Just sent DS to hospital - am I over-reacting?

[zippy539]

Bit of background. DS (3) has had high temps since Friday morning (no other symptoms other than tiredness etc). This am, temp still raging, I called NHS 24 and as result we went to out of hours clinic - no ear, chest, throat infection but doc said she was worried by temp, if didn't drop take to hospital. Didn't drop, gave him tepid bath, calpol, nurofen etc then he started rambling about purple aeroplanes etc - so took to hospital. Blood tests etc - established infection but no cause, temp miraculously drops and we are allowed home - to return if temp spikes.

Lovely evening at home, no probs then suddenly temp of 39.6, Get DH to phone hospital to check whether we should come in - DH says 'they say blah blah ... ummm can't remember. Christ, it's only a bloody temperature isn't it? (DH's thoughts - not hospital btw- who knows what the hospital actually said : )."

Now DH is in the huff cause I've just sent him back up the hospital with ds who is practically hallucinating. Am I being over protective? How long can a three year old have that kind of temp? Why can't a grown man take a reasonable message on the ruddy telephone????

Finally, am I over reacting and being a hypocondriac on behalf of my son??? Is 39.6 a really high temp or have I subjected ds to canula etc (which he HATES) with no reason????

No, you aren't over reacting - you are following the doctor's advice. Poor you - I hope he's much better soon.

Different children respond to temps in different ways. If he's hallucinating, def hospital is the best place for him.

DS's went to 40.9 when he had a UTI when he was just one. He was trembly, but still "with us", and a mixture of doses of paracetamol and ibuprofen brought it down.

Have they taken a urine sample from your DS?

No, you are NOT overreacting - you are his mum, you know when he's not right and hospital is the best place to find out what is wrong.

if he is hallucinatinmg, then i'd take him. i remember being at dh house when he was dp then, his brother was asleep, as wasnt well (brother was about 14 at the time). he suddenly started yelling and screaming, call MIL up, BIL temp had shot up and hewas out of it. they took him sriaght to hospital.

Better to be safe than sorry, zippy. The canula won't leave him with any lasting trauma - he'll forget about it pretty soon! Your dh sounds pretty unhelpful though - why did he go up to the hosp and not you?

Better to be safe than sorry Zippy - id rather the wrath of my DP for a wasted visit than regret taking action sooner - you have done the right thing! He'll be fine though im sure.

Thanks everyone - I was beginning to feel like a complete neurotic mother - mainly thanks to DH's 'ho hum' attitude. Just feel crap because ds has had more than his share of hospital trips with asthma and don't want to subject him to any more than necessary.

God. I hate being a parent sometimes. Is 39.5 hot?

Miaou - he went because I'd been up there the better part of the day first time round and cause dd was getting upset with all the commotion so I thought I'd better stay with her. He's great generally, but when it comes to any kind of crisis he's completely RUBBISH. It's like he goes into some kind of 'robot' mode and can't process information.

Actually, yeah - good point. Why did I send him instead of going myself????

I dunno - i know that 100.4F is high - dont know Centigrades! If he's been in hospital before at least he wont be too fazed by it. Its scary being a parent but it sounds like you're doing a good job!

Cheers vickitiredmum - I duuno, the whole sickness/temp thing just gives me a complete crisis of confidence!

Im like that myself now with DS. Although thats because i didnt take my DD's strange grunting seriously last year when i thought she was "a bit under the weather" and when my DP suggested ringing the Docs i said "well you ring then if you think she's that ill". Doc suggested we call ambulance immediately when DP rang as apparently thats the noise LO's make when they cant breath/have asthma! Wont make that mistake again...

vickitiredmum - OMG that must have been freaky! It's horrible, isn't it - you either completely over react to something or think 'hey ho,they're fine ...' only to find that it is something nasty after all!

Felt more stupid and guilty than anything else. Especially as i had been in a hospital most of the afternoon visiting my brother and she started doing it then and i was more irritated than anything else because i thought she was putting it on. Oh well - we live and learn dont we!

Zippy, I don't think you're over reacting at all. My DD1 suffered from bout after bout of high temperatures for about a year and I usually brought her in to have her checked over, particularly if I was having difficulty bringing it down.

Her bouts lasted anything from a few days to a couple of weeks at 39/40+.

I found that sometimes she would act quite normally even with a high temp and those times I worried less, but if she wasn't herself or started to hallucinate I would definitely have her checked over.

More often than not they couldn't find a cause at all, I mean couldn't pin point the infection. In those cases, when it was clear she wasn't in pain I would just control her temp when it rose too high. I tended to wait it out a while before giving her anything, particularly when she seemed fine in every other way.

I hope your DS is feeling well again soon

Hope DS is better today Zippy. Just taking mine to the docs with high temp now

aww poor you and your ds. When my ds[he was 1 at the time] had a temp of 40.3 i took him to walk in clinic as he was really floppy and uninterested. It turned out he had tonsilitis so no i dont think you were over reacting.

I know my little one is a tiny bit littler at 9 month she had a temp of 39.6 and i took her straight to hosp without consulting anybody (after seeing doc day before and her saying there was nothing wrong) and she had a urine infection and needed antibiotics, trust your instincts, it doesnt matter what anybody thinks of you, you are that childs mother and your instincts are what will keep them happy and healthy!

Hope your DS is Ok now. You're not overreacting at all.

DS1 had pneumonia last year and they had a lot of trouble diagnosing that. High temperatures with spikes, pain in abdomen, nothing in chest at all! no cough, nothing. The hospital knew it was an infection somewhere but prime candidates were appendicitus and meningitis with pneumonia being the wildcard. A spot in xray came up before they did the lumbar punch or whisked him to surgery and voila - huuuuuge shadow on one lung. The doctors were delighted to see it. Antibiotics via IV for 48 hours then oral for 5 days... he was sooo much better almost overnight.

Any news Zippy?

depends on child zippy- under 40 isn't hot for my children (well ds1 and ds2) I don't really give anything until they go over- temps for ds1 can reach just under 42 (ear thermometer). OTOH they've run those temps enough times for me to know they can handle them. My friends dd and ds are different though- 39 is hot for them and her ds is prone to seizures so she has to worry about temps more than me.

Did they find ut why he was hot? Hope they were helpful.

Thanks everyone for your responses - looking back at my original post I can see that I was having a completely over-wraught moment provoked by three days in the company of a whining, sick three year old!!!

Turns out that the doctor in the hospital who told us to come back if temp spiked had been telling other parents the same thing all day with the result that when dh took ds back, outpatients was full of over anxious parents returning with hot children! Anyway, DH saw another doc who was much more useful - couldn't tell us specifically what is wrong with ds (prob some kind of virus thing)but was hugely reassuring and gave a really good leaflet about dealing with temps. As a result of said leaflet, DH now thinks he is fully qualified to deal with any medical emergency - which is fine by me!!

Meantime, ds is slowly getting back to his old self, still spiking away in the middle of the night but fine during the day. Thanks again everyone for posting - I really appreciate it.

Glad to hear he's ok zippy - it's so worrying when they are ill, isn't it? Still say you did the right thing though!

No over-reaction though - my dd had a fever for two weeks with no other symptoms until she started to shiver one night and totally refused food. Turned out she had a urine infection!