I am at the message boards every day. When I reply to a health question, I tell what I know either from having dealt with it with my kids, or asked my PEDIATRICIAN. I also tell them to ask their child's pediatrician. If you have small kids a pediatrician is preferable over a family practice doc. Reasoning: Peds have more schooling. To specialize you have 4yrs regular college, 4yrs med school, 2years residency, plus 2-4 years extra schooling and residency specifically dealing with children. Family practice has 4yrs regular college, 4yrs med school, 2yrs residency. I researched this because I considered becoming a doc and wanted to know how much school it entailed. A family practice takes regular license test, ped takes regular plus specialist. That's why they are allowed to call themselves ped. All those abbreviations you see, besides MD is another few years they studied to get that specific abbreviation. My pediatricians I have had expirience with attend several conferences/school type things to keep up with the advances in children's medicine. Yes, this is leading somewhere.
Yesterday there was this question:
Need a quick answer please
by Tina44727, on 3/8/2005 2:49:47 PM NEW!
DD's daycare called that she has 104 fever. How bad is that? Should i give her more tylenol (i've been giving it to her since Friday night and was working til this point) or should I take her to the doctor's right away. Thanks
My answer:
Every time your child has a fever you should give tylenol. There is tylenol itself, every 4 hours and motrin, some are 6 hours. Some docs recommed using both: ie, first use tylenol, 4hours later use motrin, etc. you get the idea. You give fever reducer regardless of whether you take to doc or not.
My peditrician has told me for 102.1(with the 1 degree added for under the arm) for longer than 2 days, I should call the doc. The temp varies on the age of your child. Also, you are supposed to give the tylenol according to weight. Use the age only if you don't know your child's weight.
For that high of a fever, I would call my doc. You need to write down what temperature your thermometer read and how you took the temperature. (if you do under the arm, don't add a degree when you tell them, just say you did it under the arm.) Give the child tylenol/motrin, write down the amount and time also. Try to remember and write down everything from the time this fever started, you said friday night. You can also do a lukewarm bath to bring the fever down. However, remember to tell the doc office you did it when you bring your kid in. This way they don't get the wrong idea about your thermometer malfunctioning.
Today there was this:
Be careful wtih Motrin and high fevers
by mishasmom0304, on 3/8/2005 7:15:38 PM NEW!
My ped recommends Tylenol first to help with a high fever as Motrin can create similar problems in children as aspirin does. This is what I have been told.
Ahhh!!! The stupidity
My answer to that:
Be careful and listen to what exactly your doc says
by mickicas, on 3/9/2005 8:39:08 AM NEW!
My pediatrician does not say that. Ask your doctor specifically how long is too long for motrin, do it for tylenol too. This will help you feel better about it. My kids don't respond well to tylenol, But motrin works great. Tylenol wears off in 2hours on my kids, you're supposed to give every 4. Motrin lasts for the 6 hours it's supposed to. So, before you assume that a parent is irresponsible and does not read THE LABEL AND DIRECTIONS, maybe you should read them. Only someone who does not bother with warnings on all medicine bottles makes such a broad generalization.
The thing with motrin is it has ibuprofen in it. If you take it over a long period of time, it can be bad for you, just like any other pain medication. I think maybe your ped meant that if your kid has a fever for a week, that giving them ibuprofen for that long could damage something. I think it's the liver, aspirin is the stomach lining.
Any medicine taken for too long can harm you, yes even tylenol. That's why a fever for more than 48hours I'm supposed to call the doc.
Now any idiot that bothers to read the label knows that any medication can hurt your child. I read the labels every time. I pay close attention to the warnings. I have researched what ibuprofen can do, but I'm unsure that it screws with your liver if taken over a long period of time, it's been a while. I know it can do something. Specifically on the bottles of infant ibuprofen it says not to give it to kids under 4 months. Motrin has only been available, at least here, for infants (0mo to 24mo), for about a year and a half. The views on the danger of it have changed. It's incredibly stupid and short sighted to scare a mother into not using something that can bring her child's fever down. It's like these idiots don't even see the CALL YOUR DOC TODAY whenever you say something. They also seem to think that whatever the moms on the board say is GOSPEL. If you take the advice of strangers on a message board instead of asking your child's doctor you deserve whatever it is you get. I do feel bad that it'll hurt the kid, but it's going to hurt them anyway with misleading the moms with just the one kid. There are disclaimers all over this site. For medical advice ask your doctor. They do have some docs that have specific boards. Even there they say do not take their advice over that of your own doc. This is because your doctor has your medical history and knows if you're allergic to something, if you don't respond to something, things like that. STUPID. This enrages me, they have no right to jeopardize the health of their own or someone else's child. If my doc told me not to give something to my kids, I ASK WHY! I don't take it as gospel, I never have. I want to know why. You see, this way, I can tell other people the reason my doc has for telling me not to or to something for my kids. GRRR!
Ok, that's it, I'll quit complaining now. Breathe, it's over and you have survived. |