Temperature in 1yr old

[amatuermummy]

My DD is 1 and she has had a temperature and been unwell for three days now. Her temperature at the moment is 38.6 and she's been lying on my lap all morning - not like her at all. She cries every time I put her down. I gave her 1.5 tsp of Calpol at 7:30, but nothing's changed yet. She's been like this for 3 days and doesn't seem to be getting any better. I don't think I need to take her to the doctors, I know they'll probably say it's viral and there's nothing they can do, but DP keeps saying we should take her. I don't want to waste their time, but do you think I should take her just in case?
Thanks.

Feve can take up to over an hour to come down sometimes, so if it's not down in, say, 40, minutes, yes, I would take her in. Any other symptoms? Is she just tired from illness, or excessively lethargic? Does she seem to be in pain? How are her nappies? If not, then I would say it's just a virus- dc's paed recommends we see her if fever persists for 5 days and/or there are worrying symptoms. Of course it could be uti or ear infection. Hmm.

Thanks for your reply, she's been like this for a few days but no worse. She is eating and drinking. Her nappy was much drier than usual this morning, but was wet. She does keep rubbing her eyes and holding the sides of her head, but I'm wondering if it's just the fever giving her a headache. I'll keep an eye on her temperature. The thing I am worrying about is if she has an infection somewhere (like you said UTI or something) and then I don't take her anywhere, it would get worse. Do babies show signs of UTI's or are they good at hiding them? Thanks again

I think UTIs are not necessarily very easy to spot in babies. Neither are ear infections, really, but those often resolve without ABs (although I always gave them to my dcs as they clear them up really quickly). Hmm. Maybe I would take her in as she's still very little- you wouldn't want her to develop a 40+ degree fever in the middle of the night and then taking her to A&E. But yes, the doctor will probably say it's just a bug.

Not that 40 degree fever is a reason for A&E in itself iyswim, just that if she takes a turn for worse at 2 am it'll be a PITA to have to go to see a doctor.

Also - you can use ibuprofen in between calpol, sometimes its better at bringing down temps.

I would give her as much clear fluids as you can....whatever she will take.

If you are worried...definitely get her to A&E and checked over by a pediatrician

Hi, my 7.5mo is just getting over something like this, and we did end up going to the out of hours gp and then to the hospital to get him checked over by a paed in the middle of the night. It was knackering! If you are worried I would definitely go and see a gp today, especially if there are other symptoms you are concerned about. Especially if she has any rash, neck stiffness etc. One of the things the gp was concerned about was ds' capilliary reflex which was 2+ seconds. You can check by pressing the big toe or sole of the foot and seeing how long it takes to go pink again. Don't panic if it's slow (ds is fine now!) but it would be something that should be seen by a doc in combination with fever and lethargy IMO.

Anyway, his temp was over 40 for a while and the doctor gave him nurofen to bring down his temp. We also stripped him off to his nappy and used a damp cloth (which he hated!)- very effective.

How is she doing now?

try baby nurophen (sp) give 2.5 mls then after 3 hours give calpol again. Nurophen works really well at bringing down a temp

Thanks for all your replies, she seems to be on the mend now. I've just found out that she was exposed to chickenpox 2 weeks ago, could she have picked it up? She doesn't have any spots, but can they come out later?
Thanks again for all your help