I know a temp of 40 is bad for a baby, but how serious for a 2 year old?

[bobbybob]

Ds has a temp of 40, which we can bring down to 39.5 by giving him pamol every six hours and nurofen every six hours (so he is getting something each 3 hours).

He is weak, but can still walk around, he's not floppy.

He says his arms hurt him, and doesn't like us touching his legs. He has a slight rash on his legs.

Went to emergency doc who said it's not serious, but I'm not sure he listened to the bits where I said that

a) ds has an amazing pain threshold. He can fall from the top of the slide and just brush himself off and start again. So if he did have a massive pain somewhere he might not feel it.

b)ds is exceedingly polite and so may seem more well than he actually is. He looked a bt nauseous and burped and said "pardon", and said "thank you doctor" when he had examined him.

Thanks for reading this far - am I paranoid?

bobbybob - A temp of 40 is quite high for anyone no matter what age. You can give calpol and Neurofen at the same time which will help initially to get that down at bit further.

eg

8am - Calpol/Neurofen
12pm - Calpol
4pm - Calpol/Neurofen
8pm - Calpol

etc etc.

Have you tried stripping him down and sponging him with luke warm water?

I'd phone NHS direct and speak to them about the fact that his Temp isn't really dropping. They should advise you well. Hope he feels better soon.

Temp of 40 I think is quite high even for an adult!
Sponge down with luke warm water and dress in just briefs. This will bring temp down quicker.
How long has he been like this?
You know your child better than anybody if in doubt go back to your doctor ASAP!

Okay so how cool does he have to be? We are in NZ and it's 14 degrees in his bedroom. He's in a thin cotton pyjama suit - no feet, but he is in a winter gro bag. He was shivery in his summer one, and couldn't get to sleep.

OOps just reiterated what toothache said!

So sleeping in his room wouldn't be being over the top?

Is he 'shivery' due to the fever?

It's hard to tell. It's so damn cold tonight that if you took all my clothes off I would be shivery. In fact we initially missed the massive temp because he had just had a bath in a cold bathroom and we thought that was why he was shivering and rugged him up.

his cheeks are boiling, but his feet are cold.

Shivering will make him warmer so try to keep him cool, but not shivering. Perhaps just a cotton sheet over him will help. Sponging with tepid water is quite a good and fast way to bring it down. I'd say anything around 37.9 to 38.5 would be more comfortable for him. Poor wee soul. Calpol and Neurofen given at the same time should bring his temp down by more than half a degree.

Okay he's woken up again, and he can have some more calpol now. I'm going in girls...

a paediatric nurse friend of mine said that high temps in kids are best treated by alternating calpol & nurofen every 2 hrs, ie 8am calpol, 10am nurofen, 12 noon calpol, 2pm nurofen etc. nurofen packs a bigger punch than capol ime and should help reduce the temp.

also lots of sponging down & cold drinks.

i would keep an eye on the rash.

depends on your child. over 40 is a normal temp for my eldest - whenever he's ill, and my middle child also runs temps of 40 fairly frequently. neither have ever had a seizue so I don't worry too much about the actual temp and go more on their behaviour to judge how ill they are. other children I know tend to run lower temps so 40 would be very high for them.

depends a bit how you're taking the temp as well- an ear thermometer will measure higher than a mouth one (in my experience anyway).

Children can actually tolerate high temps far better than adults- so whilst 40 may be high for an adult it is not necessarily too high for a child.
A temperature in itself is not an illness - it is merely a sign that the body is fighting off an illness.
It does sound like he has just got a nasty bug (easy for me to say just though when it's not my child). When dd was v. ill with a chest infection and all floppy the doctor told me to carry on dosing with calpol/nurofen and only worry if she showed no signs of being better ie, less floppy 30 minutes after having medicine.

Update, at around midnight our time his temp went back to normal and he promptly woke up freezing cold. He still slept fitfully but is much more himself today.

Bobbybob - Great news! Glad he's on the mend.