Fever
Fever in a child strikes fear in the hearts of many parents. They wonder if their child will have a seizure and develop epilepsy, or if the temperature will go high enough to “cook” their child’s brain and cause permanent damage. You may be concerned about the proper way to treat your child’s fever and when you should call your doctor. Fever is perhaps the most misunderstood sign in all of medicine. It’s the body’s normal response to infection.
Everyone has an “internal thermostat’ that controls his body temperature. When an infection is present certain chemicals are released in the body that “reset” the thermostat to a higher setting. This helps to explain the chills your child may experience when his temperature is going up. He feels cold because his body wants to be a higher temperature. Once the fever breaks, he feels hot because his body wants to be at a lower temperature. The breaking of the fever means that his internal thermostat has been turned down to normal.
Understanding how a fever occurs helps you treat the chills and sweats that often accompany an illness. When your child has the chills, it’s best to add some blankets until he feels comfortable. Similarly, when he begins to sweat and feels warm, you should take off clothes or blankets. Bundling him up when he feels warm is defeating what the body is trying to do.