18 month old temp not coming down with medicine - 111 not concerned?

[Hduenehd]

18 month old spiked a 40 degree temp. Calpol and neurofen brought it down to 37.7 after 1.5 hours, then it began rising again. Now at 38.8.

111 said to just monitor that he's alert and there are no other symptoms. Told to talk to a chemist about medication.

Is this normal? I thought a temp that didn't respond to medication was serious? Anyone have any experience of this?

No, we’ve had a few occasions like that where meds brought the temp down a bit but not to normal range. Are you alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen? Means you can stagger doses but be careful of the 24hr limits. Like they say, if he starts to develop any other worrying symptoms then seek advice but the temp is his body fighting infection. I know it’s stressful but I’m sure he’ll be better soon, this bit shouldn’t last too long.

It can be serious but only if there are other signs. Keep on with alternating calpol and nurofen and keep a piece of paper tracking medicine and temperature.
Plenty of fluids and any change at all go to the hospital but if alert and drinking then the body is only doing what it's meant to to fight off infection.
Just checking you're taking temperature with an in ear thermometer as I think they're the most reliable.
How long has his temp been up?

Thank you so much both. That's really reassuring. I was worried that they'd missed something. Temp started at about 4pm so it hasn't been long. Didn't stay at 40 for very long. I was just really concerned that it was dipping then rising again. Good to know that can be normal.

It's so hard not to worry when they're poorly. We've got a newborn too, hoping he doesn't pick up the virus too.

20 month old DS used to suffer from recurrent tonsillitis so we’ve been there many times with the 40 degree temp! Even with a viral infection we were told it isn’t unusual for temp to rise again fairly quickly, but what you should see as the infection improves is either lower peaks, or longer between each peak. Agree on the other posters though about staggering, we sometimes found ibuprofen not as effective at reducing his temperature as calpol too, hence the staggering.
Obviously seek further medical advice if things get worse and other symptoms come up, but provided your little one is generally ok 🤞🏼

You’ve had some great advice already.
Technically, it did respond to the medicine by coming down, albeit slowly then climbing again!
It’s stressful when little ones are ill. Hopefully if you alternate paracetamol and ibuprofen you might find the fever is easier to manage. If you do use both and the temp is still hard to manage, I’d seek more advice. In my (sadly vast with 3 young kids 😂) that tends to indicate something like ear or throat infection. It’s so hard when they’re so little and can’t tell you easily if something is hurting. Watch out for particular discomfort lying down or pulling at the ears for signs of ear infection or random gagging for throat infection/tonsils.

I think that sounds normal. Temp should come down but not necessarily go back to normal range with meds. The fever itself is doing the work of fighting the infection (it’s a good thing). You just want it to be controlled and you want dc to be comfortable. I’d just keep doing what you’re doing and keep hydrated as well.

I think it’s ok. Dd is like this. I’ve seen over 40 with her quite a few times. Alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol does bring it down but not for long. It is scary but some kids are like this