What to do if a child has a persistent fever

Fever is generally a common disease in children. However, if the fever persists for a long time, you should pay attention. On the one hand, it is possible that the child has been infected by viruses, bacteria, etc. On the other hand, there may be problems with the child's other functions. Prolonged fever can cause great harm to children and may even leave sequelae, so parents must pay attention to it.

Why do children have repeated fevers that don't go away?

Because children have poor ability to adapt to the external environment and their immune systems are not yet fully developed, any discomfort can easily lead to fever symptoms, or their body temperature may rise again quickly after taking medicine to reduce the fever. Especially in the hot summer, if parents use the air conditioner improperly or the baby drinks less water and cannot adapt to the high temperature weather, it will cause repeated fever.

There are many causes of fever: mainly bacterial and viral invasion, which cause respiratory and gastrointestinal infections and lead to fever. What parents can do is to provide adequate nutrition according to the child's age and physical development, and add complementary foods in a timely, reasonable and balanced manner.

Parents should be especially reminded that if their child has a fever for more than three consecutive days without improvement or if the baby has a high fever or convulsions, they should seek medical attention in time to identify the cause and provide symptomatic treatment.

What to do if your child has a persistent fever

When your child has a high fever, use the following physical fever-reducing methods to make your child feel more comfortable:

1. Reduce clothing and quilts: When your child has a fever, remember not to let him wear too many clothes or cover him with too thick quilts. This traditional method of "covering the body to sweat" is not conducive to heat dissipation and fever reduction. Instead, it may cause febrile convulsions due to overheating. For many young babies, the body temperature can be lowered by simply reducing the number of clothes and blankets.

2. Drink more water: It helps to sweat and dissipate heat. In addition, water has the function of regulating temperature, which can lower body temperature and replenish the water lost by the body.

3. Cold compress: This method is simple and easy. Apply a cold towel to the forehead. After the towel becomes hot, soak it in cold water and apply it again. For older children, using cold water bags or ice bags may be more effective.

4. Wipe the whole body with warm water or take a bath: Undress the child, rub the whole body with a towel in warm water (about 37°C) or take a bath. This can dilate the blood vessels in the skin and increase heat dissipation; in addition, when water evaporates from the body surface, some heat will also be lost.

5. Low-temperature chamber method: Place the sick child in an environment with a room temperature of about 26°C to slowly lower the body temperature. In order to allow the skin to come into contact with the outside air and help cool down, people need to wear less clothes. If conditions permit, use air conditioning to lower the room temperature. This method is suitable for babies under 1 month old, especially in summer. Just open the baby's clothes and put him in a cool place, his body temperature will slowly drop. If your baby has chills and shivering when having a fever, you should not use the low-temperature chamber method.