To A&E or not to A&E?

[LittleMissRayofHope]

My dd is 2, she has had a persistently high temp for 4 days now. It is fluctuating between 37.8 and 39.8. Calpol and ibrupofen bring it down but it won't stay down. For 3 days that was her only symptom. Today she has developed a head cold and nasty sounding cough.
I can't get an appointment at gp's and 111 advice was to monitor and call back with any changes.

She has a high temp, has a cough and cold, complains of ear and throat hurting. Also has diarrhea and explodes each time she farts. She is drinking but hardly eating.

Other then that she is fine. Playing, moving, laughing etc. Not sleeping well though at all.

Would I be being precious to go to a&e?

Don't go to a and e, it sounds like a bug.

If she's fine in between then she doesn't need a and e. Why not ring 111 if you are concerned?

I would say as long as she is drinking to wait for appointment at gp tomoz

I wouldn't if she isn't lethargic, but would go back to GP in the morning to check for secondary infections.

As long as she is drinking plenty I wouldn't. The risk with tidgy ones is dehydration with diarrhoea but it sounds like she's staying hydrated if she's drinking ok.

Sounds like the illness dd recently had - took her to the GP on day 4 and she has had a course of antibiotics. I'm not convinced it wasn't a virus but the GP said they wouldn't take a chance because her temp had been up for that long (just couldn't get it down!). A&E prob not necessary but prob worth a trip to the GP tomorrow.

Don't worry about her temperature not staying down. Having a temp allows the body to fight the infection and current NICE guidelines advice not to aggressively treat a temperature unless the child is distressed. I used to work as a nurse in children's A&E and parents were horrified when we wouldn't try and get a child's temperature down, it was also hard for us to adjust when the guidance came out!
Definitely take her to the GP tomorrow though.

www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/CG160/chapter/recommendations#antipyretic-interventions-2

Struggle to get appointments at gp. When I called today they said soonest available was Thursday.

Have called 111 several times and just get the same advice. Although I guess I could try one of their walk in clinics in evening.

It's the temperature that worries me and that fact we can't get it to break. Thanks ladies.
Just reaching a point where I really want to know what is wrong! Needed some perspective on how precious I was being!
Will try gp in morning.

OK, so regarding temperature, the advice a&E give here is that if a child has a temperature of 40 or over, that cannot be brought down by medication, for over 8 continuous hours, then that child needs to be seen on the basis of temperature alone.

So a temperature that does respond but goes up again is not so worrying (if child is OK(ish) in other respects). DS2 has a temperature that repeatedly spiked to 40 over the course of 10 days when he had flu.

How is she now? I would try and get her to out of hours gp or a walk in centre rather than a&e

Her fever seems to have broken and returned to normal. She is still all stuffed up and has a cough. Have managed to get gp appt for this afternoon. Completely expect to be told that it's a virus and to keep doing what I'm doing.
Thing is I think the novelty value of medicine has worn off as she refuses it now!