Fever and slightly delirious

[SpawnChorus]

DS (10) came down with some bug during Friday night. Headache, fever and very sore cough. He seemed to rally with ibuprofen, but worse again as it wore off. He's been very hot during the night (temp around 39 after taking ibuprofen) and has also been slightly delirious (like he's confused between his dreams and real life). This alarmed me a bit so I got him to properly get out of bed and go for a wee and he seemed to wake up properly.

I'm pretty sure he's just got some nasty bug, but looking at the NHS direct info it states "confusion" as being a cause for seeking further treatment. He still has a headache, no stiff neck, he seems okay with light, his hands and feet are warm (hot!) and no rash.

I'm obviously reluctant to drag him out to A&E, but have never had a "confused" child before. Any advice?

Do you have an out of hours GP? I’d call them. My kids have been delirious with fever before but always much better following calpol/ibu. I think I’d want to run it past a doctor.

Hope he’s ok.

What’s his pulse rate like?

Thanks for the replies! I dozed off, and when I woke up he was no longer delirious. He's still quite poorly though :-(. His pulse rate was very high, by the way. I tentatively reckon he's on the mend, so I'll avoid taking him off to be seen by a doc.

As an aside, he's actually 9 not 10... Perhaps the confusion was contagious?!

If you are concerned then call 111 at the weekend to access out-of-hours GP.

This is exactly what 111 is for. Please ring them!

Hmm, every time I've ever phoned 111 I've ended up a) waiting for ages (I mean literally hours!), plus they always (understandably) err on the side of caution and advise we go to hospital. I'm not convinced it's very helpful. I'm willing to be told I'm wrong though!

You’re wrong .

High temp
High piles
Confusion

All signs of sepsis

I’d rather go unnecessarily than miss going if needed

High pulse not piles

Even now, you mean? He seems to be quite a bit better. Headache has gone, temperature is less high, interacting normally. My kids do tend to run very high fevers, and have fast heart rates when ill (I thought that was just part of the package), so the only unusual "extra" symptom was the confusion. But because it was the middle of the night (and he was drifting in and out of sleep) I thought this might also be relatively normal for a poorly person.

I have two older DC, and there was a period when I was dealing with lurgies, ear infections etc quite regularly. It's been a really long time since any of them have been ill , and I guess I've lost confidence in my home-triaging skills!

My 9 year old gets confused in the night if he’s woken while in deep sleep. He’s not actually properly awake.

I’ve had a similar bug as has my dh and dcs. I’ve worried about sepsis and I kept a close eye on them.

It’s hard because you obviously don’t want to ignore signs but at the same time don’t want to under react! Our instincts have a lot of plus points in these situations.