What every mother should know about fevers

A lot of parents are concerned about how high a fever gets, febrile seizures, brain damage, etc. So what’s the real deal on fevers? What is a fever for? What are some natural ways to relive fever symptoms and the fever itself?

http://mamamojo.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/fevers/

 

I thought you should know that it is very so good of you to post this information out here on the internet to inform the masses.

I can think of nothing worse in the world than a sick child, my mother crying or an ailing dog of mine...

 

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I remember my daughter's first fever. She was a little bit under a year old. It was 100.something. I let the fear and momma-doubt wash over me for a few minutes, and then I put on my logic cap.

Her fever was low, she wasn't *miserable*...uncomfortable, yes, but not miserable, and her symptoms weren't anything that I didn't know what to do about. So I did what I could to make her comfortable, and let her fever run its course. A fever just means her body is working to rid itself of an infection. It means her immune system works!

I would have taken her to a doctor if her fever had gone higher than 103 for more than an hour. Or if she had trouble breathing. Or if she couldn't get more than 6 hours sleep in a 24 hour period. Or if I had that gut feeling that we needed help for something.

By trusting my momma-gut, my daughter has had just a handful of real honest-to-goodness illnesses. This last illness, we did treat her with a bit of acetaminophen, but only because her fever had been on-going for a few days, she wasn't sleeping well at all, and she was complaining about an owie. We only dosed her minimally, and only at bedtime.

Thanks for posting this, mamamojo! More mommas need to know about trusting their momma guts!

 

Sure thing! It's so easy to get scared for our wee ones that we only want to protect from all harm. And then the Dr's just push and push treating a fever but it really is counterproductive. I am with you - we treat if kiddo isn't sleeping well and only minimally. It's the body's job to fight off the junk and if we always intervene the body gets weaker and we really are doing ourselves and our children an injustice by making the fevers go away.