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The American Academy of Pediatrics has “pulled an Al Gore”.
In similar amusing fashion to the former Vice President’s claim that he invented the Internet, researchers in the journal Pediatrics have recommended the “novel approach” of letting a fever run its course in otherwise healthy children. (1)
Evidently these doctors are suffering from an extreme case of memory loss or egomania as was the case for Mr. Gore. Either that or they made a practice of napping during their Medical History classes in Med School. More likely, these types of classes weren’t even offered at the request of the pharmaceutical companies donating copious amounts of cash to the particular institution they attended.
After all, we wouldn’t want newly minted doctors knowing anything about the history of effective, non-drug based remedies and treatments, would we?
While it may be claimed that this research is somehow “new” and goes against conventional wisdom, this is simply not so.
Au contraire. Prior to the advent of the American obsession with all things pharmaceutically produced which began to gather momentum in the 1970s, doctors routinely recommended against treating the fevers of healthy children. My own father, a retired MD who specialized in Family Practice, never brought down fevers in his own children nor did he suggest doing so to his patients even in cases where the fevers were rather high at 105F.
Why? Because doing so would prolong the illness, of course! Simple common sense medicine for normal, healthy children.
A fever is the primary mechanism for the immune system to fight off viruses and bacteria. Bringing it down handicaps this natural immune response prolongs the illness and more than likely induces a secondary infection that may require – you guessed it: a visit to the Doc to get a prescription for antibiotics.
Unfortunately, it seems that common sense is something that Pediatricians need a research study to finally embrace.
How to Keep a 24 Hour Bug From Turning into a 2 Week Ordeal
The wisdom of the “leave the fever alone” strategy was driven home to me once again just last week. One of my kids came home from school on Thursday afternoon with a bad headache. Since he rarely complains of anything like this, I figured he was trying to fight off some sort of virus.
Sure enough, within a couple of hours, he spiked a fever to 102-103F. This fever basically held (with a few brief dips to 99-100F after sipping a cup of homemade broth) for 24 hours. Did I treat it with Tylenol or ibuprofen?
No way! He had a big soccer tournament that very weekend and his best chance to still compete was to do nothing!
The fever and headache were the only symptoms he ended up having. They were both gone within 24 hours and he competed in the weekend tournament as planned. He played hard too and in the 88F heat. The kid bounced back fast because his natural immunity was left to operate as Nature intended with no meddling from vitality zapping over the counter meds.
I have no doubt that if I had panicked and brought that fever down justifying my actions in order “to help him get a good night’s sleep for the soccer tournament” that he would still be sick and probably have some sort of secondary infection in his lungs with a lot of mucus and coughing.
Letting the fever run its course is more important than a good night’s sleep for getting well, in my experience! If you absolutely must do something, use homeopathic cell salts or a fever bath to speed the process along.
I am so glad the value of fevers was impressed upon me at a young age. Don’t wait for your Pediatrician to wake up to common sense strategies before adopting them yourself.
References
(1) Fever and Antipyretic Use in Children
(2) Traditional Remedies for Childhood Illnesses
(3) Treating Fevers in Children
I appreciate the advice on food and health, but you’ve got your facts wrong on Al Gore. He never claimed to have invented the Internet, which was of course a group effort, starting with the Darpanet of the U.S. military. He did champion the Internet’s spread with legislation that increased funding for early development. This was all documented years ago. Whether Mr Gore is an honorable person personally, I cannot say, but that issue is probably best left to a political blog that can go in depth on the relevant evidence.
I think you all have had too high a fever that has completely restricted your brain functioning! 107.4? I’m sure your poor childs brain is not at her max anymore.
If she says the kid is fine I would trust that considering she’s her kid?
I worked as an ER nurse for a short time after nursing school (2000), and while we medicated for just about every fever that walked through the door, I was in the let the fever burn out the sickness camp. I always made a point to tell parents that fever was good for getting rid of he illness, and not to medicate unless it got to a certain temp (of which I can’t even remember anymore). Now I’m just a stay at home mom to five.
When I had children of my own. My firstborn had a febrile seizure at the age of 13 months when he spiked from a low grade temp of about 100 to 103. He was exclusively breastfed and was still nursing a lot, but had been fully vaccinate up to that point. It was terrifying, and when my husband handed me the baby I actually started respiratory breaths on him because he was blue. My typical nurse advice to other parents wouldn’t have stopped our experience, because (in my experience) the spike in temp is what causes the fever. My son’s thermostat (if you will) can’t tolerate more than 103, and he doesn’t creap slowly, it spikes up quick. Usually the seizure occurs before we even realize the temp has gone up. As he got older we discovered he had some developmental delays and was later diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum (AS) disorder. Often AS children are more neurologically sensitive. I began controlling his fevers after that. When he was 5 years old I believed he should have “grown” out of febrile seizures, and stopped medicating him for them. Well, at 6 years of age, he had another febile seizure when he hit the 103 mark. So he gets tylenol or motrin (whatever it takes) when he’s ill. He doesn’t get sick too often though.
Our second child, always did just fine with the let the fever do it’s job approach. She developed normally and so I decided that most kids were fine with this approach and some might not be.
When our third child was 2 years old, she spiked a 105 fever while resting, and had a seizure. Again, it was very sudden and it seemed it was the spiking (quick rise) that had caused her to seize, because she had been tolerating the lower grade fever she had earlier without any neurological evens. This child is very smart and witty, but she has some speech issues. So I treat her if she’s starts pushing too high (probably 102 or more).
Later, my mother developed epilepsy in her 50’s, and had a statis epilepticus episode that put her in the ICU on a ventilator (from the drugs they gave her to stop the seizures). Status Epilepticus, a seizure or seires of seizures that will not stop, is very dangerous and can kill you. And it seemed to me that she did have some new deficites after she was discharged.
Basically, I’m no longer sure what’s the best advice anymore. I know that fevers are normal immune response and they have an important role in ridding the body of the illness. However, I no longer believe that seizures are so benign. At least they don’t seem to be so benign in my family.
So with my 4th and 5th children I’m waiting to see. Thankfully, they’ve been really healthy and I’ve not been faced with fever much. But I find I’m in the treat with least strength necessary to prevent temperature spikes. I don’t want to get rid of the fever, but I want to prevent high spikes.
I’d really appreciate more info on febrile seizure prevention! I’ll keep the sugars suggestion in mind next time we’ve got a sick one in the house. I wonder if depleted sugars could have been the issue, it’s hard to know so long in retrospect. I always work hard to keep them hydrated. I just wish I could now for sure the right thing to do.
Hi Sarah, a copule of weeks ago my son who is a 2,5 breastfeed toddler started with fever. He had 103F and we didn’t give him any medicine. We just put some smashed potatoes on his head and then smashed tofu to protect his head. He spend like that 24 hours and de fever continued. I called our pediatrician and he, who always says to me that fever is good, told me that a fever that is 103-104 for that long is no good and it deteriorates a little child. He told me to give ibuprofen. I had to agree with him. My instinct told me that my son was exhausted, he barely talked (and he normally talks a lot) and he didn’t want to play. So I gave him one dosis of ibuprofen and the fever droped and next day he was normal, without any other symptom. We had a bad argument with my husband because he didnt want to gave him medicine. But Sarah, my instict told me that my son was too exhausted.
How ironic. I just now go around to reading this post. It has been sitting in my email inbox until now, because my son has been sick with the flu and I never got around to reading it. I wish I would have read this earlier! We kept his fever down with ibuprophen, but it lasted and entire week! Now he has a terrible cough to go with it and I was afraid we would have to take him in for pneumonia! Next time I’ll know not to give him anything. It’s just scary when their fevers are at 105 and you feel so helpless.
Also, how do you treat sore throats? I have a horrendous one right now that kept me awake last night. Any suggestions??
Great post. You’re such a good doctor mom. I think too often we want to get rid of the symptoms of illness as fast as possible. It’s so important to remember that we are meant to live in a world with viruses and bacteria. We are meant to get sick. A 24 – 48 hour cold/ flu once or twice a year is normal and necessary to keep us all strong and healthy. It’s hard when your a mom and your kid is sick, but all those symptoms, the fever, the snot, the coughing are the ‘medicine’ themselves. They are cleaning out the body. The most helpful thing we can do is to support these eliminating processes.
Well said, Kristin. Our culture is so “action oriented” and when it comes to illness in our children, this tendency to overreact and want to “do something” can actually harm our children in the long run. Being patient with them and realizing and being confident in the knowledge that they are strong and can handle it is something that we need to learn for their benefit as well as our own. Most of the time, when it comes to fevers. just keeping them comfortable and nourished with broth and possibly some diluted fruit juice (if the fever is quite high) is all that needs to be done.
I also didn’t mention – you commented about fever being a sign of vitality – I believe that! My middle child (high fever one) is FULL of boundless ENERGY, she wears me out literally. She rarely ever is tired, and she has the strength of a potential olympic gymnast. I am glad that I have learned each child is very different and while my son frets and whines with a temperature of 101, she still wants to run and play with a temperature upwards of 104….it still amazes me, but it just goest to show how truly unique God has created each person to be. 🙂
thanks for that. i am here with a 104 temp baby and freaking out!! i wish this would be over soon!
and yes, i read somewhere about the vitality thing on a homeopathic link i read. so very interesting. my daughter is 16 months and is so full of energy.
Love this article (on all points 😉 )
I have come a long way in learning about fevers. My oldest got tylenol for every spike in temperature and every toothache or pain 🙁 I regret it.
Then a couple of years ago we all came down with the Flu Type A (didn’t know that was it at the time though). My middle child (four years old at the time) has a normal body temperature that runs a little higher than most and she is very hot natured also. Well, her fever spiked up to 107.4 in the middle of the night, and I was treating with Tylenol at that point. I freaked and rushed her to the ER, even though she was sleeping peacefully, not tossing or turning, and no worries of dehydration. By the time we got to the ER her temp had dropped a degree or two, and the nurses told me that it is very normal for a child’s temperature to go that high briefly when fighting the flu or other illnesses, and that as long as she was well hydrated and not having difficulty breathing or acting lethargic..and her pupils were normal that I shouldn’t worry. Then they gave her a dose of Ibuprofen, and a popsicle, kept us there for about five hours while they tested for flu – which came positive. Told me they don’t give Tamiflu once a fever hits because it is useless, and sent us home with a hefty bill to pay. That was it. (we don’t vaccinate either fyi…and the 2010 flu vaccine is actually illegal in many countries, such as Australia)…Anyway, it was a learning experience. I came home read up about fevers, and no longer freak out when my middle child spikes a high temperature because now I know it is her “normal” defense, whereas my other two have highest temps around 104 tops, hers can go up to 107 then it stops and drops back down when it hits that plateau. Apparently her body needs that little boost in temperature to increase the white blood cell efficacy – and she also tends to get well faster than anyone else in our home too (go figure!).
Thank you for the aritcle 🙂