Don't freak out because your kid has a fever

I see a lot of people who come in because their child has a fever.  There are a lot of reasons kids have fever.  Most of the time it's not anything to get too excited about, simple infections like viral, ear infections, strep, gastroenteritis (stomach flu).  Sometimes we don't know why they have fever.  

This is my fever talk:  

As long as we know why they have it, Fever in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing.  Your body puts your temperature up on purpose to help fight off infection.  You're not at risk of having brain damage unless you have a fever of 108.  As long as your brain is functionally normally, your body isn't going to allow that to happen.  Some people are predisposed to febrile seizure, we don't know who they are until they deiced to have one.  Even then it's scary to watch, it doesn't cause brain damage.  

If a kid's runny around with a fever of 101 or 102, but is otherwise doing well, that's OK in fact actually a good situation.  When  your child has a high  temperature and fells miserable, that is the best time to given them an antipyretic.  You want to make sure you give your child an adequate dose of Tylenol or ibuprofen and stick with the one they respond to better.  Even if their fever doesn't come all the way down to normal, that's ok as long as they are feeling better.  If they have at temp of 104 that is not responding to Tylenol or ibuprofen, then they should be seen.  Anyone who has a fever for more then 5 days should be seen and any child who has headache, fever and neck pain should be seen immediately.  Kids who are sick usually don't want to eat a whole lot, and that's alright as long as they are getting adequate fluids.  What your mother told you about pushing fluids is true.  There is nothing I can do to make your child eat when they don't want to.   Any child who is not responding to you needs to be seen immediately.  But you don't need to wake a sick child to give them fever medication, let them sleep.