Tonsillitis

[CaffeineChaosandCuddles]

Day 3 of tonsillitis & 42 hours of antibiotics for my 5 year old girl.

she’s still spiking a fever up to 39 at times, calpol and nurofen work

she’s not got an appetite, but nibbling and drinking fluids ok

she’s saying she has a headache

other than that, she is absolutely fine- she’s not lethargic, she wants to play and struggling to sit still even though I’m telling her to rest and she’s still having her crazy 5 minutes of energy she has throughout the day and always has done which we call zoomies.

I am a little lost and tbh, she’s not really a sick kid so this is all unusual for me.

does this sound quite typical? like length of fever etc

Yes this does sound normal, your poor little girl.

if she is having both Calpol and Nurofen that will be taking the edge off the fever and pain too. Typically in children, fever spikes in the early evening and they can feel very poorly then.

She might complain of feeling cold or shivery even when her body is flaming hot, as her body can’t regulate the temperature - in that situation the best thing is to put her in light cotton pyjamas, cosy on the sofa with a pillow out of any drafts and give her a cotton sheet (or light cotton baby blanket) so she can snuggle.

At her very hottest, she will feel really floppy and lack energy so that’s a clue the fever has spiked. if you can put a cool (not cold) flannel on her forehead that will help bring her back to bearable and she’ll revive somewhat. Feeling cold, but actually being hot, is confusing - so be taking her temperature in BOTH ears regularly.

She will be feeling loads better in a few days!

PS fever is a response of a healthy immune system; so in my house we only “take the edge” off the worst of the fever with medicine and at night to support sleep and recovery.

There is some evidence that not letting child’s body fight its own childhood diseases by medicating every symptom is detrimental to immune response later in life. I’m not an expert, but I was fed a lot of antibiotics as a child and my immune system is crap. I caught everything going, often severely, and now I have a compromised immune system

I would also recommend now you’ve started the antibiotics course it must be completed but you should avoid giving dc too much sugar (tricky at Christmas) as antibiotics are dreadful for gut health.

My kids have never needed antibiotics and we’ve managed through all childhood diseases on OTC medicine, rest and natural remedies (rest, chicken soup, honey and lemon, herbal teas, warm steamy baths, mentholated chest rubs etc). This is partly luck, but also a conscious choice - I would only seek antibiotics for a throat infection if it was extremely long / severe or child can’t drink fluids.