Number Two has a fever. Again.
This time it all began with his vaccines, which he received yesterday morning at his two month appointment. Yesterday night, we discovered a 101.4 fever. Visions of a lab coats and needles danced in our heads. To say that the whole family has been traumatized by his last feverish episode and subsequent hospitalization (including spinal tap)--which occured when he was just three weeks old--is putting it mildly. But we pushed past the flashbacks and phoned the on-call doctor.
She suggested we wait a bit to see if the fever went down. It did (somewhat). We retired for the evening, happy to be in our own beds. A steady 100.4 throughout the night afforded us all some rest. When I called the doctor's office upon the resumption of normal business hours, the nurse said such a reaction to vaccines was normal and that we should monitor it and call back later today if symptoms persist.
I would be much more blissful if I was ignorant of the risks of fever in a newborn and the speculative risks of vaccines. Yesterday, before Number Two's temp-rise registered, I was talking to my mother about my qualms relating to the recommended vaccine regimen for infants and toddlers. She just laughed at me. She'd never worried about such things, she said, and everything turned out just fine.
As I humphed on the other end of the phone line, I realized we truly are in a strange place in this day and age. It's hard to strike a balance between knowing too much and not knowing nearly enough.
On a positive note, I found a study stating that children with recurrent fevers in infancy are less likely to develop allergies. So that's good. We've got that going for us.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
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7 comments:
One of the most frustrating things I have found raising children is the "mystery fever". Scares the crap out of you and you have no idea why.
My son had a bout of Roseola at 15 months which is basically a childhood virus like you measles and mumps.... no cure or treatment you just treat the symptoms. It is characterized by a very high fever with no other symptoms for a day or 2 then the whole body breaks out in this rash thing.... the doctors can't even diagnose it until after the fever breaks and the "tell-tale" rash appears.
Well.... my son's fever went all the way up to 105!!!!!! And Tylenol and alternating Motrin did nothing to break it. I sat up with him ALL NIGHT scared crapless he would have a seizure...
UGH.
Oh the trials of dealing with infancy....
And each time he spikes a fever, you'll have those flashbacks.
Remember when Meenie had viral encephalitis almost two years ago? Well everytime she spikes a fever or starts to vomit, I flash back to that and start to worry. If the same things happen to her sisters, I don't worry.
It weird, but I think it's how, we, as mothers, are programmed to think.
I hope he feels better soon!
When my first child was an infant, one of my friends also had a baby about the same age. He had recurrent, unexplained high fevers at least once a month. They moved away, but I think he finally outgrew having them.
I get scared when my kids spike fevers and I haven't had the traumatic experience you had with Number Two.
You're right - sometimes I think we know too much information. I worry about stuff my mother never even knew existed.
Hope your little one if feeling better soon!
I would rather too much than not enough, even if most of it scares me to death!
My mother often says she feels sorry for us (us being today's moms of young kids) because we have too much information at our disposal.
I've always been of the "knowledge is power" mindset. I guess we just need to know when to stop digging for info, and when to press on.
I don't think trusting your intuition ever goes out of style, though.
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