Reoccurring Fever

A 5 and 1/2 month old child is tiny, but I hate to tell you that you should go have her blood drawn to find out if she has a viral or bacterial infection. There are too many potent germs out there these days, and the smallest children are very vulnerable. My son just went in for what the Dr. thinks could be encephalitis. Be on the safe side...have some blood drawn. I know it's much easier said than done with such a tiny baby, but it is really important to rule out other things that could be causing the fever.

My ped told me that reoccurring fevers of "unknown origin" can be often be caused by urinary tract infections in little girls. Perhaps your daughter is too young, but its something to consider. The only way to tell for sure is to collect a clean urine sample at the drs. office. Good luck, I know how stressful and scary it can be.

late to the party here, but

yes it could be teething (when I was a kid the doctor always pooh-poohed my mom about teething fevers but the nurses always waited until he left the room and then told mom, yes, a lot of kids get those ;) ),

or, if you are vaccinating on the recommended schedule, might it be a reaction to vaccines? The three feverspikes over 2 months is why I thought of that. My first had a febrile seizure from a vaccine-caused fever, right around 4 months old.

I'm glad it sounds like you aren't getting seizures :). (We only had the one.)

This is counterintuitive, but I've found that getting the kid (or myself) into a hot shower (whatever feels "warm enough" to the kid) when the fever starts to climb helps ... I think because my body then doesn't have to create its own heat, and can do whatever else it's trying to accomplish (presumably some other immune stuff) ... anyhow, I've short-circuited several fevers that way since figuring it out a few years ago. At 5-1/2 months, she is probably too young to do that safely, but you can store it in your Momma's Tricks for later ;).

That high of a temperature doesn't sound like teething to me, and she is pretty young for that, although all kids are different. You mentioned vomiting, is she eating any solid food yet? And is she breast or bottle feeding? At that age she shouldn't need anything but breast milk. If she is bottle feeding, she still should be fine although it is an inferior food and she may need other things. A spike of a fever and vomiting may be her eating something that isn't agreeing with her. Is or was she colicky? That is a milk allergy so you may need to put her on a dairy free diet, but don't use soy formula, it has as much estrogen in it as a birth control pill every day, and it is most likely made with genetically modified soy. So explore other options if you can.

I had something like that happen to my son, and I took him to the doctor and they said it was just a viral infection. Then the next night he would spike the fever again, so I kept taking him back and they figured out he had a staph infection in his neck and I could see the swelling. He had to be hospitalized and put on IV antibiotics. But yours sounds more like it is happening over a longer period of time, not night after night, but I knew something was wrong, so I kept taking him back until I was able to see a specialist who figured out what was wrong. I don't want to scare you , but do follow your mother's intuition. If it doesn't feel right to you, talk to another doctor if you must. I am not big on medical intervention, when most of the time their bodies can fight what is going on, but in medical emergencies, I certainly don't hesitate, and it saved my son's life. So my advice is to just follow your gut instinct. Good luck and good health to you.

T.

My daughter has had high fevers a couple times and usually gets a new tooth within a week of the fever without any other problems. If her ears are fine, then it's probably teething. Just make sure she's getting enough fluids to keep her hydrated and some extra cuddles if she'll tolerate it.

your daughter is not to young to have a urinary tract infection. Please take her in for a UTI check. They will need to take a urine sample so make sure she is full of fluids. My daughter was 6 mos old when she was diagnosed after a week of high fever coming down with tylenol and then spiking again with no other symptoms. No one believed me when I knew it wasnt a viral infection. I kept going back to the doctor and finally they did the urine test. It had turned into a kidney infection because it took so long to be treated. Follow your instincts and make sure you find a doctor that validates your feelings. We changed pediatricians after this. My daughter also had to have follow up tests to check for urine backflow (which she didnt have).

Good luck and I hope she feels better soon! UTI's are treated with antibiotics. My daughter felt better within two days!

D.

My 15 month old daughter has been having similar symptoms. I took her to the doc on Tuesday with a temp of 101 that she spiked during her nap. She had a short febrile seizure which scared me. The doc said that the seizure was from the rapid change in temperature. Supposidly, the seizures come from rapid changes in temp, not necessarily just a really high temp. She also said she has been seeing a number of viral infections that have included temps up to 103 and 104. I was told to bring her back if she isn't better by Thursday. (she didn't have any ear or throat infections at that time). Given your child has been having the fevers for what looks like 5 days, I'd call the doc again. She could have an ear infection that just hasn't progressed far enough that it shows up.

Good luck.
S.

I second Scarlett...my daughter had a recurring fever last week and when we went into the ER because it was going up and motrin was helping bring it down it turns out she has a serious kidney infection.The ER Doc said that in girls it's normally becuse for some reason urine is back tracking up into the kidneys and left untreated it can cause kidney failure.All they do is take some urine to test and should be back within a few hours, day at most and can be treated with simple antibiotics.My daughter was put on amoxicillion (sp?,sorry if wrong) and it can easily be put into your childs juice cup to be taken.
I would get her back in asap to have this checked out since it can be so serious.My daughters came on so fast once her fever couldn't be broken that she started grabbing her side and crying that she had an owie.She's never been seriously ill before so it freaks me out and now Friday we have to go for further tests to see what may/may not be causing this because her Dr is completely stumped.
Good Luck!

Could be urinary tract infection or kidney infection or some other infection other than ear infection. My niece has recurring fevers and it's because she has an extra ureter from her bladder that refluxes into her kidney. I would talk to your doc about it and ask that some extra detective work be done.

That temperature range is not usually teething unless it triggered the system into a secondary situation/infection. Her immune system sounds a bit frail and perhaps there is toxicity. Both of these can be helped naturally to get her immune system strong.
Liz

Hey, as far as my own experience goes, fevers can get that high and throwing up can occur just from teething. My children never had a problem with teething, but I understand that it can be scary. I was working in a child care where we had a baby almost 7 months old who would get a temp averaging around 104.5 every time she teethed. Her doctor had said the best they could do was some baby tylenol for the pain, and try a cool cloth or the cool patches until it broke. that little girl is now 6, getting adult teeth, and she still spikes a fever everytime one breaks through. Not to scare you with that, but I hope this helps to know that it can happen from teething. Good luck!

Get an RSV test done. It can come as just a fever, as just a cough, as just a runny nose, or a combo of 2 or all 3 of them. Ask for the nose swab test, not the saline suck it out of the nose test, it gives false results. I think there is a blood test that helps determine too. Just getting a CBC will help figure out what's going on too.