Fever: To treat or not to treat
Dr. Blockson is originally from West Palm Beach, Florida. She graduated Cum Laude at University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and dual minor in Psychology and Chemistry. She completed her medical education at Howard University in Washington, DC in 2007. Dr. Blockson then went... more
For any parent, it is agonizing to see your child in pain. That’s why generally as soon as a child’s temperature goes abound 99, there is a rush to bring down the temperature. But is medication really necessary?
The answer is no, barring a couple of exceptions. Most healthy children can handle even temperatures as high as 105 without any long term consequences. Fever is a sign that your immune system is trying to fight something. If your child is healthy and over 3 months old, you can generally monitor their fever for 2-3 days, provided that they aren’t in pain and they are able to keep hydrated.
What about febrile seizures? Most kids won’t have a seizure with fever and the ones that do have a predisposition to these types of seizures. Furthermore, unless they are prolonged (more than 3 minutes) or frequent, they usually do not have any long term effects, and children usually grow out of them. Furthermore, these seizures are not caused by the actual temperature but by how fast the temperature goes up.
So in short, don’t treat the fever, treat the child. If your little one has a fever but is resting comfortably, staying hydrated, and has no other worries one symptom (severe pain, rapidly progressive rash, excessive vomiting or diarrhea, lethargy, difficulty breathing, etc.), then it is generally is safe to monitor them and use nonpharmacological methods of temperature control (cool compresses, lukewarm baths). Save the Tylenol and Motrin for when the child is uncomfortable.
