You Give Me Fever

As I mentioned in a previous post, Jack had his first real illness on our UK trip.  He’s been sick before:  he had thrush for a while after he was born (though it never seemed to bother him); he had a fever a couple of times after his shots, but it lasted less than 24 hours; and he’s had five colds, which have all been fairly minor.

He was acting a bit tired and subdued on the last Tuesday we were there, and while Chris and I went out to the movies (Slumdog Millionare:  excellent!)  he went down for an early and very long nap.  He felt warm afterwards and I took his temperature (I’d brought his thermometer and some Children’s Tylenol) and he had a fever around 101.  We gave him some Tylenol, and the next morning it was normal again.  It started to rise again during the day, though, and he was definitely not himself.  He just wanted to sit in someone’s lap and play a little.  Usually he’s way too squirmy to sit in a lap.

By evening it was up to over 103, and I called our advice nurse in California, who said if it didn’t come down we might want to see someone.  His fever didn’t go below 103, so we ended up calling a National Health Service phone number (they have a centralized service) and they said a doctor would call us “in the next 4 hours”.  Next I called Chris’s brother and his wife, who are both doctors and have three kids, and they gave us some good advice.  The NHS doctor called back not too long after and advised we add children’s ibuprofen to the mix, so Chris went out and got that.  By this time his fever had reached 104.6 and I was feeling a little panicky.

We undressed him down to his onsesie and moved him into our bedroom which was cooler than his room, and thankfully his temp started to go down again.  He slept uneasily next to me for the night, and by the morning his temperature was normal again.  By Thursday afternoon he was almost his old self.

We thought that would be in the end of it, but on Saturday he broke out in a rash on his front and back, and we took him down to an NHS walk-in clinic.  We waited about an hour and then saw a nurse who checked him over and said it was a common reaction babies had to high fevers, and not to worry.  We didn’t have to fill out a single piece of paperwork, and it was free!

Jack had a cold right when we left for the trip, but it was extremely mild and disappeared quickly.  Last night he came down with his 6th cold, though, and is very stuffed up, poor guy.  Six colds in five months!  Sheesh.  I guess that’s life with a baby.

Even when he had his high fever though he was in pretty good spirits; he just needed a lot of extra cuddling.  But it was a little bit scary to have his first real illness so far from home.  Thankfully we were staying with family so that made it a lot easier.