The Joys Of The Flu

I was awoken this morning at about 4:30 by my son.

"Mama look what's on my pillow!"

He's prone to nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking (to the toilet and then back to bed, thank goodness ;) and any and all assortments of sleep disruptions imaginable. He has even had night terrors about things on his pillow (poor lil' dude).

So when he referred to said pillow, I was reluctant to get out from under the warm covers. Been there done that. I called out to him in a voice that was hopefully loud enough for him to hear down the hall but not loud enough to wake my husband sleeping next to me.

Ya right.

"MAMA!"

Ok, ok, ok, I'm up. (sigh)

There was indeed something on his pillow - vomit! Awww... poor little guy. (And EW BLECH). I changed his sheets, changed his jammies, gave him some hugs, and tucked him back in again. Ahhh!! Back to my warm cozy bed.

Not for long - round two happened about ten minutes later. So far that's been all, but now I'm faced with that scenario where the younger child is too sick to accompany the older child to school. Of course big sister is at the age where a) she LOVES school and will be mad to miss it, and b) is too young to walk the three blocks herself (some parents might allow this, but um, not this parent).

As I'm typing this, my "get the kids up" timer is ringing. What to do??

a) I could just let them both sleep, and tell her the truth when she eventually wakes up.

PROS: it's the truth.
CONS: ooh-eee she be MAAAD at me, and her brother ("But Mommy I WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL!!")

b) I could go into her room and take her temperature, and tell her she has a fever.

PROS: She'd roll back over and go to sleep.
CONS: It's lying (which I'm not keen on, except for fun stuff like Santa & the Tooth Fairy)

Hmmm. But then again, she might really, actually and truly have a fever (ohhh, wouldn't that be handy ;)

Parenting is weird sometimes.

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Treating A Child's Fever

I am not a nurse or a doctor, just a Mom trying to figure out what the right thing to do is.

J has had a fever for a couple of days, and has not had his usual energy level (when he voluntarily lies down on his bed instead of playing, you know something's amiss!). He's still a happy little guy, talkative and smiley, and there's been no vomiting - just coughing and a "sniffy" nose. And the fever.

Last year when this happened (it usually does about once or twice a year for him - Alyssa is not as prone to fevers but Joseph usually gets them), I gave him ice packs to cool him down. This made him shiver, and yet he got hotter! Once I did a bit of research I understood why:

Fever helps the body fight off in infection of course. What I didn't know is that if you ice a fever, you actually cause the body temperature to increase.

We all have an internal thermostat that keeps our body temperature around 98.6F. Unfortunately this is an optimal temp for bad bugs to thrive, so when we get sick the internal thermostat resets to a higher temp, and the body works to maintain that new setting (a. to help kill the bug, and b. to optimize our immune system's performance).

So when you ice a fever, you're fighting against the body's natural immune system response, requiring that even more heat be generated to try and reach that new internal thermostat setting.

Here's a link from a Nursing forum with a conversation specifically about icing kids' fevers: http://allnurses.com/forums/f18/ice-packs-fever-207206.html

Bottom line, I've discovered, is that you're better off leaving the fever alone (assuming it's not too high, of course - then you may want to see your Doc) and focusing on making your child comfy. Lots of fluids, comfy PJ's, favourite show on tv, and naps if they're willing.

There goes my timer again - I have to get A up for school. I'll be back!
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