If you’ve ever had a child who is down with fever, you would know how worrying it is. It is even worse when the child is a baby who cannot yet express herself or communicate how severe the pain is.
We were in that position a week or so ago when we returned from our recent Chinese New Year travels. Emma suddenly developed a fever on a Saturday evening, after she had gotten up from her afternoon nap. The fever was about 39ºC, and I promptly breastfed her in a marathon manner, interspersed with lots of fluids, Izumio hydrogenated water and S Lutein capsules. I did not want to start on meds yet, hoping that the fever would go down.
The following day, it was still on the high side, around 38ºC, but she was active. She didn’t want to take a lot of the Izumio water and Lutein capsules though and kept waving her hand at her throat, which led me to suspect that her throat was sore. At night the fever shot up past 39ºC, and I decided to medicate with Brufen. That helped a little but the fever came back in the morning. I decided to take her to the doc.
Doc diagnosed her condition as a throat infection, and because the fever was still high, he suspected a bacterial infection, hence he prescribed antibiotics too. I was reluctant to start the course of antibiotics but at the back of my mind, there was a nagging feeling of, “What if the doctor is right? What if it’s a bacterial infection?”
So against my better judgment, I started her on the course. Her fever was still yoyoing up and down, peaking at 40ºC even on Tuesday (which was 4 days after the initial onset of fever. My understanding with antibiotics was that it would bring the fever down within a day provided it was indeed a bacterial infection. If it was a viral fever, however, the fever would be still present after 4-5 days, sometimes up to a week! However, doctors here would typically prescribe antibiotics if the fever was still above 38ºC after 3 days.
In any case, my mommy instincts told me that Emma could have been suffering from a viral fever all along, but since we had already started antibiotics, we had to finish the course. The good thing was, her fever was going down, albeit slowly. I continued with PCM every 4-6 hours and the Voren suppository if the fever went up beyond 38.5ºC.
By Wednesday, the fever was lowgrade and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tuesday was a worrying day because she hardly had appetite for anything, not even fluids. I was ever so thankful that I was still breastfeeding her, and she was still nursing well. That was her sole comfort and nutrition, and I am absolutely sure the breast milk helped her heal in leaps and bounds.
On Thursday she was back to her usual self, and the fever was a thing of the past. The doctor had asked me to bring her in for a blood test if the fever still persisted on Thursday. However, I noticed some red bumpy rashes on the trunk of her body and her cheeks. A good friend of mine said this was symptomatic of roseola fever, but the rashes disappeared after a few hours.
I’m so happy to see Emma happy again and so much more vocal now. I hope we never ever have to deal with the ordeal of fevers again.
