Temperature dropped below 36 after taking Nurofen

[Colourworld]

My younger DS who is two has been having flu with his brother. It was late evening and his fever was higher than 39 so we gave him 1/2 tea spoon of Nurofen. It is advised to give 1 spoon. In 3 hours his temperature was below 36 and we had to warm him up. It was so scary. I wish I knew about it. Looks as Nurofen is not that safe.

I think its possibly more likely that your thermometer isn't too accurate.

No, the thermometer was accurate and we used two thermometers: one digital and one mercury.

I assume it was a children's one and not the adult one?
You shouldn't be giving children medicines on a tea spoon as you have no idea how much you are giving.
My little boy was really ill a couple of years ago, his temp kept going up to 39.9 and then within a couple of hours it would be down to 35.2. It was a really bad virus he had and nothing to do with the medicine he had.
It was very scarey though.
If it happens again take him to the GP or out of hours.

I work in a hospital and we have to provide our own thermometers as patients keep nicking the expensive in your ear one.

So I have a £7 one from Boots that says "for home use only" in the instructions. It isn't accurate, I have to take the temp of every healthy woman in labour who comes in and most of them are hypothermic with a temp of 35 something. Its not just mine but the other staffs' theremometers are the same

Hmm, you see my children seem to naturally have a temperature of 36.1 and so do I. We only hit 37 when we are sick. Take your own temperature and see where you sit. I know whenever I've been in hospital (often) they've been quite happy to accept 36.1 or 36.0 as 'normal for you'.

Our expensive in-ear thermometer put DTD1 at 37.5 last week - took her to the dr anyway as she'd been complaining of earache. Dr measured her at 39.5. My DTDs and I are regularly below 37 degrees as "normal" - I don't think it's really anything to worry about.

Of course we used the spoon provided. We did not give the whole spoon but only half (for his age you need 5mg), yet it still worked, a bit too much. I somehow doubt it was because of the flu virus. Nurofen decreases the temperature. Our GP said that if the temperature is too high then it is better to use Nurofen than Calpol for immediate effect.

How about the mercury one? This should show an accurate temperature. We have a Calpol ear thermometer but it is not really working that well. It never showed the correct temperature.

Nurofen will not bring your child's temp down to dangerous levels. Also, even though my kids's and mine normal temp is 36.6 (for underarm reading), we all had much lower reading than that from time to time.

Nothing to panic about,imo.

And range for normal axillary readings is 35.5-37 iirc. What was his?

I have never really paid attention to his normal body temperature just only when he is unwell. Today his temperature was around 36.5 or higher. Actually, I think even mine is never 36.6 but lower. What are the most accurate thermometers?

rectal ones.

I wouldn't worry, my DS is like this too. I've been told its quite normal and something to do with the body cooling itself when theres a fever. It can read like this when you've been outside in the cold too, or had a bath.

Don't quote me on what I've said, but be reassured I've experienced the same and its been fine.