Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2002-02-16 11:40 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2002-02-16 11:40 pm
medical
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teenagewitch is babysitting, and the little girl has a fever of 102 F. She just called in a panic. I told her to go put the kid in a cool bath now, and then to look up the local hospital's number and call them for further advice. She can't get ahold of the mother at the moment.
Gods, I'm glad I read that little kid emergency advice sheet my mother used to have taped to the inside of the cupboard door.
no subject
Fevers are one of the things the book covers. Why does everyone fly into franticism when a child has a fever? It's one of the body's methods of fighting infections -- it heats up the system to a temperature that kills virii and bacteria. This is a good thing, and the way the body is designed to work. (Try running hot water in the sink, as hot as you can touch it, the next time you feel that tingle that means a fever blister is coming...wet a washrag and hold it to the blister until it cools, wet it again and repeat for about 10 minutes. You will have no blister. If you do this after the blister has begun, it will stop the blister's growth where it is when you catch it, and the blister will be only a scab the next day.)
If you really push someone, and ask them what they're so afraid of with a fever, they'll tell you two things: convulsions or death. Febrile convulsions happen when the body's temperature shoots up rapidly. If they're going to happen, they will do so before you know the kid's got a fever, as it happens on the way up. Most illnesses cause the temperature to rise gradually, which does not cause convulsions. A high temperature in and of itself does not cause convulsions, unless the body goes from normal to over 103 in less than five minutes or so. Much study has been done on febrile convulsions -- they cause no damage, do not hurt the body when they happen, and the kid doesn't remember them, so they don't scare HIM. The only thing they do is scare parents.
Death? When the body is creating its own fever, as in illness, it is self-limited. It never goes above 105. You have to go above 106 for there to be damage to the body from the heat. The only way to get permanent damage from a fever is for it to be caused by: 1) heat stroke, or 2) poisoning. External sources, in other words.
I realize this case is somewhat different. You have to act different when you're babysitting someone else's kid, lest the parents freak out. But this is one of my hot buttons -- the idea that when a kid has a fever you must do everything in your power to lower it (and then give them antibiotics to fight the infection that you won't let the body fight on its own??)
I'll tell you what happens when a child has a temperature of 105, due to illness. They'll lay very still and quietly. They won't feel like playing or eating. They're obviously very sick. But as far as I can tell, it's not uncomfortable, as long as you keep them warm (because when they have a fever, they feel cold, because the air temperature is so much lower than their skin...and if you're not trying to fight the fever, there's nothing wrong with bundling them up, eh?), it's not painful, and if *you're* not scared about it, neither is the kid. And it only lasts for about 4-5 hours before it drops back down again, and they feel MUCH better afterwards.
In my experience, anyway. (Five kids over 11 years.)
no subject
I'd never heard about convulsions from fever. My mother told me, way back when I was little, that if a fever was too hot that it might hurt the brain, and that 102 was when you started keeping a very careful eye on me, 103 was pushing it, 104, you should be concerned, and 105 you should think about a hospital in case it got to 106. My mother didn't believe in fighting low fevers. She told me much the same thing, about the body cooking out the disease. She also didn't believe in overmedicating kids. "You look like you're coming down with something. Have some vitamin C," was about the extent of things unless the cold got bad enough to require decongestants & cough medicine. Even then, she knew she was just treating the symptoms until we got rid of it on our own...
That's an issue I disagree with my roommate on. She seems to think that the cold medication she gives Nephew actually cures the damn thing... so she panics whenever he's got a cold and we don't have any cold symtom surpressing medication in the house.
Re:
She...she thinks...hehehe...she thinks cold medicine CURES a cold??? heeeeheeeeeeheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
Get that woman to a doctor! Or at least a long session with a Physician's Desk Reference!!
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Sometime when it's not her little angel's health and safety in the balance, I shall enlighten her. Sometime when she's not grouchy and cranky and tired from work and pissed at the world.
Re:
Sounds like my in-laws.
no subject
I guess I was lucky in my choice of relatives. Mine are artists or scientists or both. My dad's a retired programmer who now studies ham radio and the violin, and my mom's a potter, a quilter, plays the violin, guitar, and accordian, and is trained as a biologist, specializing in microscopic swamp critters. My little sister's a violinist, perform & composes, also messes with guitar and drums, and a sometimes sculptor, in addition to her random biological pokings. I write, occasionally paint, will sing, and am studying computer science. Honestly, it makes me feel like the family's tie-dyed sheep...
no subject
...well, I suppose my clothing color of choice *would* make me the black sheep...
no subject
Cold medicine completely knocks the kid out, which is what he needs in order to get better -- he's too hyper to rest and get better on his own.
So for this case, yes it does work.
Ahhh, the lovely sound of miscommunication in the mornings.