Freaking out over a child’s fever is par for the course – after all, it’s hard not to imagine your kid’s brain being slowly cooked when that little forehead feels like a radiator.
But fear not – an article by Dr Perri Klass in today’s New York Times ("Lifting a Veil of Fear to See a Few Benefits of Fever," Jan 13, 2011) reminds parents how fevers, for the most part, are a good thing.
"Fever can indeed be scary, and any fever in an infant younger than 3 months is cause for major concern because of the risk of serious bacterial infections. But in general, in older children who do not look very distressed, fever is positive evidence of an active immune system, revved up and helping an array of immunological processes work more effectively … fever does not harm the brain or the body, though it does increase the need for fluids. And even untreated, fevers rarely rise higher than 104 or 105 degrees."
The article also mentions a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that examines the labeling and dosage recommendations on over-the-counter children’s medications, "including those marketed for treating pain and fever: how they are labeled, and whether the droppers and cups and marked spoons in the packages properly reflect the doses recommended on the labels."
The a conclusion, however, is perhaps more troubling than the fevers themselves:
"The article concluded that many medications are not labeled clearly, that some provide no dosing instrument, and that the instruments, if included, are not marked consistently. (A dosing chart might recommend 1.5 milliliters, but the dropper has no “1.5 ml” mark.) … Too small a dose of an antipyretic (fever medicine) may be ineffective; too much can be toxic."
True indeed. Making out the miniscule words on a tiny folded page of cryptic instructions while struggling to get just the right amount of liquid into those tiny little droplet squeezers (which usually just turns into a guessing game) at 3 in the morning is not exactly reassuring, much less foolproof. And I’m not just talking Children’s Tylenol – don’t even get me started on the labeling on some of the Chinese medicine my wife likes to use.
I’m no doctor, of course, but news like this also makes me wonder why so many local hospitals seem so eager to hook kids up to IV drips at the sign of a runny nose. Just sayin’…
