Sickness and Motrin / Tylenol

This past week on of my daughters has had croup and laryngitis. She's had scary breathless wheezing, a barking cough, a sore throat and a high-ish fever (peaking at about 104 F). Our pediatrician advised steroids, antibiotics and motrin / tylenol. She's much better now thankfully. But whilst she was ill I alternated the motrin / tylenol in order to control her fever, pain and general malaise. When the effect of the meds ran out she cried (for a long time) or slept and her temperature rose.

A friend of mine was telling me today that her son had similar symptoms this week, but she said that apart from at night, she let him have the high temp during most of the day and didn't give him motrin etc. Her reasoning was that a. a fever is the body's way of getting rid of bugs and b. that when he took motrin, he seemed so well that he ran around as normal which couldn't be good for him in his weakened state.

I thought her reasoning was rather sound and worried I'd over medicated our little one. I also remembered my mum talking about 'sweating out a fever' when I was little. What do you do when your kids are ill?

 

I've done both ways - I think the reasoning sounds pretty reasonable to me too!!

 

I always give meds for a fever, that way in case there is any pain associated with it, hopefully it will help.

 

QUOTE(summerfun @ Jan 12 2008, 07:20 PM) [snapback]569598[/snapback]
I always give meds for a fever, that way in case there is any pain associated with it, hopefully it will help.


Same here.

 

I give meds for a fever (DS had a febrile siezure so we are overly cautious). BUT, I have read that if it is a low grade fever, to just let it be for the reasons your friend gave.

 

I'll give tylenol for any fever over 99.5 (our kids temps usually run in the 96-97 range just like me so 99 is actually a fever fever for us) but if tylenol doesn't break it after 2 doses, it's off to the hospital.

My daughter was recently diagnosed with a UTI and a continuous fever of 103 w/o meds. We have been giving motrin every 8 hours as prescribed, mainly becuase she'll do nothing but cry at the top of her lungs if we don't, and also becuase she is not allowed in daycare with that high of a fever, and she has to go to daycare, we can't stay home for as long as the dr. said it would take for the fever to finally break (3-5 days)

 

On Christmas day my son had a RAGING fever. The doctor told me to alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours to quickly bring a fever down. (i.e. motrin at noon, tylenol at 3pm, motrin at 6pm, tylenol at 9pm, etc.) While I didn't have to do it since the fever went down fast with just tylonol every 6 hours, I have heard of this from other parents.

I always give tylenol for sicknes; and motrin for pain (teething).

 

We medicate as needed to keep them happy (as happy as they can be while sick). According to current medical wisdom, the fever is a side effect of the body fighting off the bug. Medication relieves the symptoms of a fever, but doesn't prevent the body from fighting infection. So that reasoning doesn't fly.

On the "needs to rest" thing, I think a child who is so sick that she really can't spare the energy to run around will probably still feel sick even if medicated. If there are other things wrong with them besides fever & pain, Motrin/Tylenol will not help that. It just makes them feel slightly better while they are sick, which IMO is all to the good.

 

QUOTE
According to current medical wisdom, the fever is a side effect of the body fighting off the bug. Medication relieves the symptoms of a fever, but doesn't prevent the body from fighting infection. So that reasoning doesn't fly.


I totally second this. As we are all aware that high fevers are dangerous, I don't feel the need to reiterate that but medicating a low-grade fever (below 101.9) for comfort reasons is advised by most professionals. Check the American Academy of Pediatrics, this is their recommendation. Alternating Tylenol and Motrin gives them "double" coverage. The Motrin alleviates secondary symptoms associated with fever like body aches, sore throat etc while the Tylenol brings down the fever.

Keep both in your medicine cabinet!

 

I medicate to keep them comfortable. If they have a low fever, under 103 maybe, and they are relatively happy, then I won't medicate. If they are unhappy, lethargic, or unable to sleep normally, I will medicate with tylenol/advil as needed to bring the fever down. I know that a low fever won't hurt them and can help, and if they are doing OK with it, then I let the fever work. But DS usually gets mopey at the least sign of fever, so I usually medicate him regardless of the level of fever. DD can have a fever and act just fine, so she sometimes goes without.

 

Thanks so much for your replies. I feel reassured about medicating maia for a couple of days this past week as she was so very poorly without it. But you've also reminded me that my other daughter usually is fine with a low grade fever and it's ok not to give her anything (we don't tend to unless she too seems poorly).

Thank goodness nowadays they have special 'nice tasting' medicine for children (maybe they did when I was young too, but my parents certainly didn't buy it). When I was little, my parents would crush a tylenol and give it to me in a teaspoon of jelly. I loathed the stuff and refused to eat it at any other time. It wasn't until years later when I went to college that I discovered that not all jelly tastes like tylenol!