very high temperatures/delirium at puberty

[onegiantleap]

Hi,
My ds has very high temperatures when he gets a flu like
virus. For the past 3 years he has been very disturbed when he gets this with delirium and acting out. I mean screaming and fighting me and roaming the house and being very scared. On the maximum dose of paracetamol he still gets this.

He is now 14 and getting rather large. Has anyone experience of this starting and stopping, during childhood?
Around puberty. I'm not sure what is the best thing to do or if there is anything more I can do.

Thanks

What does your GP say about this?

If you have sought advice from a GP and are still concerned you may wish to consider a second opinion.

Golly that must be scary for him and you
I have never heard of symptoms like that before - maybe a referral to a peadiatrician at the local hospital would help?

my gp says well he is very prone to high temperatures and you will have to bear with it.

nhs direct tell me to give him one dose of ibuprofen in addition to paracetamol.

Well thanks for your replies, l will definately go back to the gp next time.

I had this as a child and outgrew it - very delirious and high temperature even with minor illnesses, from around the age of eight. Usual delusion (though I had several) was the furniture coming to life and being very threatening/angry/wanting to kill the whole family. The other main one was being in a white room with no way out though the walls and floor were slowly contracting and I had to calculate how long I had before it squashed me. I found it very frightening, but it suddenly became less severe when I was 15 or so. I think I was 16 when I had my last episode and it's never come back (I'm 28 now).

My last episode was mild - woke up in the night to find stripes and angry triangles floating in the air and the wardrobe and cabinet looking at me in a threatening way. My Mum didn't even wake up when I shouted, my idiot dad came through to me and didn't realise what was wrong, though I was ill and he'd seen it lots of times, and told me I'd had a bad dream . I knew when I woke up clear-headed the next day what had been wrong with me. It's never come back and the furniture has remained stubbornly inanimate even during illness/post surgery after a 7 hour GA as an adult.

The doctors were never concerned in my case. If you read old-fashioned children's books children often get ill and become delirious -in Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series, it's the sensitive, imaginative types that do
In a way, I'm glad it happened to me - it makes you see the world a bit differently, and you always remember that - a bit like a painting by Hieronymus Bosch (sounds a bit pretentious, but it's true )

If you're worried, can you speak to the doctor again? It must be scary to watch. I expect you already know to try and keep the temp down with cold flannels, and get help urgently if he has a seizure. I don't know that there's much else you can do - it is scary because he really believes it's real when it's happening and nothing will convince him otherwise. But if he's like me, he will grow out of it, and might even end up being glad he's experienced it.

Hope that helps - sorry I don't have a magic cure for you

Sorry, forgot to add - I've often wondered if the tendancy is hereditary. My mum thinks my dad may have had it as a child, but I've never quite felt able to ask - not that he's not approachable, but funnily enough I used to find it difficult to talk about - afterwards, I'd always feel very ashamed. Partly that was because of not being able to control what I said. Maybe try asking in the family if anyone else has had it as a child and is keeping quiet?

I don't know anyone else who has. But maybe thay're all keeping quiet. Most of my friends now probably don't know, though I think I probably did tell my school friends at the time.

Sorry, will stop rambling now.

Thanks Vigilante,

It is reassuring to know a] someone else has had this, b]you grew out of it. You certainly have very vivid recall of the details which I think shows how frightening and real it seems at the time.

I suppose I am mainly worried about him coming down with something while he is away; he is on a week away with school at the moment.

So;

1. speak to Gp again, not urgent,

1. Keep going with the cold flannels
2. Feel reassured

Glad to be helpful, Onegiant. I'm sorry for you and him, having to put up with this.

I've thought a bit more about what I'd do if I were to get a child that does this, and haven't got much that's helpful to add, except a couple more comforting things:

1. If he's 14, the 'growing out' might be just around the corner.
2. If he's so far gone he can't recognise you, he's unlikely to remember that bit later - it's like coming round from being unconscious.
3. If he has unpleasant experiences of halucinating, he will be less tempted to experiment with stuff like cannabis later - people tried to persuade me, and thought I was really staid when I refused. But no, I just got all my bad trips out of the way in primary school - and when I say it was an interesting experience, that doesn't mean I want it to happen again.
4. I am doing a PhD and thought to be (whispers boastfully) academically not bad, so if you're worried about ill effects to his brain, it doesn't seem to have affected mine.

I can remember my mum being a bit worried sometimes - one niight she phoned the GP in the early hours, as I was screaming for my dad to save me from the mountain that was falling on me, and asked him what to do. He recommended cold flannels . I've just asked her if she'd like to give you any advice, and she rather vaguely said no, she's nothing to add, but no need to worry and she thinks the high temperature is meant to kill the germs quicker. She thinks she didn't worry much, but she can't really remember. So it's obviously made less of an impression on her than on me.

Get hold of 'Gay Lambert of the Chalet School' if you want to read a sentimentalised description of a delirious child. And I would say definitely keep going with the paracetamol/Ibuprofen, as I know I was a lot worse when I didn't get it in time. I think this must have been much more of a problem before we had these - I know child fever patients used to get their heads shaved in Victorian times, to make them less vulnerable to this.

Best wishes and fingers crossed that it stops soon
Vigilante