Urgent - child fever advice pls

[lisalisa]

My 7 year old has had a fever since about mid night last night . I’ve guven calpol and nurifen regularly and as often as I can but can’t get the fever to budge . Usually with dad before and my other kids the fever would go away if only temporarily with medication . She has a dry cough with it and intermittent headache and stomach ache but not in terrible pain . Not sure what to do as I’m not sure if it’s dangerous for her to continue with fever like this even despite the medication. No thermometer but at a guess it’s close to 39c

Should have said with dd not dad

You need a thermometer. You can't guess a temperature. You don't know if it is really going down or not

You really need a thermometer. 36 is a normal temp. 39 is when you need to worry

Sorry but I second a thermometer...you can’t guess and it’ll give you clear indication as to recovery or otherwise. Ear therms are less than £5.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/fever-in-children/

That might help. The reason we're all saying you need a thermometer is you'll get asked about temps if you ring 111.

Sorry, mouth therms I meant to say.

A temp itself isn't concerning. It's the fact you don't know if it is going up or coming down as you have no thermometer.

No need to worry if the temp is 39 if it reduces with paracetamol or ibuprofen but I guess you have no idea of knowing which is a bit difficult. You may end up wasting a dr's time which at this time of year is horrific.

But if you are worried try and get an out of hours appointment. Or a thermometer

Is she alert and interested in things and drinking and breathing easily and a reasonable color? If so then she's OK regardless of her temperature. If not, then she needs to see a doctor, , again regardless of her temperature.

I would hope if the child was unresponsive or far less alert than usual then the OP would have her to a Dr rather than post on mumsnet

Thank you all. We’ve had the ear thermometers in the past but they have stopped working . I’ll pop out and get another one now.
Re Bertrand Russell’s question yes at various points of the day she has asked me to read to her albeit her eyes have been closed and she seemed to be sleromung ( but wasn’t ) so not actively interested but certainly aware . She also coloured for a while this morning . Wanted a warm bath this evening which I gave her but then started shivering and asked to come out after 3 minutes . Not drinking much water but she is having warm tea with milk and honey fairly frequently

Sleromung is sleeping ! Autocorrect !

It’s not a good idea to give neurofen or any ibuprofen based painkiller for an unknown fever. Paracetamol is better

You need a thermometer. Fever in an of itself isn’t always a good sign of how ill a child is. Some serious illness produce only low fevers and some mild ones produce very high ones. Ds had one this weekend of 39.5 - rest, fluids, and keeping an eye on him was all we did.

Advice on fever in children here: www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/treating-high-temperature-children.aspx

Ear thermometers are useless in children. Under the arm is most accurate

"You need a thermometer. Fever in an of itself isn’t always a good sign of how ill a child is"

A contradiction in terms.And an object lesson in why thermometers are not necessarily helpful.

OP- are you worried about her? Does she seem ill to you? If so, ring ooh.

Yes if you are worried you contact a Dr and that has been said upthread. But if someone is saying 'I am worried about a temperature'snd then has no way of measuring that temperature then people are going to advise them to do just that

It’s not a contradiction. Fever over a certain point always needs help. Without a number she only knows the child feels warm. How the skin feels is not always a good indicator of core temp. She buys a thermometer. If it’s 41.5 she goes straight to get help. If it’s 39 and her child is otherwise alright she doesn’t.

Fever of 39 can be serious or nothing depending on what it is. But without a thermometer you can’t even take that first step.

Hope your kid is ok, OP.

Thanks all . Bought thermometer and last night at 11.30pm was 39.8. Nurofen brought it down but to
What is difficult to say as dd asleep by then and kept wriggling so under arm thermometer kept moving !
Temp this am is 38.3 but she’s chatty and animated. Drank copious amounts of water and tea with milk and honey ( the tea is not bad for her is it ? She’s never wanted it before but suddenly drinking it even when she does reject the Water) . Given calpol

Tea is fine. :)

That is quite high for a prolonged fever. It’s lowered this morning so that’s good and if she’s perky that’s good too. If she has it still on day five she should be seen.

Any rash which doesn’t go if you roll a glass on it, aversion to light, stiff or painful head/back, sudden deterioration, or decrease in alertness would need seeing immediately. Ditto if you feel there’s something not right - trust your instincts. Most fevers are harmless - it seems to be a stronger response in kids (I can’t remember the last time I had a proper fever) but of course you know your kid best - always trust your gut if you think something isn’t right.

It always surprises me just how high they can get and still be OK. Ds has had 40.5 and still been alright.

Hope your dd is better soon, OP. Glad you got a thermometer.

Kentnurse2015 why are ear thermometers useless in children? And if they are, why does our paediatric hospital - and thinking about it, every doctor my children have ever seen - use them?

Thank you All. Anatadie my ds had meningitis as a newborn so I am always alert for the symptoms - over sensitive I think - hence my worry over dd now whose temp has been fairly persistent albeit only for 36 hours! No rash and she’s tucking into breakfast but her temp is now 38.7 even after calpol this morning . Keeping a close eye.....

Don’t hesitate to call for advice or take her to a doc if you feel there’s something not right.
Most fevers are benign - but you as a parent know what the baseline of normal is for your kid. I’m pretty sure most docs would prefer to reassure a hundred parent of kids with benign fever than miss one case of something serious.