Fever

[karen]

What body temperature is considered high enough to warrant an emergency
room trip? My ds had a fever Monday and he came home from school at 1.
He had fever through early Tuesday morning, but was fine until late
afternoon. No fever on Wed-Fri but again yesterday he had fever. This time
he has a cough. The fever lowers and sometimes goes away with ibuprofen
or paracetamol, but comes back higher each time. This morning he was at
38.7. Again, the fever subsided with ibuprofen. Any advice? He rarely gets
sick, which is why I don't already know these things.

[Amandine.K]

It's been a few days that he's having fever. While you manage to make it go down with paracetamol or ibu. I would still take him to the doc. tomorrow to check if it's not an ear infection or something like that. Try to give him paracetamol at regular intervals to control his fever.

[Rosamunda]

A bad throat infection can really push a fever up very high and very fast. In which case I would alternate Ibuprofen and paracetemol, and even a bath (a few degrees cooler than his body temp). But the fever shouldn't last more than 24h in that case.

Good idea to see a doctor.

As for ER... if a child of mine had a high temperature plus either headaches or vomiting I would almost definitely go straight to casualty.

[littlefrank]

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advic ... nfever.htm

'Attention

Sick children are often tired and bad-tempered. They sleep a lot and when they are awake... They might whine and act younger than their age.'

Mmmmh I've often heard women say this about...

Hope your child gets well soon.

[kiely]

If he still has the temperature I would take him to the Doctor.
It could be the beginnings of something...like Chicken pox or measles???
All these things tend to have 14 day incubation periods and you never really know. Alternatively it could be something of nothing.
The rule is normally if the temperature has been up and down for 3 days then go to the Doctor.
Although through this time you should keep checking the neck and body for rashes.

[ElenKa]

Try calling a helpful service 10023. Whenever I have any doubts reagrding my daughter's health i call them. They speak Finnish, Swedish and English.

[raamv]

The home safety guide is pretty good from teh 112 service:
http://www.112.fi/documents/112_turvaopas_ENG.pdf
I got the red cross booklet and reference guide from an emergency training course that I attended recently..

There is also a checklist for children emergencies:
http://www.kotitapaturma.fi/tiedoston_k ... ?dok_id=18

and for adults:
http://www.kotitapaturma.fi/tiedoston_k ... ?dok_id=16

and then there is the rescue services in Finland :
http://www.pelastustoimi.fi/en/

[karen]

Thanks, all. He didn't have a fever yesterday, but we took him to the doctor. She said that his symptoms fit the virus that's going around. I'll bookmark those links.