How to react to fever in your child. Review on Knowing About your Child's Health

First, let's define normal body temperature. Most people say 98.6ºF (37ºC) is normal, but this doesn't account for individual variations or the fact that kids tend to run slightly hotter than adults. You can think of anything between 97º and 99.4ºF (36º and 37.4ºC) as normal. This grading is for the convenience, only merely just crossing the limit should not worry. Consumption of hot food, recent exercise, overbundling, hot weather, or an overheated room can drive body temperature up a degree or two. Body temperature also varies during the course of the day, and, with teenaged girls, the menstrual cycle.

Fevers usually hit their highest point in the late afternoon. Conversely, kids often have their lowest temperature of the day early in the morning. So don't panic at 4 p.m. when your child's fever rises slightly; this does not necessarily forebode a raging fever. On the other hand, if your child has a low-grade fever upon awakening, you may want to keep him home. Giving a young child with fever a tepid bath may help soothe parents anxious to do something, but is of little actual benefit to the child. Non-pharmaceutical measures that are occasionally employed to reduce fever include sponging the child with lukewarm water or using a fan to cool the environment. But in reality, these measures do not really treat the fever, although they can make the child more comfortable. So it is more important to look for the actual cause of fever (read temperature).