Last Sunday, my Eryna had a fever few hours after her 5months immunization & spiked up until 38.8°C around 630PM, which is when we brave da streets & bring her to Singapore Specialist at Taman Selasih. According to da paed, da normal scheduled immunization for infants would rarely follows with a fever & he was also quite surprised with da rise in her temp & decided to treat her with antibiotic & a half pill of bottom med to reduce da body temperature. Eryna’s less active (a bit) but still drinking well, no trace of hard knots around the injection shot & does not look discomfort, much to my relief.
Since da paed statement is a bit contradict to what have been told by da nurses at Klinik Kesihatan, I did a little research on it (read: surfing da internet & googled “immunization fever”). Here’s a few facts dat I tumbled upon.
Fever after immunaztion is really quite normal but it shud go away pretty quick, less than 3 days (without any meds).Fever is simply a signal dat ur child’s body's immune system has increased its response, probably to fight off a virus or bacterial infection. Da fever itself is necessary for ur child's body to get better.
Most parents worry (how can we not worry??) that fever will do some damage to their child. They have heard that children can have seizures if their temperatures go above 105°C. Few children actually do experience what doctors call febrile seizures, which occur in less than 4% of children under five years of age. Administering fever-reducing drugs has NEVER been shown to reduce the incidence of seizures. Also, seizures are usually caused by a rapid rise in temperature, not from a high fever as some believe. In addition, studies show that febrile seizures do not cause any kind of brain damage in children (but still, it’s not an experience any parent would want to have).The body has an internal mechanism which will not allow the fever to go as high as 107 degrees. Fever is helpful because it increases the amount of interferon in the blood, as well as raising the number of white blood cells available to destroy bacteria and infected cells. Fever also impairs the ability of many bacteria and viruses to multiply. By allowing the fever to run its course, and by not giving fever reducing drugs, you assist the body in getting well faster. Ok back to da fever, here’s what I did for Eryna. Dressed her with a light clothing as to allow heat to escape from her body (point to note: if ur child start to shiver, u might want to cover them with a light blanket). Checked her body temperature every hour (juz being pre-cautious). Luke warm baths every 4hrs.I’ve been told dat it wont help much to bring down da fever, but it does help to make her a bit comfortable. “Kool Fever” came to da rescue…I placed 1pc on her forehead & 2 small pcs under her armpits. Feed her as often as she needs, to avoid dehydration.
Ok, below are a must have at my home. If you think I might need to add anything else, kindly let me know..
p/s- I’m not a medical doctor, I’m only retelling of what I’ve been told & what I practiced when Eryna had a fever (which is only 2 times including dis one ;) ). Which would tell u dat I’m not really an expert, ok..
p/p/s- There’s a battle of argument regarding whether a child really need da immunizations/vaccine after all. I’ve read a few webs dat’s against immunizations for children & da story is really frightening. I’ll try to find few facts on dis & blog about it later.
