Just got dh to take dd to A&E, are these normal teething signs? Please some advice and handholding

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

Dd has been ill the last 3 days with fever, and is cutting all four molars top and bottom as well as canines. She's in a lot of pain and hasn't eaten much, anything hard you give her she cries and turns her face away. She is 16 months. She's been having normal wet nappies and a couple of loose ones but poo looks normal etc. mil phoned earlier and said I should take her to GP tomorrow but I just felt like I wanted to get her seen now. No rash or severe drowsiness but she is extremely clingy and hot with cold hands and feet. Dh has now taken her to A&E to be checked. Does anyone have any experience of this at all? I'm so worried :(

[pooka]

38 not terribly high - 37.5 and above is a fever.

Good thing about having a thermometer is that you can take healthy temp a few times to get an idea of what their usual temp is. It varies a fair bit - ds1 and dd can be 36.4 - 37 when completely well. Ds2 usually hovers around 35.8 - 36 on our thermometer.

Also worth bearing in mind that the hospital can easily give quite hefty doses of medication whereas the tendency at home is to under Medicare and be extra careful. They don't do it on age, but on weight. So in hospital my dcs have sometimes had way more medicine than usual.

[BeaWheesht]

Just make sure she doesn't get chilled if you have the window wide open - you don't want her getting too cold so that when her temp starts to rise as meds wear off she gets a sudden spike.

[RandallPinkFloyd]

For the love of god it's like I'm talking in code!

What I meant to say was - it's not a great idea to share a bed with a child if they have a temperature as your body heat will make them hotter. If you want to stay in the same room you're better off sleeping on the floor.


Anyway, the main thing is she's home

[CanIHaveAPetGiraffePlease]

Sounds completely normal! I know how easy it is to get worried though.

Next time if you are really worried that it can't wait until morning, try the out of hours doctor. They may just give you a call and reassure you or if not here you mkae an appointment at the out of hours clinic (here its a separate clinic near A and E). It at least saves all the waiting around!

[RandallPinkFloyd]

Dear god my typing! Better off sleeping on the floor.

[RandallPinkFloyd]

Glad she's feeling better. I would recommend sharing a bed if she's got a temp, if you want to be in the same room you'd be better off slipping in the floor. My nice I know but your body heat will make her a lot warmer if you sleep together.

[RandallPinkFloyd]

The two dowse will most likely have been ibuprofen and paracetamol. That's erects much the standard thing they do with most kids tbh.

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

Dd is home and seems a lot better thank god. V perky and seems happier for the fresh air. Now sleeping in bed with her with window wide open. Temp has gone down a lot. Apparently dh said it was 38 degrees at hospital :s going to keep close eye on her. Thankyou to everyone sincerely, would have driven myself insane xxx

[RandallPinkFloyd]

I'd also say that although its a right pain, the fact that they're waiting 2 hours to see the Dr means that the nurse is obviously happy it's nothing serious.

Hope they're home soon

[RandallPinkFloyd]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's not ideal but as long as she hasn't had the maximum dose allowed over a 24hr period she'll be fine. The reason the doses are advised to be spaced out is to allow the total daily dose to last all day iyswim.

[SirBoobAlot]

He needs to find out what the medicine was and make them aware of the fact she has already had calpol, as if they've just given her more it may make her sleepy.

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

They are waiting in kids section for the doctor and its apparently a two hour wait.

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

Update: the nurse who checked dd just gave her a pipette with medicine in it, despite not asking dh what the dosage was of the last bit of calpol I gave her. Is this normal? I specifically told dh an hour ago that I gave her the calpol, but he bloody told the nurse I had given it to her one to two hours ago which is not the case. She's now had two dosages of calpol and god knows what (nurse didn't say what medicine was and dh and mother in law didn't think to ask) in less than an hour and a half. Now dh is pissy with me for asking him why he didn't do this and that and I think I'm going to have to go down to hospital in a min. For fucks sake

[pooka]

The Braun thermoscan thermometers are pretty good (seems to be what my doc uses). Had a calpol ear one which was very unreliable but user friendly in that beeped when temp over a certain point. But the head was too big for little ears and would deliver really weird readings.

[pooka]

Ah well - ds2 was born in the caul too, but is generally fit as a fiddle! But apparently unlikely to drown . Not much cop at swimming yet though - has the grace in the water of a house brick (is 7).

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

Thanks everyone so much. Yes I will be going online in a min and buying an ear thermometer. It could def be an ear infection possibly from what I'm hearing now. Just awful when kids are ill. She was born in her waters and apparently babies who are born like this don't get the natural bacteria when they are delivered and so are prone to more illnesses. Don't know how true this is but she's already had severe chickenpox and plenty of coughs/colds, complete opposite to ds. Dh text and said kids section is packed at A&E

[CailinDana]

IME they genuinely don't mind you bringing a small child to be checked in A and E even if it turns out to be nothing. Considering how many idiots they get in having fallen over drunk or cut their finger, they are happy to look after a baby who might be very ill. Hot body and cold hands and feet along with lethargy are signs of meningitis so IMO you did the right thing sending her to A and E. Chances are she is just fine but I think you should always trust your instincts and not hang about if you think something is up.

[steppemum]

you do need to get a thermometer. Ear thermometer is best

The difference between hot and miserable and 39 and hot and miserbale and 41 is an ambulance!
You can make much better judgements and it is much less stressful to have concrete information to work from

Hope she is ok and feeling better soon.

[RandallPinkFloyd]

Sorry, missed the last few posts. Do you know roughly what her temperature was?

[BertieBotts]

I used to get loads of ear infections but no discharge.

[RandallPinkFloyd]

Sounds like normal teething to me too. My DS really suffered when his molars came through, they're big buggers!

He was very clingy and would cuddle to sleep on my knee a lot. I think it was because his sleep at night was disturbed.

What was her temp?

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

Thankyou pooka. I'm hoping it is just teething

[pooka]

Dd was plagued by ear infections from age 1 -3 years. She never had discharge though and didn't really do ear grabbing. Would fall over a lot, be hot and miserable.

[pooka]

One of my three had temp for several days wthi teething.

Recently my youngest had temp when he was brewing chicken pox and pre spots. And all of them have had temps with various other bugs and colds (lots doing the rounds at the moment).

Is rotten. Worth getting checked out by doctor (ears query) but not A&E. the NHS website www.nhs.uk is pretty good at giving info re: what constitutes an emergency, and there's a symptom checker that flags up what level of care (I.e. self care/GP/urgent care centre/A&E in ascending order) might be appropriate.

[WaynettaSlobsLover]

The late Hope your dc is better soon too xx