Managing a Temperature at night (8mo)

[MintGreenLife]

DS is 8 months old and has a cold. We are on day 5. Yesterday he had a mild temp (37.5), today worse at 38.5. Took him to see the GP earlier who didn’t seem concerned. Myself and DH have had a cold too and have taken three lateral flow tests each so fairly certain not covid.

Have been giving calpol but doesn’t seem to be helping much. Temp was 38.4 just before bed, calpol given an hour before bed. Dressed in sleep bag and long sleeve vest (usually has sleepsuit also). I’m sleeping in his nursery so I can keep a close eye on him. GP said not to wake in the night to give calpol, and that if temp was rising he would wake and cry, however I’m not convinced. I’m worried that the calpol may be keeping a nastier temp around the 38.5 mark and without it’ll rise to dangerous levels. I’m going to set an alarm to check him every 2hrs, but am worried I won’t be able to tell from the feel of his skin, and of course don’t want to wake him to take his temp.

Should also say he’s sicked up 3 times this evening after coughing. Think it’s mucus bothering him.

Feel so awful for him 😭

Open the window a bit, give him water to drink whenever he wakes, change the long sleeve suit for a short sleeve one, or even take it off if you have to. The temperature rises to help the body fight things off so it can be helpful. I'm not for a moment saying don't dose him up if he's uncomfortable- he'll certainly wake to let you know if he is - I'm saying don't worry so much about the temp!

If it really is bothering him you could try baby ibuprofen if he can have it? Often works better than Calpol. You could also trying propping his cot up with blocks/a v small pillow under his mattress and/or some Snufflebabe (vicks for babies) if he's snotty/chesty?

Try your Health Visitor for more advice too. I've always found ours really helpful.

Have you given him ibuprofen aswell as the calpol? I usually find it more effective than calpol. Just keep an eye on him, has he been his usual self during the day?

You can alternate between calpol and ibuprofen to get his temperature down if calpol on it’s own isn’t doing it.

I find DD (2yo) doesn’t wake at night with a temperature but she didn’t sleep at 8m so hard to compare with when she was that age! If you want to check his temperature at night you can get one of those forehead thermometers that you point at them and it might not wake him?

Thanks everyone. He woke up at 10.30pm for a feed, but is now sleeping soundly. He doesn’t really drink water (won’t take a bottle, hasn’t mastered a cup), but I’ve been offering him the breast lots in the day. He’s been generally fine in himself, a little grumpier, but some periods of smokes and playing today. We have baby ibuprofen yes. He feels rather hot to touch now his last dose of calpol has worn off, finding it hard to know if leaving him to sleep is the right thing to do 😢 but of course don’t want to disturb him. We do have one of those forehead thermometers actually, however it makes a loud beeping noise and I find it to be quite inaccurate. I may try shortly with that when he seems in a deep sleep x

Forehead thermometer says 37.8, so not too bad. For me it says 36.7, so hopefully it is giving fairly accurate readings

I use an ear thermometer on DS which beeps. When he's asleep it doesn't wake him to be honest; even when I move his head to check his other ear. He's nearly 4 now but I've been doing this since he was a baby when he's running a temp and it's not once woken him.

I'd try the nurofen next. I always save nurofen for the night time dose as it seems to keep temp down for a bit longer, usually 6 hours min compared to calpol 4

@TeethingBabyHelp wow that’s impressive, my DS must be a much lighter sleeper. Thank you, I’ll do that. Your username has reminded me actually, he has his first tooth coming through at the moment too, so that could be adding to the temperature, poor thing 😢

A mercury thermometer under the arm is silent. Could you use that?

Paracetamol is available from a pharmacy in suppository form. This might be an option to use rather than waking in the night and trying to get him to swallow liquid paracetamol. Also very handy for a vomiting bug.

Maybe if he's not feeling 100% he's a bit less deeply asleep.
Saw your post about most recent temp and that sounds encouraging, not too worrying. I'm sure the teething won't be helping, poor little love:
I hope the rest of your night goes ok and much better in the morning:

@TeethingBabyHelp thanks so much x

My 8 month old had covid at 6 months. Temp got to 40C and she completely refused calpol. Even stopped crying so I couldn't sneak it in. It was a stressful night when she literally felt like a hot water bottle (especially as I also had COVID, as did the other 2 and DH away). I didnt know if I should let her sleep etc but she wss absolutely fine. And aleep is generally bemeficial for a poorly child.

You will absolutely be able to feel by touching head if the temp hits any higher than it currently is.

Personally I wouldn't be waking them unless you have other reasons to be concerned (I have 3 DC under 5), you are close by and, in my experience, poorly babies sleep restlessly anyway so you will likely get a shout through the night anyway to know they arr okay.

@Muststopeating gosh that sounds awful, how horrible for you all 😢 myself and DH have been poorly too, and have had four negative lateral flows each over three days, so fairly certain we’ve all just had colds.

He was awake at 3am and felt pretty hot, so I gave him ibuprofen to be on the safe side. Was wide awake then for an hour, then went back down only for 45 mins, and when I picked him up he felt quite cold actually! So ibuprofen worked much better than the calpol. So far today feels normal temp to touch and happily bouncing away in his jumperoo at the mo while I have a quick cup of tea ☺️ Thanks everyone for their advice x