Badminton.

That very same friend when our sons were toddlers were in the library 📚 when she said she felt nauseous.

We walked home, and within half an hour she was taken by surprise and was sick.

I carry a bucket 🪣 around when I have Norovirus, Eg, to let dog out into garden.
Even the smell of her ( good quality) food made me vomit 🤢😂.

We've found calpol rubbish for fevers, nurofen is much better! Hope she's feeling better soon x

Yes, my LO got very poorly within a few hours of swimming, he did vomit as well as had a fever and a cough. I went to GP and they said it's very likely he picked up a bug through swallowing pool water.

Yes especially with flu or a sickness bug.

I had flu in my 20s.

We went out for dinner with my husbands family. Sat down, ordered, had a sip of wine. Started shaking, thought I might be sick, left the table, got a taxi home and stayed in bed for three days.

Was still feeling faint 3 weeks later.

Also op, does it really matter where they caught the bug from? Children get bugs.

38.5 is nothing! My eldest used to get 40.5 fevers whenever she got them! Calpol would bring it down to 39.....it happened a few times and now she is almost 13 so outgrew getting fevers (cant remember the last time she had one). Just make sure your dd stays hydrated and not floppy.

Alternate Calpol and calprofen every 2 hrs. With kids they recover quickly too. Fevers make them feel odd but the meds will really help. Hope she’s well for Christmas.

With norovirus, it took me half an hour to go from normal and enjoying a lovely big bunch of green seedless grapes to doing a remake of the green vomit scene in The Exorcist. It was repulsive and I couldn't tolerate the thought of solid food for several days. And then my DH got it, except he at least had some warning. Viruses strike fast and hard and they wipe you out and make staying in bed a very good idea. The more I slept, the better I felt.

Original covid was ~5 days.

Newer variants can be as fast as 2

That would end up overdosing the child.

calpol is a maximum of 4 doses in 24 hours and ibuprofen a maximum of 3-4 doses a day.

Noro is a fastening bug though. Albeit terrifying. All it does is paralysis your stomach. Everything in there gets ejected at force no matter where you are digesting it.

And it's hard to kill. It can stay alive in still water for weeks and alive on surfaces for a while and you're only immune to it for a short time afterwards. It's the only time and other stomach bugs that I use bleach in the house on all the touch points after a good soaping down.

I've always been prone to throat infections so could always recognise the first signs...scratchy throat, worsening over 6-12 hrs before becoming full bore infection etc.

Then a couple of years ago I went from happily working from home in fine health, to suddenly having searing pain behind my nose on one side. I carried on working but within 30 mins I came over feeling so ill, I had to go and lie down. That was the start of a 4-day flu which was mostly high temp and diarrhoea. Great fun.

Our grandkids have all been on and off with temperatures lately. I hope she feels better soon OP.

DD just had flu and came down with it 2 days after only possible exposure. Went from fine to very high temp in 2 hours. Flu can do that. And there's a lot about.

You need to give nurofen to get a persistent temperature down, it’s more effective than calpol.

Just to add in case your child has asthma, do not give ibuprofen to your child if they have asthma without speaking to a doctor first.

I only mention this as I've seen people advise alternating paracetmol and ibuprofen. Which is the correct thing to do unless the person in need suffer suffers from asthma.

Have you actually read the NHS link someone shared above ? There is no need to seek medical attention for fever in a child after one day unless other symptoms on that Amber/Red list warrant it. It’s very normal to have a virus/temp in December !

Yes. I booked an hotel in another city for a weekend break (non refundable). Less than 12 hours later I came down with Covid including a bad cold and fever.

When I was 21 I developed an auto immune disease from nowhere. I had pain in my shins in the morning and within hours my temperature was over 42 degrees.

in my experience after taking medication my temperature would rise a bit before it went down.

A mild fever is common with these bugs going around, my youngest had a headache and a temperature of 38.5 when he woke up on Saturday, having been fine when he went to bed on Friday night. It just stayed like that all day, he slept a lot and was sick a few times in the afternoon, but by 10am on Sunday he was ravenous and bouncing off the walls. If it's creeping up to 39.5 that's when I'd start to be more concerned.