An increase in body temperature during an illness rarely causes adults to call an ambulance, and many go to a district physician only for a sick leave, if necessary. Today, it is customary to transfer diseases on your feet and not waste time on bed rest, since pharmaceuticals offer a wide range of drugs to combat symptoms.
Adults can afford not to go to the doctor with a fever, but ignoring a child’s fever is unacceptable for parents, since the decline in child mortality in our century was due to the achievements of modern medicine, which provides timely assistance to young patients.
There are urgent cases where doctors must intervene immediately, so parents need to know at what temperature to call an ambulance.
What temperature is considered normal in a child?
Many people know that the classic 36.6 degrees are not for everyone an indicator of normal temperature, since the metabolic processes in the body of each person are different. For children, this is even more true, since thermoregulation in a growing organism is only being formed and is highly dependent on the age and activity of the child.
If the baby in the first months of life has a body temperature of 37-37.4 degrees, but there are no symptoms of the disease, the appetite and stool are normal, the child is active, there is nothing to worry about. The thermoregulation system will be improved in a few weeks, and body temperature at rest will not exceed 36.8 degrees. However, excessive wrapping and heat can greatly affect the readings of the thermometer, so the baby needs to provide comfortable conditions and not wrap him.
Fever may be the norm for the baby.
After massage, crying, feeding, the temperature in the baby can slightly increase, which is the norm. The first hours after vaccination can also trigger an increase in this indicator.
A child after active games, especially in the heat, can get excited and sweat naturally, but even under these conditions, the thermometer should not rise above 37.4 degrees.
In some children, a temperature of 37 degrees is normal. However, if earlier the usual indicator for the child was 36.6 degrees, but after the illness within a week or two the thermometer shows 37-37.3 degrees, a latent inflammatory process can be suspected, which is the reason for going to the doctor. He will examine the little patient and prescribe the necessary tests.
When should you beware?
In the vast majority of cases, parents can independently cope with the fever in a sick child with the usual medication and physical means. However, experienced mothers and fathers know at what temperature they should call an ambulance immediately.
The general rule is this: the smaller the baby’s age, the greater the risk of negative consequences of ignoring high temperature. For babies, a thermometer above 40 degrees is a definite reason to immediately call an ambulance, especially if the child is not even three months old.
The accompanying symptoms in the form of a rash, vomiting and abdominal pain, the presence of blood in the feces and vomit are a signal to attract medical attention, and it does not matter at what temperature. An ambulance should be called immediately if the temperature suddenly rises within half an hour and cannot be brought down with antipyretic drugs.
What to do before the doctors arrive?
In anticipation of an ambulance, you need to free the baby from clothes and diapers, lay him on an oilcloth with a sheet, cover with a diaper and wipe with warm water, drink plenty of water. Periodically, the temperature measurement must be repeated, monitoring the dynamics.
The child should not freeze, because as a result of contact with cold air or water, the vessels on the surface of the skin will narrow. This will complicate heat transfer and only exacerbate the situation.
It is forbidden to wipe the child with vinegar and alcohol-containing liquids that are able to soak into the skin and cause poisoning, not to mention the burns of the baby's delicate respiratory tract.
Exceeding the dosage of antipyretic drugs without an individual doctor's recommendation is prohibited.
Parents of children who respond to fever with febrile seizures should know from experience at what temperature to call an ambulance. As a general rule, in such cases, do not wait for the temperature to rise above 38 degrees and, if measures to reduce it do not give a result, they call the ambulance.
When is heat good for a baby?
The anxiety of inexperienced parents is easy to understand if a one-year-old baby has a temperature of 39 degrees. The baby may look lethargic, cry and be capricious, but it also happens that the high temperature does not affect either the appetite or the baby’s sleep, and only a hot forehead and reddened cheeks give out malaise.
It is known that by increasing body temperature, the body is activated to fight foreign viruses and bacteria, secreting interferon and special immune cells. Therefore, doctors do not recommend knocking down the temperature if the thermometer does not rise above 38.5 degrees. This does not apply to children who have previously had febrile seizures.
High fever without disease symptoms
There are cases when the child’s disease does not proceed according to the usual scenario of a runny nose - cough - fever. It also happens that as soon as a pathogenic organism becomes a target of the immune system, a child develops a high temperature without symptoms.
The reasons for the absence of any signs of infection of the gastrointestinal tract or respiratory system lie in the fact that, most likely, the virus is not deployed in them. Doctors also suggest that after a couple of days of heat without symptoms, the child does not show any signs of the disease due to the fact that his immunity successfully coped with the invasion of the "enemy". In this case, the child should be shown to the doctor to make sure of recovery.
Overheating as a cause of fever
There is also a very simple reason that a child has a temperature of 38. Should an ambulance be called if there are no other symptoms and the child does not express anxiety? Before dialing the emergency number, it is worth checking whether the child has overheated, is not too wrapped up, whether his bed is near the battery, or if he received overheating as a result of an active game or a walk in the scorching sun.
Overheating can often be attributed to a high fever in a child without symptoms. The causes of this condition should be immediately ruled out. For this, it is necessary to eliminate the alleged inconvenience and create comfortable conditions for the baby: cool and humid air, coupled with heavy drinking. Within 30 minutes, the temperature should normalize.
How long does the heat last?
Fever, including without symptoms, should not last more than three days, since prolonged fever can indicate a complication of the disease. A repeated increase in temperature after the child has not suffered from fever for several days is also considered a negative factor. Such situations require compulsory medical examination.
Parents usually know from experience how much a high temperature a child can hold, because the children are different and the reaction of the body is individual. This allows them to calmly meet the next increase in temperature in the baby and not panic. Usually, body temperature normalizes on the fourth day. Otherwise, you need to call a doctor at home.
Doctors advise young mothers and fathers to carefully monitor the condition of newborns and children in their first year of life with fever. If it is difficult for the baby to carry, alarming symptoms appear in the form of a rash, vomiting, diarrhea, febrile seizures, difficulty breathing, the question of what temperature the baby needs to call an ambulance is more acute, because in this situation it is urgent to alleviate the condition of the baby, regardless of thermometer readings. Sometimes procrastination can cost him his life.
Temperature in children older than 1 year
Parents of infants more often than others are wondering at what temperature to call an ambulance. 1 year is a special age for the baby, because his body is already adapted to the environment. And his mom and dad now know how their child reacts to heat, and they know how to help him.
By this time, in the absence of neurological diseases involving febrile seizures, the thermometer ceases to scare parents, even when it shows that the temperature is 38. Should an ambulance be called at a higher temperature in children of this age? Yes, if rubbing with warm water, drinking plenty of fluids and airing along with antipyretic drugs do not give an effect.
Dehydration can be a serious problem for the baby, even if the cause of the fever lies in the commonplace SARS. In a one-year-old baby, a temperature of 39 degrees, which stably stays for 1 hour, ceases to be useful. This concerns not only babies, so an emergency call is necessary.
Since the body of each person, adult or child, is unique, the answer to the question of at what temperature should an ambulance be called does not have a clear answer. Parental intuition, careful monitoring of the child and regular consultations of the pediatrician and neurologist are much more effective than universal advice that is fair for some children and unacceptable for others.
And yet, when it comes to the health and life of a small person, especially in the first months of his life, it is better to show excessive vigilance than to suffer from doubts and reproach yourself for inaction.