What to do if your child has a fever

Colds and fevers are the most worrying issues for parents, because children with fever may develop various complications under different stimuli, such as body convulsions leading to meningitis, which may cause increased body heat and lead to shock. Children with fever need to go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible and give normal physical cooling to prevent the temperature from rising.

What causes fever and convulsions in children?

Convulsions caused by high fever are also somewhat hereditary, and about 10% of children with this disease have parents who had similar records when they were young. Many parents worry that such convulsions may develop into epilepsy. In fact, unless there is a case of epilepsy in the patient's family, the chance of developing epilepsy is not high.

Convulsions caused by high fever usually occur when children have a fever due to upper respiratory tract infection or otitis media. Convulsions usually occur on the day the patient has a high fever (if they occur a few days after the fever or after the fever subsides, there may be other reasons). The patient loses consciousness and his limbs or whole body convulses, with symptoms similar to a grand mal epileptic seizure, and the same situation may occur several times a day.

Convulsions caused by high fever are generally not serious and will not affect the child's intelligence. However, if the convulsion is localized, it means that there is a possibility of epilepsy or other diseases in that part of the brain, and the possibility is relatively high. To find out the cause of the disease, the doctor may take a sample of your child's brain and spinal cord for examination. If a child has meningitis, early detection and treatment can protect the child's brain from damage.

When children have convulsions, many parents worry that the high fever will cause brain damage. However, it is actually very rare for high fever to damage the brain. If a baby has a fever of 103F or 104F, it is considered a high fever, but it is not enough to damage the brain; even if the temperature reaches 105F, the chance of damage is small. In fact, when a child is sick, what poses a threat to the brain is the virus that invades the brain rather than the high fever, so parents can rest assured.