Toddler very high temp

[Eatentoomanyroses]

Worried about my toddler. 10 days ago she had a slightly elevated temp and a cough, the gp gave me an antibiotic script incase she got worse but said not to give unless things changed. She seemed to get better so I’ve kept antibiotic in the fridg. Then on Thursday she started being a bit off colour, snotty nose type thing and the cough was worse. Friday night her temp went to 40 sbd she was sick lots of mucus so I started her on the antibiotics and gave her paracetamol which didn’t bring down the temp, so gave her ibuprofen. The ibuprofen seems to take about two hours to work and eventually comes down to normalish temp but has kept going back up before she’s due another dose. 3 am this morning she was 40 again and I’ve sat up watching her all night. It started coming back down about 5am but It’s going back up now and she’s 37. 9. She’s dosed off and on all night but wakes crying. She’s downstairs with dh crying at the moment. She’s had 5 doses of antibiotics so far since Friday. Should she be improving more than this? The temps are worrying me. She doesn’t seem to have any other symptoms than the temp, snotty nose and flemmy cough.

There is nothing more worrying than a sick toddler - my heart goes out to you!
I don’t have medical training however my understanding is that antibiotics won’t do anything if it is viral.

Thanks @Megs83 it’s so stressful. She’s not my first and I’m still up the wall with worrying about her.

Agree with previous poster - if it’s viral and not bacterial, the antibiotics won’t do anything. I’m going to assume that GP gave them to you incase it was StrepA, butfrom what you’ve described it may not be. Please make sure you complete the course of AntiB’s now that you’ve started though.

My DD used to spike horribly high temperatures (she is 9 now and still dows occassionally). I’ve always found that ibuprofen is better for bringing temperatures down than calpol, so do try keeping them both in combination (yet staggered) to keep the temperature down and keep an eye on the doages, especially if using through the night as it’s 4 lots of calpol per 24 hours. I also always find that the fever spikes are worse during the night.

I recall a GP saying to me once that temperature isn’t the only thing they take into account. If they are still eating/drinking (drinking is more important), weeing and alert then having a high temperature is less of a concern. If they are lethargic, refusing to eat/drink and not going to the toilet and not being very responsive to usual things that interest them then that is a concern.

I’ve had temperatures of 40.2 with DD where she has been ‘ill’ but still alert and drinking, and still having an interest in toys /TV. I’ve had temps of 39 where she has been lethargic/falling asleep, refusing drinks/foods - and its the second one where I’ve got urgent medical attention.

However do not be afraid to call 111 for advice today if she doesn’t perk up.

@Falalalalalal thanks for that. I have been keeping an eye on the doses. This was why I was panicking last night because she’d had the three lots of ibuprofen in 24 hours and her temp was going back up. I’m watching the Calpol as well. I rang 111 last night and was on hold for three hours. They called me this morning and left a vm saying I could bring her in but dh doesn’t think she needs to go and worried about her picking something else up. She’s definitely not lethargic, she’s still terrorising the dog and generally destroying the house. I’m going to keep an eye on her. I just would have thought these temperatures wouldn’t still be occurring by now.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng143/chapter/Recommendations#advice-for-home-care Scroll down to 1.6 and 1.7 - basically the thinking now is don’t worry about temperature per se, give ibuprofen/paracetamol if they feel rubbish, don’t give it just to bring the temperature down.

This is what I've been told by doctors and nurses

Keep up with both ibuprofen and paracetamol, alternate them - paracetamol, then ibuprofen 2 hours later, keep that going.

Just got back from the walk in. Dr seemed a bit disapproving that i’d given her the antibiotic prescribed previously but he’s given me a script for same antibiotic to finish the course. Said at the moment it was just presenting like a bad cold but hard to tell because it could be that the antibiotic I’d given had started to work. Her temp seemed to finally have come down and stayed down now for four hours which is best she’s been and she’s asleep atm.