What should I do if my child has a fever? Is reducing fever the best way? What should parents do?
Experts dispel doubts
The child has a fever, so don't hurry to cool down.
First of all, don't rush to reduce the fever, find out the cause of the child's fever. Fever is not a disease, it sounds like a wake-up call to your body, reminding you that there is an abnormal situation inside your body. At the same time, fever is also a defensive measure for our body to deal with pathogenic microorganisms. To some extent, a proper fever is conducive to enhancing the body's resistance and eliminating pathogens. So if the child doesn't have a high fever, don't rush to reduce the fever immediately, otherwise it will hide the real cause.
There are many reasons why children have a fever. Upper respiratory tract infection, gastroenteritis, tonsillitis, pneumonia and all infectious diseases may have fever symptoms. In addition, babies under one year old may also have a fever due to urinary tract infection, gastrointestinal diseases and * * * diseases. Many cases must be judged by a doctor to know the real cause of fever.
Bacteria or viruses, these two infectious drugs are completely different.
Generally speaking, bacteria and viruses are the most common pathogens that cause infants to be infected. The treatment of fever caused by these two conditions is completely different. If it is a bacterial infection, as long as the antibiotics are selected correctly, the treatment effect will be very good. If it is a virus infection, there is no specific medicine at present, and you can take Virin, Radix Isatidis granules, honeysuckle and so on. The fever caused by virus infection will decrease after a certain period of time. Don't grab your eyebrows and beard just because you have a fever, and use up all the medicine at once.
The baby has a fever, so don't mix the medicine.
Whether to give children antipyretic drugs needs to weigh the pros and cons. Drugs can certainly improve the child's condition and make the baby comfortable; But it may also bring some side effects. The World Health Organization advises babies not to use any antipyretic drugs within 2 months. In general, drug antipyretic therapy is only applied to children with high fever. The method and dosage of taking must be in accordance with the doctor's requirements. We suggest that children should be given antipyretics when their body temperature exceeds 38.5 degrees Celsius. If your child has a history of febrile convulsions in the past, you may wish to give your child an antipyretic at 38 degrees Celsius.
In particular, many parents often give their children different kinds of antipyretics. Some anxious parents have been taking drugs orally for half an hour without reducing their fever, and they have also added suppositories. However, the persistence of various drugs is different, and mixed use may overlap the efficacy. As a result, the fever was too fierce and urgent, and the body temperature dropped below 36 degrees Celsius. New problems have arisen. Parents can choose an antipyretic and be familiar with its dosage and interval, so as to use it easily.
The Best Method of Physical Cooling
In addition to drugs to reduce fever, some physical methods can also help children with fever to cool down. Commonly used physical cooling methods at home generally include alcohol bath, ice pillow cooling or warm water bath. So, which method is best for your baby?
Rubbing with alcohol is a common way to reduce fever in the past, and it is not recommended for babies now. Wiping the baby's body with alcohol will make the baby's skin relax and contract quickly, which is very irritating to the baby and may also cause alcoholism.
Many parents often use ice pillows or ice to compress their foreheads to reduce fever. However, children within six months should not use this method, because the baby is easily affected by the external temperature, and the use of ice pillows will cause the temperature to drop too fast, which makes it difficult for the baby to adapt. In addition, when the baby has a fever, the whole body temperature rises, and local ice compress can only play a role in local cooling, so it is better to wipe the baby's whole body with warm water.
Warm water bath is to wipe the child's limbs, chest and back with a warm towel of about 37℃. Make the skin's high temperature (about 39℃) gradually lower, and make the baby feel more comfortable. At this time, you can also wipe your forehead and face with a cool towel (about 25℃). It should be noted that during these cooling treatments, if the child has so-called cold reactions such as cold hands and feet, trembling whole body and purple lips, he should stop taking the medicine immediately. Why? When pathogens invade the human body, the body temperature will rise to a corresponding temperature, which is the set temperature. Lowering the set temperature is the key to reduce the fever for children. Because if the set temperature is not changed, the body will still generate heat to reach the target body temperature while radiating heat. At this time, bathing the child with cold water in an attempt to reduce the fever through heat dissipation is not only ineffective, but also makes the child tremble and feel cold, which is very painful. Therefore, we must first use antipyretics to lower the set temperature, and then assist physical heat dissipation, so that the body temperature will really drop.