DS Sick- ADVICE PLEASE!

LauraG · #1 11-26-2009 Thursday, 05:14 AM

DS, 2 years old, woke up with a fever 2 days ago. It stayed low the 1st day, but yesterday spiked up to 104 rectally only 3 hours after tylenol so I took him to the doctor. He was acting fine at the doctor and was diagnosed with tonsilitis. He had a red yucky throat but no other symptoms and his strep test was negative.
Since then it has been a battle to keep his temperature down. It shoots us really high only after around 3 hours with tylenol, a little longer with motrin. He just woke up saying his head hurt. It had been 3 hours since tylenol and his temp was pretty high again.
Would you call the pediatrician
Would you take him to the ER?
The head hurting and high fever has me nervous.
Is a temperature spiking back so fast normal with tonsilitis.
Neither of my sons have had stubborn fevers like this before
Oh, also the dr gave me an antibiotic that I could give him if it doens't start getting better. My thought was to wait to see how he was today in case it was jsut viral, I hate to start on 10 days of antibiotics.

Sandy · #2 11-26-2009 Thursday, 07:03 AM

We haven't had tonsilitis in our house. First you should probably call your on-call Dr or Presby Dallas' nurse line. (you can get the number by calling information). I presonally think 104 is too high. If it were me I would take my DS to the ER instead of waiting for the Dr office to open tomorrow.
Side note, sometimes they do a strep test that comes back negative but they did it too soon and when you take them back and they retest they go, oh yep he does have strep, which happened to us when my oldest was about 4.

JenandKids · #3 11-26-2009 Thursday, 08:22 AM

Did they do a flu test?

Both of my children would spike to 104 (orally) before the motrin/tylenol combo wore off. That was for about three days- then it went down to 101-102.

I wouldn't go to the ER yet, personally. Keeping him hydrated is the most important. I know my kids get high fevers- and the dr. has told us to give them the cool baths, and that unless it gets to 105, or they won't cool off at all, not to head to an ER.

Remember too, rectal temperatures are one degree higher (you probably already know that though!

Hope he feels better soon!

LauraG · #4 11-26-2009 Thursday, 08:41 AM

Thanks, guys.
I called the nurse on call and she said not to take him to the ER but to keep rotating tylenol motrin every 3hrs today and if he doesn't seem better later to start on antibiotics. They didn't test for the flu b/c he had zero other symptoms besides the yucky throat.
To tell you the truth they didn't even want to test for strep first. I had to push for it. He just said to go ahead and start antibiotics. It was weird. Usually he would test for both and not push for antibiotics. Maybe because of the holidays he thought better safe than sorry?
Right now he seems to be feeling good a few hours into a dose of motrin. It seems to work so much better than the tylenol.
What is worrying me is how fast into the dose the fever bounces back.

mothragirl · #5 11-26-2009 Thursday, 09:04 AM

104 is high but not dangerous. i'd give him lukewarms baths and rest. maybe put the thermometer away for a few hours so you don't stress the numbers too much.

Lynds · #6 11-26-2009 Thursday, 09:28 AM

Fevers are good. They kill whatever bug is making you sick. In fighting a fever, you end up helping the bug. Also, unless the kid is overdressed, suffering from heatstroke or having the body temperature raised through other outside means, the body has a sort of thermostat that it won't let fevers go above. Brain damage doesn't occur until about 107.5 and fevers typically won't exceed 105-106. http://www.drgreene.com/21_832.html

I try hard not to treat fevers. If the kid is hurting or seems miserable, we will treat for pain, but I hate to bring down a fever.

How do you feel about the doctor giving an antibiotic without confirming that there's a bacterial infection?

LauraG · #7 11-26-2009 Thursday, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynds

Fevers are good. They kill whatever bug is making you sick. In fighting a fever, you end up helping the bug. Also, unless the kid is overdressed, suffering from heatstroke or having the body temperature raised through other outside means, the body has a sort of thermostat that it won't let fevers go above. Brain damage doesn't occur until about 107.5 and fevers typically won't exceed 105-106. http://www.drgreene.com/21_832.html

I try hard not to treat fevers. If the kid is hurting or seems miserable, we will treat for pain, but I hate to bring down a fever.

How do you feel about the doctor giving an antibiotic without confirming that there's a bacterial infection?

I know all that about fevers. He's been really hurting when his temp has been high. He woke up yelling "owie, owie my head hurts so bad" this morning.

I wasn't impressed with my dr prescribing antibiotics without a positive strep test. It surprised me, as usually he's not so quick to. It made me think about looking for a pediatrician closer to our new house in Dallas.