Why does a young child have cold hands and feet when he has a fever?

Young children often have symptoms of cold and fever because of their young age and low immunity. At the same time, when children have fever symptoms, most children will also have a condition: cold hands and feet. So what is going on? Does it mean that if a child has cold hands and feet, he or she has a fever? So next I will give you a detailed introduction on why young children have cold hands and feet when they have a fever.

This has to start with the mechanism of fever. Humans are homeothermic animals. Under normal circumstances, the body's heat production and heat dissipation are in a balanced state, which can maintain our body temperature fluctuating between approximately 36℃-37℃. When pathogens invade the child's body, the pathogens act as an external heat source, and after the invasion of the body, some inflammatory products produced by the body's fight against the pathogens act as heat sources, affecting the central body temperature setting point. The body will then think that a temperature of around 36.5°C is abnormal, and that a temperature of 39°C or higher is reasonable, so it mobilizes the entire body to increase heat production and reduce heat dissipation to achieve a higher body temperature. The body will reach equilibrium at a new high body temperature point. At this time, the capillaries in the hands and feet will dilate again, and heat production will be equal to heat dissipation again. Then we will feel that the child's whole body is hot, including the palms and soles of the feet.

Therefore, when the child's body temperature is rising, his hands and feet are often cold. The faster the body temperature rises, the more obvious the phenomenon of cold hands and feet is. When the body temperature rises to the plateau period, the hands and feet will become hot. The cold or hot hands and feet we see are just different stages of fever and have no other special meaning. It has nothing to do with what some parents call "internal heat" or "external heat".

The above is a detailed introduction to the reasons why young children have fever and cold hands and feet. From the above introduction, it can be seen that as long as a fever occurs, the child's body temperature will rise, and the hands and feet will become cold. This situation is a normal symptom, so there is no need to worry too much.