mcr285

actually, i just went through the same thing not long ago. my daughter is 20 months old, and out of nowhere started running a high temp (got up to 105.1), and she actually threw up, but i think that was a result of having a milk bottle that night and then the fever souring the milk in her tummy (we didn't know she was getting sick when we gave her the bottle!). so we had her checked by her doctor, and everything was normal, except she was cutting her back molars. he said that while it's unusual for a fever to go that high while cutting teeth, it's not unheard of (my mom said my older brother used to run high fevers while cutting teeth!).

as far as the fever itself, he told us to not look at the number, but watch how my daughter was acting. he said it didn't matter how high the number got as long as she was acting okay (meaning she can be tired and cranky and it's okay, but if her eyes are glassy and unfocused or if she is unconscious and unresponsive, that's bad). he said that if she seems uncomfortable, to give her something to bring the fever down, but otherwise, let it run it's course.

he also addressed our concern about seizures and said that there is new evidence that febrile seizures aren't the result of a high fever, but the result of a sudden rapid rise in temperature, and that giving motrin or tylenol to keep the fever down might actually put your child at greater risk for a febrile seizure because if you let the medicine wear off the child's temperature is more likely to quickly spike. and he said that febrile seizures aren't actually dangerous, and don't have any long term negative effects, they're just scary to a parent who doesn't know what is happening.

ANYWAY.... what he said made sense to me, and i followed his advice but kept my mommy instincts on full alert just in case! like i said earlier, her temp got up to 105.1, and that was a little worrisome, but we didn't panic and throw her in the bath to cool her down (which is what i normally do if her temp gets up past 103), but since she seemed to be bothered by the temp, we did give her tylenol to bring it down (got down to 102, i think - can't remember). the temp lasted a couple of more days and then was gone.

i'd thought it was just maybe a random virus, but a few days after it was all over, i was looking at her teeth, and she has a brand new back molar now! i've been through the ER visit with my first daughter, and i am flat out determined to NEVER do that to my children again! as long as your daughter is drinking plenty of fluids and has plenty of wet diapers (or pullups or goes potty plenty of times) and isn't glassy eyed or unconscious and unresponsive, and as long as she isn't showing any other symptoms, i'd let the fever run it's course and chalk it up to teething.