Once our little ones got a fever, we parents often go into panic mode and a trip to the AnE in the middle of the night. Here are some tips to get through those sleepless nights monitoring our little ones to get through the night.
Things to prepare: thermometer, medication, small towel and a bowl of room temperature water.
However, if your child is below 3 months or eating and drinking less than half their usual intake, lethargic and fever for more than 72 hours, please do not hesitate to bring them to the hospital immediately. Otherwise, you may visit the GP or self-medicate with the correct amount of medication.
First and foremost, I will usually see the type of fever they have by monitoring for 3 hours. If it’s low grade fever <38C, I will just keep child hydrated, comfortable, eat soupy food and get through the first 3 hours. However, if it’s >38.5C, don’t panic. Ok, you can panic. Scramble all the things you need to bring down the temperature (ie. Bowl of room temperature water and towels for sponging. I feel like those cooling patch does not really work with my kids but you can try!). I will usually not wait anymore. I will feed paracetamol first. Then, the second hour it was still at 38.9C. At this second hour, I will give Brufen. Here’s the part where it gets tricky and we do not want to mess up the timing I will usually use the Alarm clock app on my phone to help remind me for the next feed. Also, my husband and I has figured out a way to keep track of their medication especially when multiple children are sick at the same time. Take a look at our conversation below.
Basically it states the name of child, temperature, medication and also the timestamp. We follow the kids’s temperature instead of medicating them religiously. We try to let the body fight it a little and pace out their medication timing. It made them break their fever really quickly and go about their usual routine as soon as they can.
Another tip is that, for fevers, I usually try to keep them active and moving around. I will usually wait for the moment they break a sweat. Break a sweat = break the fever. So, let them sweat it out! Sometimes people may tell our kids that they’re sick and they should lay down and rest. But kids being kids, they want to explore and play. Let them be. WAIT FOR THE SWEAT.