What to do if someday at night, you found out that your baby has fever? The other day, during our baby full moon, we thought baby had fever and didnt know what to do. A regular clinic near our place are not paediatrics specialist. Should we send baby to hospital? The doctors in hospital wont be in at 12:00am at night, right?

I dont want to send to a regular GP clinic, neither do we have any 24 hours paediatrics near where we live. If baby is sick (any sick, not just fever), what do we do? I know see doctor but where?

First, I recommend to get a thermometer so you can know if your baby is having fever or not. My baby's pediatrician recommended us to get Terumo. Its expensive (RM70+) but its suppose to be really accurate. So I guess its worth it.

If you suspect that your baby might be sick and needs immediate attention, I would suggest to send him/her to hospital. There is always a place where they handle emergencies. Its open 24hours. If necessary, they will contact your baby's pediatrician informing them about the emergency (if the pediatrician you go to is in the same hospital)

hope this helps

Agreed. You should have a thermometer with you.
If the temperature around 36 degree and below still ok. But you still need to feed the baby with medicine.
If more than that, it is recommended to bring your baby to hospital.
I have practiced keeping a few medicine i.e for fever and flu.

+1

I have a Infrared ear thermometer which is very convenient and fast to use. It was expensive but like teelim says it was worth it. It has been with the family for several years.

If you're just worried about temperature, tepid sponging and paracetamol (ask your doctor regarding dosage).

Going to paed is a bit overkill, really.

well, TS mention that it was during the baby's full moon. So based on my personal experience of new parent and new baby, piece of mind (without the need to guessing if we did the right thing or not) is very important. That was why I recommended to go to the hospital when in doubt.

Of course, but I think TS specifically mentioned wanting to go to a paediatric specialist, and not wanting to see a GP at all.

During non office hours, the ones on standby at hospital are usually emergency and O&G docs. If baby is in danger (not breathing, temperature too high, having seizure or needing resuscitation), the emergency physician will handle the case, not a paed.

True but normal medicine usually takes too long for the body to absorb.

If your baby has high fever (>39C), try to wipe his body and especially head area with a damp towel. Medicine usually takes long time to absorb, so ask your doc for 1~2 pieces of those pill insert via anus for faster absorption. After did the both step to reduce the temp, then only proceed to the hospital (doc were sleepy or have to wait for turns).

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Added on December 27, 2010, 5:14 pmIf you ask me, I would say its really nonsense. Even paeds have different recommendations. Actually they scare baby liver cant cope with the medicine. I do wonder though if there were any difference between taking 5ml every 8hrs vs 2.5ml every 4hrs...

This post has been edited by andrekua: Dec 27 2010, 05:14 PM

Meaning that normal clinic is also OK... but if it persist (like trowing-out n fever for more than 3 days) THEN go n get pead...

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Added on December 27, 2010, 5:19 pmDoctors have their own calculation... basically paracetamol can give 2.5 ml to bb below 5 kg... 5 ml to 10 kg... anus absorb cannot control the medicine quantity that the bb take... its can be fast but it might give bad side effect later on...

This post has been edited by zairee2580: Dec 27 2010, 05:19 PM

I can assure you paed are not magician. If you really scare, you can always do a bloodtest and have a peace of mind when the result clear your son of any serious sickness.

There was once my son was sick for a week and fever didnt subside. Went to paed 3 times and did not cure him. Went to an unknown doc and I think the doctor give much heavy dose and can see through my son reaction. However, he improved tremendously after 3 days...

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Added on December 27, 2010, 5:25 pmThis is what you call emergency case la. Of course any medicine taken also bring side effect.

You wanna risk brain failure meh?

This post has been edited by andrekua: Dec 27 2010, 05:25 PM

We have paracetamol ready in the fridge and an infra scan thermometer. Like many mention make sure you update the dosage regularly, we do it everytime baby go for injection.

Since you had this infra scan, can I ask you how accurate is it?

Cos most paed I went to recommend not to use them but they themselves are using one. The reason, its not accurate. The one that you have is those ear type or point at the head one?

point at head ones, I'm stingy to buy the ear type as you need to change the plastic to avoid the risk of ear infection, about accuracy ok la, we calibrate with our forehead to take comparison and agak. When baby is hot more or less we can tell if shes fever, if continue hot for more than a day we go to paed edi.

Thanks for sharing the info... yeah, I heard about buying the ear replacement plug but I can exchange one with my cc points... just wondering...

We have unopened paracetamol which was purchased at our paediatrics specialist in the fridge.

We also have those tablet that if baby temperature shot up too high and when paracetamol is of no used... have to push it up from the anus. So far done once, and is basically have to fight with him to get it in.

Better keep this kind of medications in the fridge... useful when it is in the middle of the night or even day time.

This post has been edited by auhckw: Dec 28 2010, 10:14 AM

All,

Thanks for the feedback.

Doctor said get a thermometer and use it under armpit or the ear type is ok too. It will never work under tongue. Anything above 37.5 celcius is fever but whether to give med or not is optional. Anything above 38 celcius is serious and should be given paracetamol.

My paediatric advice to go to hospital direct even if it's late at night and give him a call on his personal mobile whenever required. We can rest at ease like this.

hi

Indeed, high fever is not something that we can take lightly. If the baby's temperature is high, that is >38 degrees, then it's time to bring the child to see a doctor to bring the fever down.

This post has been edited by Syd G: Dec 30 2010, 08:03 PM

useful information..thx

This post has been edited by Syd G: Dec 30 2010, 08:03 PM

Fevers can be very dangerous. A lot of newborn's fevers are connected to the vaccines and jabs that they're accousted with. Sometimes they can lead to fits or they can go a bit blue (happened to a cousin's baby recently). The doctor gave a B shot, I think. And from a recommendation, she gave some Magnesium Chloride. Baby seems normal now. But you need to take immediate action if you notice something is amiss and the fever is too high.

Another tip is to actually put a cool pack/wet towel at the back of your baby's neck - the nape. It is more important to try and keep that part cool than the forehead.

Well... It's a good time to invest in a thermometer. Personally, I like Braun' s brand. Next... Keep a bottle of 125 mg/5 ml paracetamol syrup at home. The dosage is measured by body weight (10 mg/kg). For emergency cases ( high fever) you can use the suppository version for faster absorption. Again it's 125 mg version. But if fever is persistent and high, kindly proceed to the nearest clinic or hospital.

Yes we have infra red forehead and ear thermometer standby with paracetamol syrup at home now. We didnt have them previously so was worried.

Bear in mind doctors are not god. A lot of people have wrong assumption that they think if bring their kids or themselves to see a doctor, their problems will be gone.

Try to look for pediatric clinic in your surrounding area. Or find a few and test out to see which one is the best. Then go to this pediatric clinic for regular stuffs like immunization jabs, polios and so on.

When baby have fever or so, give him/her paracetamol which is what the doctor will give anyway. Once the clinic is open, bring the baby there. Only when there are emergency cases like high fever, and you cannot wait, then bring the baby to 24/7 GP clinics.

Once you are used to it, the next time, when your baby have fever you will know what to do. The usual stuffs of wiping with water to bring down the temperature and paracetamol (for ingest and from backside). All these will eventually become your SOP.

Just follow the SOP and things will be fine. Sometimes when you baby is in high fever, you will feel helpless. Really nothing much can be done if you already did your SOP. Just hope for the best and be positive.

I totally agree with abubin. find a few peads..then test which suits you...I like my paed..as he's not the normal looking stern no smile doc..very jovial and funky too!

Keep all those SOPs...even when i go travelling..i'll bring all these..plus first aid kit. When i reach the place, i'll find out if there's a doc nearby..or if the hotel knows the nearest doc and hospital..just in case..