Is there any point in knowing the temperature of a fever?

[believer11]

Morning - I'm new here, but not new to fevers & kids. Ours are grown now, thankfully. Let me just point out one thing......


Our daughter was a very sickly baby/child but only 2x did she ever register a fever. She spent nearly half her life on antibiotics due to ear infections, sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia up until the age of 4 (when we quit eating the crap that passes for food in the grocery stores and we all stopped getting sick).

So, as some others have suggested, while its good to check with a thermometer it is certainly not the only factor to use when determining whether or not someone is truly ill.

 

[FarmerChick]

great point !! and so true

Oh edited to say---WELCOME to the forum lol

 

[patandchickens]

I see threads where people are spending hundreds of dollars on pets. Why not spend a few bucks on your children's safety.

As far as I can see, the only person on this thread who reports not owning a thermometer has no *young* kids. (Plus the o.p. who just can't find hers at the moment)

I have been advised by doctors and medically-credentialled midwives that really what you should go by is how the kid acts, and that while it is *good* to check numbers on a thermometer if things seem concerning (if only so you can report 'em to the doctor), it is not generally *necessary* (for determining whether you oughta be doing something, I mean). They say that if a child has a problematically high fever there WILL be other signs to go with it that you should be heeding even if you didn't have a thermometer available; and that even if a fever is lower, if there are worrisome signs then you should still get things checked out.

So it is not clear to me that a thermometer number really adds much useful information. Although I'm certainly not arguing against people checking when they want to.

Pat

 

[dacjohns]

 

[moolie]

We have teenagers now, with very hardy immune systems to boot, no fevers in a long time.

BUT. We relied on a thermometer for our youngest when she was little because her normal body temperature was 3 degrees lower than everyone else.

When she was born, they whisked her away from me fairly quickly and popped her under a sun lamp to warm her up. She looked so adorable just lying there, and they didn't tell us about how worried they were until after about half an hour when they told me that her temp must be naturally lower than "normal" and to really watch her if she ever felt warm, because "normal" was a serious fever for her. She's 13 now, and runs about a degree colder than everyone else. I'm thinking she'll probably totally "normalize" temperature-wise by adult-hood.

If you have little kids, make sure you know their "normal" temperature so you know how bad a fever really is.

Our oldest rarely if ever got sick when she was little, our "cold" youngest got pneumonia when she was in first grade and she was more susceptible to colds for the next couple of years. Back to normal after that and none of us catch much these days (although we all had H1N1 in the original sweep it made through the city when tourists first brought it back from Mexico during the first outbreak--that sucked, but we had mild cases and it was over in two weeks. But I digress.)

Knowing your kids' "normal" temp is important.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

I know this from experience:

Fear most the sick child that DOES NOT HAVE A FEVER, or no longer has a fever but is still sick/looks sick. Same goes for the elderly, and while less common adults that can no longer run a fever are also critically sick. When you have run out of resources such that your body can't fuel a fever anymore your in deep doo-doo. Your not very far way from 'can't keep up a blood pressure or breathing' so do seek treatment fast.

As for the number of the fever unless you get a glass instrument (getting hard to find) your buying into a random number generator really, that will tell you something about as accurate as the back of your hand. It's true the rate of rise of the temperature is what will trigger a seizure, your not likely to catch that with your thermometer. Fevers should be treated on effect and the history of that person's tolerance of them. Speak with your GP for the general guidelines.

 

[AL]

We have teenagers now, with very hardy immune systems to boot, no fevers in a long time.

BUT. We relied on a thermometer for our youngest when she was little because her normal body temperature was 3 degrees lower than everyone else.

When she was born, they whisked her away from me fairly quickly and popped her under a sun lamp to warm her up. She looked so adorable just lying there, and they didn't tell us about how worried they were until after about half an hour when they told me that her temp must be naturally lower than "normal" and to really watch her if she ever felt warm, because "normal" was a serious fever for her. She's 13 now, and runs about a degree colder than everyone else. I'm thinking she'll probably totally "normalize" temperature-wise by adult-hood.

If you have little kids, make sure you know their "normal" temperature so you know how bad a fever really is.

Our oldest rarely if ever got sick when she was little, our "cold" youngest got pneumonia when she was in first grade and she was more susceptible to colds for the next couple of years. Back to normal after that and none of us catch much these days (although we all had H1N1 in the original sweep it made through the city when tourists first brought it back from Mexico during the first outbreak--that sucked, but we had mild cases and it was over in two weeks. But I digress.)

Knowing your kids' "normal" temp is important.

My normal temp is 96.4 - 96.6 and I am 38yrs old... so your 'cold' child may stay that way. But I am actually insanely healthy when it comes to avoiding illnesses. (Of course now I'll end up with some crud )

 

[Denim Deb]

And I'm 49 w/a low body temp. Normally, I'm pretty healthy, too. I did get a cold this year, but it was the first one I've had in ages, and it didn't last long.

 

[moolie]

Wow, we've never run into anyone else who runs colder than "normal" body temp--cool to know she's not so alone

 

[Emerald]

Well I for one do take temps into consideration--my daughters good friend while in cheer leading developed a huge temp and started convulsing and was rushed to the hospital- come to find out it was meningitis and the very dangerous one that spreads. All the girls on the team and their families (yup all of us) had to go on precautionary meds just in case. So I do check fevers quite a bit, and not only have digital thermometers but the old fashioned glass ones.
But that being said- both of my children when little, would run very high, as in 103 to 104 fevers when cutting teeth and just lay around and then bam with in a few minutes they would just snap out of it and be fine and voila-- a new tooth.
So I think a very cautious watching of the child is important- if higher fever but acting normal then just watch them closely-- high fever but not acting normal then call the Doc or hit the ER.
Crap that probably didn't help at all.