Children love to play. They play in garden, sand, mud and basically everywhere. We parents want to keep them protected. It is a natural instinct. The way babies are safe in mother’s womb. But unfortunately you cannot keep them tucked in your arms forever. You have to let them go. You can’t stop the kids from having fun.
All this fun leads to a lot of exposure to lot of germs. This exposure to millions of germs can cause diseases. Seeing your kid fall sick can be very heart breaking.
Fever is the one the viral disease. It can be due to a lot of reasons like bacteria, virus as well as temperature too. Mostly it is contagious. But don’t take it casually, you must monitor fever timely. Infant babies having triple digit number can be dangerous. You need to take them to the doctor immediately.
After six months, babies usually have fever accompanied with sore throat, runny nose, headaches, chills, body ache, fatigue and diarrhea. You might want to show a doctor if this fever symptoms prevails more than twenty four hours. In bigger kids from age two on wards, fever usually stays for 2-3 days.
In kids, having fever means our immune system is fighting with cold or infection. It means the immune system is getting build. You must give it time. You should find its cause like any infection or cold or temperature.
Fever has different effects on different age group. The medication also differs with age. Normally medicine is given every four hourly. If fever remains after three days, then you must get blood tested. You must not panic in fever but you should not take any chances.
See More: Different Types Of Fever
Parameters for Normal and High Fever – Children Fever Chart:
Fever indicates some symptoms by high temperature and skin rashes over the body of your children. By knowing temperature we can say that whether it is high fever or low fever. Following chart give you an idea on fever normal temperatures and high temperatures.
Normal Temperature Ranges Chart:
- Oral Ranges: 35.5 °C – 37.5°C (97.9°F – 99.5°F)
- Armpit Ranges: 36.5 °C – 37.5°C (97.8°F – 99.5°F)
- Rectal Ranges: 36.6 °C – 38°C (97.9°F – 100.4°F)
Symptoms:
The causes of fever for child are many. If fever is accompanied with cold, then its grade 1 fever. If fever is accompanied with diarrhea then it could be stomach infection. Sometimes fever can have flu and seasonal effects. Fever with burning in urine could be urine infection. Fever with ear pain can be ear infection. If you see any blue spots on skin or nails with fever then you should check for meningitis. This could be fatal; hence the kid must be taken to the emergency room immediately.
One day they are up and playing. Next day they can’t get out of bed also. This can be a bit scary if the child has asthma or diabetes. You should do few flu tests in such cases within 24 hours.
There are many causes to fever. It could be infection, injury and inflammation. Here are few listed below.
Acute Fever:
Acute fever is fever which is around 101’C. It is there for less than 7 days.
Causes of Fever in Children:
Respiratory infections like cold, flu. It is due to virus. It is mostly due to seasonal changes and high amount of pollen grains, smoke and dust. The amount of pollution in air now a day is also one of the reasons.
Kids sometimes drink water from each other’s bottles and open taps. This leads to infection of stomach, many times eatable outside foods also causes it. This infection in returns heats up the body. Gastroenteritis is due to virus found in contaminated water and food.
Ear infection causes fever. It’s called Otis media. There is discharge from the ear. This is accompanied with mild to moderate fever. It is mostly due to exposure of ear to cold air and water, and hurt.
The water we use to wash after urine and stoles also causes urine infection. Many a times, too much use of diaper and unhygienic use of cotton nappy also cause urine infection. This leads to fever. It is mostly for a day or two. Regular washing of private parts with warm water helps to prevent it.
Many a time’s vaccinations and certain medicines cause body temperature to rise. This fever is very mild and goes away in few days’ time. The doctors usually warn the parents at the time of administrating vaccination, just to prepare them in advance.
See More: Best Medicine For Fever
Chronic Fever:
Chronic fever is fever with temperature which is in triple digits. It is more than 7 days. This can lead to severe weight loss and loss of appetite. In severe cases it may cause brain damage.
Causes of Chronic Fever in Children:
Chronic fever can be due to prolonged viral illness like hepatitis, tuberculosis and HIV.
Recurring viral illness can also cause chronic fever.
Many types of infection like hepatitis, sinusitis and pneumonia may cause to viral fever in kids. This can weaken the respiratory tract. Increased infection causes high fever.
Mosquito:-
Mosquitoes causes diseases like malaria, dengue, chikungunya and swine flu. These diseases cause very high fever. The mosquito carries the virus person to person. These are life threatening diseases. It is very common in tropical areas as mosquito’s breed on stagnant water.
There are endless possibilities of infection. The WBC fights the viruses and bacteria causing infection. This leads to increase of body temperature, i.e. fever.
We can avoid getting in contact with germs to prevent fever. But how much can we avoid. We can’t stop children from playing. Also we can’t keep eye on them all the time.
See More: Dengue Symptoms In Kids
Precautions to Prevent Fever in Children:
There are other ways to prevent fever in children.
Ignore Foods from Outside:
Food outside is exposed to lot of germs. They are kept open, flies come and sit on it making it unfit for eating. Sometimes, the quality of vegetables and oil used are not up to the mark. This causes infection of stomach and intestine. So we should simply not eat outside food. If we have no option but to eat outside food then, we should eat from safe and government certified place.
Wear Proper Warm Clothes:
Many times due to cold weather, kids catch cold, if unattended small cold could lead to fever. Wearing warm cloth avoids exposure to cold wind. It also saves kids from ear and nasal infection.
Use Clean Water:
Many times viruses enter our body through water. We must use clean water to drink, to cook, to have baths and even to wash clothes. Germs enter our body through any kind of exposure.
Avoid Mosquitos:
Mosquitos are the reason for big diseases that cause very high fever. We must not let them breed. That means, there should be no stagnant water anywhere. We can also use net and sprays to be safe from mosquitos.
Treatments to Control Temperature (Fever)in Children Body:
As much as we prevent our kids from fever, we can never avoid the germs. If any case children get fever, following remedies can do.
1. Nsaid:
Nsaid is non steroid anti-inflammatory drug which used to relieve pain. It is also used to reduce fever. It comes in many types and formula. Mostly infants and babies are not given any allopathy medicine until it is really necessary. Toddlers are given mildest doses through suspensions and syrups. Kids of the age 2 years and above are given mild chew able tablets. But most of the parents avoid medicine until it is really required or only if the doctor says to give. It has side effects like brain damage, liver problems, cardiovascular problem and intestinal damage.
2. Fluid Intake:
Fever often causes dehydration amongst children. It leads to drying of skin and lips. Hence, it is said to intake lots of fluid. Water, juice, cold soup, yogurt and ice pops. This cools down the body temperature and keeps the child hydrated.
3. Wet Cloth Compress:
Often when fever is high in triple digits, doctors suggest keeping a wet cloth over the forehead. The water in which the cloth is dipped is cold. It is supposed to be changed time to time. This cools of the child and comforts her.
4. Sponge Bath:
Mostly children are given sponge bath in fever. It cools off body temperature throughout. It is done with slight warm to normal water. Every four hourly sponge bath is given to children who very high fever. If your child is shivering, you must put on a blanket till she is warm and don’t do sponge bath.
5. Light Clothing:
When a child has fever, body temperature is high. To combat this high temperature, our body tends to sweat to cool it down. This sweat has to be soaked. Hence doctors always advise for light clothing.
6. Use Fan:
When children have fever, they must not be in air conditioned room. An airy room is good for cooling high fever. Having a light fan is good for reducing the temperature.
7. Stay Indoors:
If your child has fever, he must not go out. The wind and exposure to sun can spike the temperature up. Exertion can make children more dehydrated. Complete bed rest is always advised for quick recovery from fever.
Fever is an everyday disease. But the sleepless long nights of child and parent can be very tiring. You may want to know the cause of it and more than that you would want to call your doctor right away. Hence it is always better to prevent it. Lots of fluid and cooling off with wet cloth will reduce it.