More fever - when do you worry?

seeker

Fri, Jan 13 2017, 3:47 pm

I know fever is good, helps the immune system work, and you're supposed to let it go. I also know that higher fever doesn't mean more sick. But at what point do you get concerned? DD 6 years old has had fever on and off since Sunday, I keep holding off on going back to the doctor (we did visit a few days ago to confirm it's just a random virus and nothing worse/treatable) because she seems to be getting better and then she gets worse again. When her fever is down she's acting normal, when it's medium she's still pretty good, and when it's high she's doing a lot of sleeping, which seems normal enough. But it keeps swinging back up to 103-104 and it's disconcerting to me. Anyone want to reassure me that this is really OK and you just keep letting the immune system do it's work?

Besides the fever the only symptom is a very runny nose and tickly throat with a little coughing. (tested negative for strep and flu)

amother

Rose

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 3:09 pm

My 4 year old has had fever on and off - EXACTLY as you are describing for one week now. Also texted negative for anything real - just tickly throat bit of coughing and a runny nose. He seems to get better, we breath a sigh of relief... and then his fever is up again! It's so upsetting...

amother

Violet

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 3:18 pm

seeker wrote:

If you've had her checked out I really don't see room for concern before two weeks. A virus often takes a while to run it's course. I hope she feels better soon.

amother

Babyblue

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 6:42 pm

My doctor told me to make sure to keep the fever down Advil or Motrin every 4 hours and Tylenol in between. Putting them into a bath very soothing. If they still have fever after a few days they should be checked for infection that's causing the fever so they can have antibiotics. If the fever didn't go away after a few days we gave antibiotics which usually helped right away

amother

Orchid

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 8:36 pm

Pediatric NP here. I do get worried about fevers above 101 that linger for more than 3 days. If it's fever + cough I'll send for a chest x-ray. If just fever we do a urine test for UTI. We'll also do blood work to look for elevated white blood cell and other signs of infection. Low grade fevers below 101 are not too worrisome with cold symptoms.

amother

Silver

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 9:15 pm

seeker wrote:

When did she have the flu test? I was just told that within the first 24 hours of onset of symptoms, the rapid flu test can give false negatives.

DD 6 just tested positive for flu with exactly those symptoms. High fever, runny nose and slight cough. Refuah shleima!

seeker

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 9:48 pm

The runny nose started last Sunday morning, the fever started Sunday evening, and the flu test was Tuesday evening. I wonder if your DD6 is in the same class as mine, a whole lot have been absent over the last week and one mom said she had flu but I didn't find out if it was swabbed or just assumed.

She felt cool over Shabbos and is now down to 99.something. Still coughing and runny but not as much as before. More than I'd like but I'll take any improvement. DD4 caught the fever late Wednesday night, spent a couple of days downright miserable 103-104, and today seemed a lot better but that happened with the other one before she got worse again.

NP amother thanks for weighing in - if it goes up and down, is that called "lingering"? That's what I really can't figure out, especially because one day it actually went all the way down to normal and then shot back up again.

If it doesn't stay down this time we are going back to the doctor... though I really hope this is it.

amother

Silver

Sat, Jan 14 2017, 9:52 pm

Sorry....that does sound strange, maybe a weird virus?

My dd is not in the same class as yours if you live in Brooklyn, but lots of stuff is going around the schools here too unfortunately...

seeker

Tue, Jan 17 2017, 1:39 pm

So the good news is that according to the doctor we made the right/reasonable call by staying home when we did and bringing her in when we did, and the bad news is that she did indeed develop pneumonia. But mostly he thinks the high fevers on and off were flu and the swab test just didn't pick it up for some reason.

amother

Emerald

Tue, Jan 17 2017, 3:02 pm

Same thing happened when my daughter had pneumonia. Brought her to the dr, he said take her home and let her rest, nothing serious. Brought her back 2 days later, same thing. Brought her back after another 2 days of up and down fever, and it was pneumonia. . .

My dr said that what probably happened was that she got the flu and that turned into pneumonia. So the up and down fevers were from the flu coming and then going, and then pneumonia coming.