How long do you wait out a fever

[Nadine216]

before you give antibiotics???

DS has been having fever on and off since Sunday evening. At the highest it was 38.2, taken under the arm. He has been restless, not drinking his whole feed (I formula feed) and giving me the grossest dipers known to mom (TMI - nice sloppy and stinky, but not slimy or other-than-normal-colour)

His fever breaks when I give him Panado (panadol) and he still sleeps ok. He does seems to be more gassy, but I recon it's because his tummy is upset. He will moan in his sleep and let out some gas and then be fine for a while. But he is not himself.

He has not broken out in anything yet .. measels or what-not. I had him at the GP, but his throat and ears are 100% and she feels nothing wrong with his bowels. As Murphy would have it his temp were 36.7 when she took it

This moring he was still a bit hot, but not so much that I took a temp. And he was pretty restless during the night, also did not drink that much. He is not dehidrated (his skintone is good and his fontanel is not dented in)

SO .... after all that ... how long do you think I should wait this fever out before really getting worried?? I don't want to just give anti-biotics if it's only a flu or some other silly virus, but WHEN do you know this has been going on long enough. When do you act??

Sure it could be teeth, after all he is almost 5 months ... but I'm not noticing any swollen gums. He is chomping on everything and drooling like a hungry dog, but that is nothing new for him.

Any ideas??
TIA

[christy]

Have you taken him to the doctor? I would do that, jic its an ear infection or something like that?

My daughter had a UTI recently and one day we went to have it checked & there wasn't anything obvious, the next day she had a febrile convulsion and was a very ill chicken. So maybe just bring him to the GP. At hospital, they would administer panadol or neurophen if the temperature went over 38. If it was under 38, they didn't worry.

ETA: I would say over 24 hours and its time to get it checked out. It doesn't necessarily mean that antibiotics will help, its more likely that its viral and antibiotics won't help, but its worth getting checked to make sure.

[BeautifulMadness]

maybe give him something cold to suck and try something other then panadol like nerofun as its meant to be a tad stronger?

have u checked his temp since the DR?

if its still high by ur account take him back and say u r worried

[christy]

sorry I didn't read the GP thingo.... opps.

I would try to keep him cool like Jess said, keep checking his temp as well. often when they are fighting something their temp goes up, even if infection hasn't taken place yet.

its awful seeing them sick

[Nadine216]

Thanks for the reply girls. I figured that if I get home, I'll check his temp and hear how much he drank. If it's high, I'll just phone the GP again. But she said the same thing about anti-biotics not going to help if it's viral.

Keeping him cool is darn difficult, because it's so cold outside I just want to bundle him up in a blanky He is in a coolish playsuit and a singlet under neath, also I did tell the carer to not cover him up if he feels hot and to phone me if his temp goes above 38. No phone call yet

BM - I had him at GP Thuesday at around 16:15 and his temp went up to 37.9 that evening. I gave some panadol (I''ll search my stash to see if I got something else) and it went down again. Up again yesterday morning to 38.1 and then after panadol down again. Yesterday evening up to 37.8 down again after panadol. I only give panadol if his temp is high, I don't give like every six hours.

See that is why I'm biting my nails to see if he does not have like measels or something .. I'm waiting for spots or SOMETHING to just pop out!! I'm not THAT worried because the fever comes down. If it did NOT come down even after panadol, I would not have had this problem, kwim??