High fever

[justamum98]

Hi, my almost 3 year old woke up today with terrible cough sounding like barking.

he was ok in himself and ate food although ran a fever. Since his nap (2pm) he’s refusing food and drink. He’s temp is almost 41 degrees and although he’s not as active as he usually he. He is still playing and trying to be ok/not crying etc.

my question is, doctors always scare you about a fever over 40. So at what point do you take them to the doctors/hospital.

Have you tried calpol or iburofen? Did is start to come down at all.

Is there an obvious source of infection eg cold?

Possibly croup if it sounds barking.
Yes worth being careful and keeping an eye, that's a high temp going into the evening and night. I'd probably ring the Dr and see if you can get an appt.

I also thought croup. Try and see out of hours GP as they should have their heart rate/oxygen checked in case they need steroids.

At 41 degrees I would be treating the fever with overlapped calpol/neurofen.

Yeah he’s just been given more calpol. He’s eaten a few snacks but not much. I’m just waiting to see if his fever drops

Yeah you'd want it to go down a bit when he's fully medicated - generally a fever that doesn't go down a bit with meds is one a doctor would want to know about.

I don't tend to go on the numbers on the thermometer - more on their overall picture - their form and how they feel to touch. On that basis, you've said they're playing/eating a bit etc and I would find that overall picture reassuring.

Having said that, just to be clear, if I measured a child's fever and it came out at 41 degrees, I would be concerned and want to seek some proper medical advice.

If it sounds like a barking cough, very high likelihood of croup.

Need to see an OOH doctor for some medicine

We got told at A&E that they don’t necessarily worry about fevers up to 40 if the child is well but said anything over that needs to be seen. 42 is apparently where it can start affecting the brain so I would get him seen if I were you personally.