Children with Covid what was your experience?

[Makinganewthinghappen]

My 5 year old has hD a high temp for 3 days. Her temp is currently 40.3. But she is not terribly unwell, she is maybe a little quiet but she’s happily watching videos and eating etc. No cough, sore throat no other symptoms.

No one else in my family (7 other people) have any symptoms and she has not really been anywhere to catch anything!

The advice we were given is to give a Covid test which we have done but we haven’t had the results back yet. She is my 6th child and I don’t think any of my kids have had such a high temp for so long before.

With calpol it goes down to 38.5 ish but soon goes back up.

I have no idea if this is Covid - when we spoke to 111 that was pretty much the only thing they would consider and my doctor doesn’t seem to be making appointments for anyone with a temp (they are just redirecting to 111).

If your child had Covid is this a way it has shown up in them? Just a temp?

I am actually worried about her and I’m not normally hugely worried about childhood temperatures.

Any advice or reassurance would be great!

That's quite high! Can you alternate, give ibuprofen (with food) a few hours after the paracetamol to keep it down?

This is the normal NHS fever in children advice:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/fever-in-children/

If it lasts for 5 days, please seek professional attention, she’ll likely need a blood test to rule out anything serious (I don’t mean to scare you, because odds are it’s just some kind of winter virus, but a fever of more than 5 days is oftentimes the first indicator of something being properly wrong and it’s not worth taking a risk, hence the NHS advice being to seek assistance after 5 days).

Fingers crossed she’s absolutely fine tonight or tomorrow!

My daughter (9) had a high temp for 3 days and a headache as her only COVID symptoms, her temp peaked at around 40.3 as well, it went back down by the end of day 4 if I remember rightly. She had a positive PCR test on the second day of the temp. Hope they’re better soon.

Oh, and maybe see if you can borrow another thermometer from somewhere? Because 40 is rather high and a double check with another device might bring some peace of mind!

Ibuprofen should bring the temp down considerably more than paracetamol.

Do the drs think Covid has chased all the other bugs away?!

The fact she’s not too bad in herself would reassure me, but keep a close eye and get her seen if she gets worse or it goes over the five days.

If you get a negative result you need to consider other causes quickly. In The summer My son yo yo ‘d between 40 and 38 for 5 days. We took a covid test on day 1. He developed a sore leg and on day 6 having rung 111 they sent an ambulance and he ended up in hospital for 3 weeks with a really nasty blood infection and osteomyelitis in his leg. Do write everything down as it is important info if it does persist. I hope she feels better soon. I would suggest 111 are more helpful than the gp at the moment who struggle to see past Covid, even with a negative test!

I’d be more concerned about a uti with that sort of temperature. One of my children had a high temperature for days when she had slapped cheek.

Hope your daughter is better again soon.

If the temp is still hanging around at 5 days and your GP is inaccessible and 111 are sending you in circles, I would just take her to your nearest children’s A&E . Likely that a GP will send you to A&E (for a blood test) anyway.

Our local children’s hospital has a ‘Covid pod’ outside and everyone inside is triaged to separate wait areas (last time we went we were put in the little room with the eye exam stuff - it was the best A&E visit we’ve ever had 😉)

But, all of my above comment is irrelevant if she’s chirpy and well in herself and only on day three!

Plantmam- I have tried the thermometer on the rest of us and we all have totally normal temperatures of between 36 and 37. That is a digital thermometer taking her temp in her mouth. Last night we found our old forehead thermometer to try and that said she had a temp although slightly lower (I think it was 39.2).

I’m trying not to take it too often I don’t want to annoy her

Would the mouth digital one or the forehead one likely be more accurate?

Plant - I wouldn’t say she is chirpy but she’s not acting like she’s feeling too terrible. She’s just lying next to me watching peppa pig.

Without criticising my other children they tend to make a huge fuss about the slightest illness so it’s a little disconcerting for me

My 5 year old had temp of 40 for 3 days April last year. I gave her max doses of calpol and calprofen and still the temp stayed high. Temp was her only symptom. I talked with the GP several times and she was visited by a paramedic. They both said that this is not how Covid usually displays in children. GP said it could be streph throat infection and prescibed antibiotics and that cleared it in few days. No-one else in the household had any symptoms.

My daughter had a 40.5 fever for 5 days about 10 days ago. Negative covid test. Then 2 days no fever, back to high 39s at weekend. Had another covid test this morning, still awaiting results, but GP told me to bring her in for a check, as she's only 12 months. He seemed to think she was too ill for covid, as apparently kids take it in their stride with few symptoms. He then went onto say he could hear something on her chest and prescribed anti bs for a chest infection. Not sure how he knows not covid related, but he was convinced!

Do you mean a forehead strip thingy? Because I don’t think those are recommended any more (and I seem to remember them having an expiry date on the packet?
The digi mouth one should be fine (ours are in-ear ones, but I think all the digi ones are more or less reliable. Not had much experience of the new forehead thermoscans tho. Lordy, I sound like a childhood illness geek now!)

I can imagine that child number 6 would either be very quietly stoic or super dramatic?

I’m sure you know the fever-drill already, but is she drinking and peeing ok? Any rashes? Muscle tension all normal (not floppy or stiff)? Lucid when she’s awake? Lips not dry and cracked?

I do believe that Covid can manifest as more or less just temp in little ones, but so can some other things, so just keep a close eye on her and get some professional attention on day 5 or sooner if anything happens that concerns you.

Same applies whether you get a positive Covid test result or not really, the only difference it would make to me personally is whether to drive to our normal A&E myself and sit and wait (negative result) or call 111 to find out if they would rather send an ambulance or have particular instructions on where we should go (positive result).

With a bit of luck her fever will break tonight and she’ll be sitting up demanding breakfast with her PeppaPig first thing.

How is your DD this morning, Makinganewthinghappen?

Totally fine
She is completely back to normal now thank god!

Bad stomach. Bit of a temp but not super high. She passed out. When we were advised to have her checked out at hospital they suggested a covid test and she came back positive. The passing out was her system struggling with the infection they said.

I’m pleased she is better.

My son had a high temperature 39.3 without medication and a mild cough, it started on Sunday morning and he still has a high temperature when he needs another dose of medicine. His positive result came through a couple of hours ago.

He’s perfectly fine in himself.