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Home >
Childrens Health
> Fever
We’ve all been there. You jolt out of your slumber
in the middle of the night to find your child
standing next to your bed, hot sweaty and flushed.
You feel their forehead and it feels warm and you
immediately suspect your child has a fever but you
are unsure of what to do next. Should you call the
doctor?
If your child is experiencing a fever, it’s likely
that it’s not that serious. It can be frightening to
see your child’s temperature go up, but a fever
within itself causes no harm and in most cases is a
good thing because it’s often the body’s defense
mechanism against infection. However, there are
steps that you can take to correctly take your
child’s temperature and make your child comfortable
when it’s a little higher than usual.
Fevers in children and adults occur when the body’s
internal thermostat raises the body temperature
above its normal level. This ‘thermostat’ is found
in the part of the brain called the hypothalamus and
the hypothalamus knows what temperature your body
should be which is usually 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
or about 37 degrees Celsius.
Researchers believe that turning up the heat is the
body’s way of fighting the germs that cause
infections and making the body a less comfortable
place for them to live and multiply.
The most common causes of fevers in children are
infections; over dressing and immunizations (babies
and children sometimes get a low-grade fever after
getting vaccinated).
Children whose temperature is lower than 102 degrees
Fahrenheit usually don’t require medication unless
they are uncomfortable. However there’s one
important rule: if you have an infant 3 months or
younger with a rectal temperature of 100.4 degrees
Fahrenheit or higher, call your baby’s doctor or go
to the emergency department. Even a slight fever can
be a sign of potentially serious infection in very
young infants.
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