My dd (aged 2 and 3 months) woke up ill with a slight temp on Tuesday, I called the dr out as I didnt want to take her out and my drs surgery is impossible to get into with a double buggy.
He arrived at around 11 am did the quickest examination I have ever seen and said she had an ear infection, prescribed antibiotics and advised to give calpol to keep temp down. I did all of that and kept her in just a nappy and her temp was staying down.
It got to around 5:30 and she fell asleep on the sofa, she was not covered in a blanket I didn't want to get her temp up.
Anyway I was making tea for me my ds and my nan (she lives with us) I was bringing the dinners through when my nan yelled 'Oh my god, I dont know what to do!!!' and screamed my name. I thought one onf them had pooed and it had leaked. I dropped the dinners on the side and ran into the lounge my precious dd was fitting, going blue and foaming at the mouth. I was so scared I screamed, I didnt know what the hell to do I threw the phone at my nan and yelled at her to get an ambulance. It felt like it took them forever to arrive, Iwas shaking and crying, my poor ds didnt have a clue what was going on and was crying too.
THe fit lasted approximately 3 minutes and she fell asleep for a little while and the paramedics arrived, I carried her into the ambulance, she was very scared and was dozing on and off, she was so pale. We got to A&E where the amazing nurse weighed her immediatelly and took her temp, it was 41. I couldnt believe it, literally half an hour before it was 37.6, I was being slightly neurotic and checking it every half hour. She was given a huge amount of calpol (probably wasn't that huge but was more than the 5ml I was giving her) and some nurofen. She didn't like that too much, but took it very well. THe nurses surrounded us with fans to help her temp to fall.
They were then taking history whilst she was sat on my lap when she started to fit again, the nurse took her away from me into another part of A&E I followed crying my eyes out and shaking like a leaf. She was put on a huge bed and looked so fragile and small. SHe was given oxygen and wired up to all kids of machinery checking everything. Her temp wasn't going down quick enough. SHe had another 2 fits while she was there and then finally her temp started to come down. After the fits it was almost as if she couldn't see me, I was so so so so scared. I didnt know what was going to happen.
We were then taken up to the childrens ward where we stayed over night, she didnt have any more fits but her temp kept spiking without warning going up to 40 each time. Obviously I didnt sleep a wink I was too scared to, the drs and nurses up there were astounding, I couldn't believe the work they were doing, they were truly amazing and really put my mind at rest.
THe pediatricians told me that she in fact had a bad case of tonsilitis and were surprised the gp didnt notice, I said that may have something to do with the fact he didnt look in her mouth, they were shocked, so was I but I was too concerned about my dd to get annoyed.
Obviously we are back home now and she is on antibiotics, calpol and nurofen. I am still neurotic about taking her temp so much so that she said to me today 'Mummy please stop it and go away' When she said that I knew my baby girl was on the road to recovery.
Not sure why I have posted this, I guess I felt so helpless and scared and annoyed at myself that I knew very little about febrile convulsions and what to do when they happen. I now know that they are quite common in babies and children up to the age of 5 and you should be worried if the fits last for more than 4 minutes. And that when your lo is having a fit they should be in the recovery position so they do not choke on anything. I think this has prompted me to go on a first aid course I went on one 10 years ago but obviously I need a refresher.
I am toying with deleting this whole post but it has taken a while to type so think I'll just post anyway, thank you for reading this