CHILDREN’S FEVER: TREATMENT OF FEVER
April 28th, 2009Care of your thermometer
After each use, the thermometer should be shaken down below “normal” and washed with soap and cold water. Sterilize the thermometer by soaking it in a solution of rubbing alcohol before storing it in its case. Place it back in the medicine cabinet where it will be handy the next time you need it. Do not let children treat the thermometer as a toy.
Treatment of fever
The most reliable medications for lowering fever are aspirin and paracetamol, a non-aspirin pain reliever found in some over-the-counter preparations. You can give one children’s aspirin or the equivalent amount of paracetamol for every 7 kilos of weight. This dose can be repeated every four hours. Other basic guidelines for administering aspirin or paracetamol include:
1. Do not awaken the child to give aspirin or paracetamol.
2. Do not mix aspirin and paracetamol or alternate between the two.
3. Call the doctor if fever persists longer than 48 hours or if other signs of illness are present.
Keep a feverish child lightly clothed or covered to allow the body heat to escape. This, too, will help lower a fever.
Other methods of reducing a fever include placing the child in a lukewarm bath or encasing the naked child in a wet sheet. A child with a consistently high temperature should be under the care of a doctor.
Although giving the child aspirin has long been the accepted home treatment for lowering a fever, aspirin should not be used if the child has chicken pox or influenza. A condition called Reye’s syndrome has been possibly linked to the use of aspirin in the treatment of chicken pox or influenza. Reye’s syndrome is a relatively rare type of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, accompanied by changes in the liver, and it usually starts after the child has begun to recover from chicken pox or influenza.
It has not been proven that aspirin causes or promotes Reye’s syndrome, but it is recommended that aspirin not be given to children with chicken pox or influenza. Instead, sponge baths and aspirin substitutes such as paracetamol – which has not been linked to Reye’s syndrome – should be used to manage the fever and other symptoms.
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