Baby fever, symptoms and remedy

December 15, 2009 in Falling Ill
Tags: diarrhoea, fever

Putting on a brave front

Poor darling had fever the day before yesterday.

The doctor said it was a viral infection but I have been trying to recall how it might have come about.

The sequence of events:

1. He had milk in the morning from mommy (our son is 100% breast-fed). He had this thing for suckling and then falling asleep blissfully. We thought he always enjoyed so much he got ‘drunk’.

2. We didn’t burped him properly so he was tossing and turning afterwards.

3. We left him at his granny’s place (my mom) at 1pm and by the time we got back after work at 8.30pm, he had wind, diarrhoea and fever.

Well, fellow parents take note:

A. Your baby has diarrhoea if he has frequent loose bowels and the stool is runny and dark coloured stool; normal colour for breast-fed babies are orange. There is risk of dehydration so we fed Moo-moo plenty of water. Mommy continue also to breast feed because that’s the best nourishment during this time.

Maybe he caught a cold here

B. We used a digital thermometer (Omron Brand) which we administer to the armpit. Baby fever is described as termperature > 37.9 deg. celsius. What many folks did not know is that you have to add 0.5 degrees to the armpit temperature for a final reading. Darling had an armpit reading of 37.8 deg. which means he had a final temperature reading of 38.3 deg. Celsius.

Remedy

We brought Moo-moo to a doctor immediately. It is important to get medical advice as children need special attention. The doctor prescribed paracetamol and plenty of cooling with a wet towel at the head, neck, armpits and in between the legs. Because of our immediate action, his fever subsided in 12 hours and by midday yesterday was able to consume more milk and come out of his lethargy.