My 16 month old is unvaxed, has never been "sick" (had a mild cold after New Years), never had a fever, etc.--about as "pure" as they come. Yesterday morning I noticed he was warm. He had a temp of 101. No biggie--no other symptoms, running around being himself--eating, drinking, nursing just fine. Slept fine all night. Had fever all day today.
Around 4:30 tonight he was just laying around. Totally unlike him. He still came up to the table for supper and halfway through he started fussing. I took his temp and he was close to 103. I immediately gave him a tepid bath, but that didn't seem to really help.
After the bath, he was laying around sleepy and I decided to take him to urgent care. I was second guessing myself the whole way there. We get there and he's running around playing--felt like an idiot being there, but we got taken in and his temp was 103. He has Coxsackie virus.
So...I got to make the decision when I got home to give him a fever reducer or not. I struggled and decided to do it. He was miserable. He needed some sleep so he could get better. I feel so bad that I gave it to him and in a way relieved at the same time. Did I do the right thing? Will it hurt him any that I did give it to him?
Jackson had his first dose of Motrin about two weeks ago. He was down and out much like your son. He wasn't sleeping, I wasn't sleeping. I just decided that we all needed some sleep. After all, sleep is the best medicine. I think in moderation it's all OK, KWIM? It only took one dose that night and one the next and he was all better. Don't beat yourself up over this. Even my homeopath says it's OK sometimes.
Awww - poor baby and mama! I know that lots here believe very strongly that pain/fever reducers are uneccessary, but IMO you need to take care of your baby! I have been told that coxsakie is a terribly painful illness for your baby. I'm glad you helped him to feel better. One or two doses won't kill him. I hope he feels better soon!
Brayg, I totally agree that sleep is the best medicine and that you did the right thing. I have also given tylenol to my dd in a similar situation.
An alternative Idea - someone on mdc (sorry I don't remember who) recomended Valerian extract for pain relief. It does not lower fever, but does relieve pain and (supposedly) makes you a little sleepy. I bought ours at whole foods (health food store) I have recently given some to dd who had a fever and cold and just felt yucky and was having trouble sleeping. It seemed to work great. DH and I have both taken it for headaches, didn't notice and sleepiness but definetley had pain relief (that is why I say it supposedly makes you sleepy.) Anyhow, just an idea.
You did the right thing. I am not a medicine person, but Coxackie is serious. We had a bout of that when Schmooey was about a year and a half. It was very scary.
Thanks all. He sailed through w/flying colors so far. I gave him his Tylenol and nursed him to sleep at about 8:30 last night. He didn't wake up again until 3:00. I nursed him and gave him more tylenol, as he was still pretty hot. He slept again till 8:10 this morning. He woke up with no fever. I had called earlier yesterday for an appointment w/the ped. for this morning (before going to the ER) so I took him anyway. He said that Owen would probably get another fever later today but that the worst is over. *whew* I'd have to say he's done very well w/this. Especially since it's his first real illness.
Well, the better sleep he got likely helped him tremendously. BTW, you can always give half-doses instead of the full does. Often, that is plenty. So you can minimize the amt of tylenol you give.
I totally agree with the sleep thing. I'm so bummed at myself, too, because this past weekend we were so busy w/family stuff that he didn't get the good naps he should have. Sure enough, he gets sick. I'm thinking we caught it on Thursday at the toddler class we take (really the only place we were to catch it) so the lack of naps hurt him. That and he just had 4 molars pop through. Another stress on his body.
I gave him one dropper of infant tylenol (.8 mL). It seemed to do the trick. I wanted to make sure he got enough to be effective. Didn't want it all to be in vain. It was hard enough giving it to him at all, kwim?
Rachel, I'm so glad to hear that Owen is feeling better. I've been thinking of him today. I'm sure the sleep helped you both tremendously.
That is incredible that this is his first illness!! What a great immune system he must have
I can't believe I've never thought about giving dd a half dose of the Tylenol. I haven't used it in a long while, but wish I would have thought of that at the time...
Anyhow, I'm sure your little guy will be back up to full speed in no time!
That is incredible that this is his first illness!! What a great immune system he must have
It is pretty incredible. I'm very proud of it too!
Thanks so much everyone for your encouragement. I was about in tears on my way to the ER because I wasn't sure what to do--it was a major internal struggle.
I'm leary of meds in general, but the few times my ds has been really sick, feverish, and clearly feeling terrible, I usually break down and give him a half dose of tylenol, just so he can get some sleep, drink some water, or whatever. I figure when I have a fever I feel REALLY CRAPPY, and all I want is a little relief. Why expect a toddler to just grin and bear it?
I was going to post exactly what hhurd said. I struggle a lot with the decision to give any medications, but if ds is clearly miserable, then I give him a bit of tylenol. In his 3 years he's had Tylenol maybe 5 times. Like the previous poster said, I break down and take medication if I'm feeling crappy enough, so I feel like I should do the same for ds.
Hey honey, I totally understand what you're going through. I have a 16 month old too. We practice homeopathy as much as possible and really great nutrition and she's only had a couple of colds. But recently she had a real doosey. She couldn't sleep cause she was so congested and her frustration simply broke my heart. I'm really sensitive to medicine and have always tried every other route with her, but here's the deal. Tylenol cold was the only thing that helped her sleep so she could heal. No side effects. No problems. She kicked the cold really fast because her body was able to rest. Tylenol is about the safest thing you could use as far as medicines go and you should rest easy that you followed your gut and that your intentions were pure. I think when you are serving your child's best interests, you can't go wrong. I wouldn't worry about giving him another dose tonight. I found that an eve dose for a few days was just what my little girl needed and I'm sure she appreciated. Good luck.
The dangers of anti-pyretics are most likely when used as a "baby-sitter". The odd times are unlikely to do anything, though there have been case reports in medical literature of liver toxicity after one dose.
But I would think that would have to be in a vastly compromised child already.
You don't need to beat yourself up. You just need to be happy with your own decision. Because in the end YOU have to look after your child, no-one else.
Oh, don't feel bad, dd just had roseola and I was debating fever reducer or homeopathy. Tylenol can be damaging to the liver over time though, so since dd is over 18 pounds I planned to give her baby ibuprofin if I felt like her fever was getting dangerous. The ibuprofin takes about an hour to start working as oppsed to the tylenol, but it works well and alleviates pain. It is such a conflict sometimes deciding what treatment is right- I've taken dd to the emergency room only to think, "What the hell are these jerks gonna do for her anyway? It's not like I"m going to let them touch her or give her anything!" I'm glad I went those times, don't get me wrong, I had to learn what was really an emergency and what wasn't and I had to test my own analysis of her illness. Now that I trust myself it's been well over a year and we've been through some doozies.
I'm sorry your ds is sick. Hope he feels better soon.
Lauren
what would you have done then? How high would you have let the fever get? and How long would you have let the fever go?
Owen was absolutely miserable. Not only because of the fever, but because of the blisters on his throat. How would you have helped him in that situation? I'm not asking to be snarky--I'm truly interested, because despite the fact that over the 24 hours previous to the fever spike I'd given him tons of vitamin c (sodium ascorbate), cod liver oil, he had good naps/sleep, and I'd given him a tepid bath to reduce fever--everything I knew to help him naturally.
Quote:
I've taken dd to the emergency room only to think, "What the hell are these jerks gonna do for her anyway? It's not like I"m going to let them touch her or give her anything!"
That's how I was feeling too. And that's what the ER doc said to me after we talked about why we don't vax. :LOL I assured him that I'm not closed-minded and will weigh the pros and cons of everything he had to say to me, whether I agreed with it or not. He didn't offer any treatment to us--just told me what I could do at hom to help him. I was actually quite pleased w/the visit--it could have gone far worse.
FTR: this is only the 3rd time Owen's seen a doctor. The other 2 were WBCs.
:LOL when I took dd in at 2 mos for diarrhea with blood tinged mucus, they wanted her rectal temp like nobody's business. I was like... her butt hurts, I'm not letting you people mess around down there. Not to mention if it were so necessary to get an accurate temp they'd take my temp rectally, yk? Ugh. Go be invasive with your own body, not my kid's. Anyway, they were like, well, you can give her lots of water and pedialyte. Jello is good too. I was like, um... she's exclusively breastfed... They go, oh, well then just nurse her as often as she wants to nurse.
And watch her "fever-" auxillary temp had it at 99* but I actually didn't tell them, I let them freak out for fun. :LOL
I really appreciate your honest question and will consider it as such. I sounds to me like you are very intelligent and certainly want the best for your child.
First of all, the fever can go to 105 for 3 days without any side effects in young children. "Febrile seizures" are actually not caused by the high fever but when the fever drops too quickly. So it is best not to make the child hot, like they used to do (and often still do in Europe) e.g. cover him with blankets to make him 'sweat it out', but instead keep him just so he does not get chilled. I don't think sponge baths do anything in the long run. They might bring the fever down but only for a shot time. What works better is to only sponge the soles of the feet with cool water and vinegar.
The other thing that I have repeatedly noticed in my children is that they only get "so sick" and then they rebound. No matter what. I actually used to panic and plan on calling the doctor or use some allopathic medicine in - two hours! - or by this evening - and just as I would think this is it! I can not take any more of a chance, the child started to improve. I have experienced that repeatedly while I raised my three kids. (They are now 35, 34, 32.) And it saved them from getting allopathic meds almost regularly. (My son had asthma, vaccine induced at 9 months.)
I am telling you that because I know how you felt when you took him to the ER and when you gave him tylenol. But I sincerely think that if you would have waited maybe another five hours, his body would have taken care of everything.
Anyway, it's not my intent to judge. I can read from everything you've written that you are an excellent mother and certainly do what you feel in your heart is best.
I am sure he will recover no matter what. Kids are very strong and resilient. We just have to keep that in mind.
By the way, I am reading an excellent book. And it describes so exactly the line of defense within our body. Yes, it deals with vaccination, but it also deals with the total immune system and how the body reacts.
I feel that it would be something you might be interested in. Maybe you can skim it in the library. The first three chapters will answer a lot of questions you migh have and don't deal with vaccines.
And now I almost forgot to post the title.
"What every parent should know about Childhood Immunization" Jamie Murphy.
If by chance you have it, re-read the first three chapters and you'll see where I stand.
No matter what, thanks for being polite. I appreciated that very much.
I wanted to pipe in again that I gave my ds tylenol because he was obviously FEELING terrible, not just because he had a fever. I understand the benefits of the fever "process" and don't like to interrupt it, EXCEPT when he seems like he just needs some relief from the pain. If I was helpless, I'd hope someone would do the same for me.
Every decision I make about my chidren's health is given great thought and researched. At least I try my best. I *know* tylenol isn't the best route most of the time and I truly tried to let it run its course. But I did let the fever go for over 36 hours--it wasn't till he was 103 and miserable that I needed to do something for him. I've always had the "tylenol is evil" stance, but this seemed pretty serious, kwim?
I have that book--haven't gotten around to cracking it open yet though.
I'll take a look.
I gotta run for now, but I have a tylenol question...I'll post later.
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