Children and Fever, What to Do?



Greetings dear mommies, I hope you are all healthy and happy.

Today I want to talk to you about fever. When parents think their children may have a fever, the feeling is one of fear and insecurity, especially when the cause is not defined at the onset of the illness. Fever is closely associated with illness, both for parents and health professionals.

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This symptom is useful as a warning sign and it is estimated that out of every ten children, four have fever as the only symptom. In this context, most cases of fever have a benign evolution and it is up to the pediatrician to select each case that requires a more precise investigation, detecting the most serious cases that require immediate intervention. The pediatric physician has a long way to go in his role as caregiver, through his attitudes of trust and respect, following the educational mission in health of these families, thus improving their quality of life.

Defining fever is not a simple task, since body temperature varies within certain limits and is related to certain factors; therefore, fever is the controlled elevation of body temperature above the values in the normal range of the individual, being considered fever with an axillary temperature higher than 37.8C.

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Fever can be harmful or beneficial to the body. Thus, it can increase oxygen consumption and impair cardiac performance in debilitated children, or in cases of severe pneumonia or heart disease. In addition, it can cause seizures in genetically predisposed children and in children aged six months to five years, called febrile seizures, without leaving brain damage.

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How should we be aware of the severity of fever?
In newborns and in the first two months of life, at temperatures above 39.4C, especially if accompanied by tremors and changes in skin color. Also, in fevers of more than three days, accompanied by irritability, drowsiness, inconsolable crying and moaning.

Parents should be aware of the good general condition of their children, even in the presence of fever, keep the child in light clothing in a ventilated environment, offer plenty of fluids and respect the reduction of the child's appetite, which is inevitable in these cases. Sometimes the discomfort caused by fever should be relieved with antipyretics and not always completely normalize the temperature, since fever stimulates the defense mechanisms against infection.

See you soon, thanks for reading...

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