Fever in Children
Common Causes
- Viral infection (most common)
- Bacterial Infection
- Auto-immune & Malignancy (least common)
What defines a fever?
Fever in children is defined as temperature > 37.5 Degrees
- 37.5 - 38 Degrees (Low Grade Fever)
- > 38.5 Degrees (High Grade Fever)
4 categories of fever symptoms
- Fever with flu symptoms: eg cough, runny and blocked nose, sore throat ( URTI )
- Fever with gastrointestinal symptoms: eg. Vomiting, abdominal pain or bloatedness, diarrhoea (Gastroenteritis )
- Fever with rash: eg. HFMD ( mouth ulcers ), chickenpox, dengue
- Fever with no obvious signs: urinary tract infection, other causes
Home remedies to bring down fever
- Hydration
- Loose clothing and adequate ventilation
- Sponging with room temperature water
- Fever medications eg. Paracetamol and Brufen ( if no drug allergy )
When to bring child to doctor
- Febrile seizure
- Drowsy, less responsive than before
- Persistent vomiting - unable to drink any water
- Very young < 6 months old
- Reduced urine output
- Breathlessness or wheezing
- Abdominal pain
What to do in even of Febrile seizure
Need to first recognise the symptoms
- Child will suddenly become unresponsive
- Most of the time there will be jerking movements of hands and legs - sometimes none ( they are
simply just not responding to you ) - Eyes uprolling sometime)
- Uncontrolled urination or passing motion (sometimes)
what you should to do
- Place child in a safe environment - lie child on
the floor, remove all dangerous objects nearby. - If possible, lie them on their side so that any saliva or vomitus can come out from the of their mouth.
- Keep track of the duration of the seizure - call 995 if > 5 minutes or if the child developed 2 or more seizures consecutively
By : Dr Chen Yiming
Family Physician, MBBS (Singapore), GDFM (NUS), GDFP Dermatology (NUS)
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