High temperature: is it a natural response to infection or should you always medicate?

[fishpersontwo]

Although my GP says always to give a child Calpol to reduce a high temp, I've heard somewhere that when the body has a raised temp it's a good, healthy response to fighting infection - and so don't reduce it.

I know you have to be careful with how high it goes, and with babies, and with symptoms that are concerning or painful, but if a child just has a bit of a cold with a moderately high temp, is it actually beneficial to allow the temp to continue as an aid to recovery?

Thanks for your thoughts.

personally I think so am child health hcp I have a colleague who has done a lot of research into it and I don't treat unless it goes above 38.5

I treat the child and not the temperature iyswim. A high temperature with no visible discomfort, I let it do its job (it means the immune system is working) but if dd is in pain, distressed or uncomfortable I medicate accordingly.

I always let my DD run a temp, unless it gets to something like over 39.5. One of her paeds was very much against lowering temps artificially as it is a natural physiological response and exists for a reason (to kill bugs). I have also noticed that in the rare cases DD has flu it always clears up much sooner when I've let her temp run.

And the risk of febrile convulsion isn't necessarily from the temperature but how quickly it rises and the best way to prevent a rapid rise is to keep them loosely dressed and not wrapped up too much at night.

Agree with SOH. If no immediate distress I don't worry. DD could get to 39 and still be running around and laughing and other times be grumpy at 38.5.

Exactly. Too many people keep their DC indoors in an overheated environment and cover them up too much.

Brangelina: so the high temp is actually killing the bugs. Sounds good. Would be a shame to lower the temp and reduce the immune system's effectiveness then?

That's how it was explained to me.

Excellent - thanks for confirming that. I know some people swear by having a hot bath at the first sign of a cold - similar principle of raising body temp to kill bugs perhaps?

Here's a link that explain it briefly

Okay... I think I understood the gist - thanks!

My DS's Paed said the same, a raised temp is the body's natural defence system and it's not good to suppress it, but he did say if the baby/child was in any discomfort(pain etc) then that would warrant meds, he strongly disagreed with alternating calpol/nurofen etc for raised temps, my 2 often get high temps but I usually wait for it to go over 39C before giving anything, I do alternate meds if it's close to or above 40C,
DH hates me waiting he'd give meds if it was barely 38C!

Just to add that whenever I've called NHS direct they have always told me to alternate Calpol/Nurofen for raised temps!
I guess giving meds to lower the temp would treat the temp but not treat the reason/underlying cause of the temp.
Think I'll go with my instict and evaluate each raised temp situation as it occurs.
I agree with SOH, whenever mine have high temps I strip them off/remove duvet and replace with sheet etc, a couple of times recently both of my children (2 & 5) have woken me in the early hours restless & halucinating but both times temps were very high, 40.5C the other 41C! this did worry me and meds were definitely high on my list of priorities!

Even if they do have a febrile convulsion they're usually not anything to worry about. NHS direct say you only need to call for an ambulance if the convulsion lasts more than 5 minutes which is very rare.

Just thought I'd add the experience we had yesterday. DS woke at 6.45 and was a bit hot (38.2) so I stripped him off bf him and took him to bed with me. 5 mins later he started fitting. First time it has happened and I was absolutely terrifed. It lasted over 30 mins and only stopped when the ambulance got us to hospital. I will definately be giving alternate calpol / ibuprofen for a temp over 38 in the future.