Ways to reduce a temperature

wotnext

My little boy has come home from school feeling poorly and is now running a temperature. He is refusing to take Calpol as he hates the taste. What on earth can I do to reduce his temperature?

hollyh

I'd keep trying him with the calpol and also strip him off and either put him in a tepid bath or sponge him down with tepid water.

How high is his temp?

TheWaltons_3

Aww it's horrible when little ones are poorly. Could you lie him down and pop a cool flannel on his forehead?

liney

Have you got one of the childrens squirty medicine applicators they give you at the chemist with perscriptions? My son wont take medicine off a spoon, but will administer it himself if in one of these.

Strip him off - Do not put him in a cold bath or shower as this will cause him to shiver, and this will increase his temp.

I'd bribe him with a ice lolly to take the Calpol ) 2 birds and 1 stone.

Call your GP and speak with the Nurse if you are concerned, or NHS direct.

floyd

When we were old enough, my mum used to crush up a childs dose of paracetamol tablet and mix it with a rounded spoonful of lemon curd. It completely disguises the powdery taste

me_and_me_monkeys

warm (like body temp) wet socks are good for small children as it really helps to cool them. My oldest would only take calpol when mixed in with strawbery yoghurt hope your LO is feeling better soon

Counting_Pennies_2

Open all the windows, feed them ice lollies, stay in a cold room if you have fans put them on to cool the room he is in, but not too cold that the body starts to compensate by heating up again. Strip back to just pants and when sleeping tonight take out the duvet and put just the cotton covers on, as they still like the comfort of something over them.

My son ran a really high temperature for five days while we were abroad on holiday, and I spent £90 on my mobile continually calling my GP for advice.

The advice was as above, but also trying to get a regular dose of calpol and half way through that dose give child's nurofen so that as the effect of one is wearing off it gets a boost from the other and so on....

It really is a case of bribary, try putting the dose in a small glass of Ribena, or their favourite drink, or even the good old 'take this and get a treat' trick.

ktb

I dont have kids... so excuse me if i'm way off here... but surely a bit of a temperature is a good thing and means that his immune system is doing what it should and he will benefit from it? I'm not talking about very high temps of course or if he is really badly ill.. but just a little temperature. Its the bodies way of killing off whatever virus or bug is causing him to be poorly... if it is doing that why do you need to bring it down? They do say the more thing your body deals with as a littl'un the better your adult immune system is.

If i'm way off here apologies..

ailuro2

Eek..mse just ate my post...anyway..a shorter version- no, you need to keep temps down with kids, otherwise it can lead to febrile convulsions.

Nurofen for kids in sachets is orange flavour, a bit different to calpol- or try Asda/Tesco own brand, although iirc they are very like Calpol.

If his temp gets really bad the ibuprofen can be alternated with paracetamol- this came from NHS 24 when my dd was 6yo.

Get well soon littlewotnext!

Savvy_Sue

I used to use Disprol rather than Calpol and I think it was cheaper too! My friend used Calpol but if we needed to dose one of mine up at her house, they wouldn't take it.

[Deleted User]

ktb wrote: »

I dont have kids... so excuse me if i'm way off here... but surely a bit of a temperature is a good thing and means that his immune system is doing what it should and he will benefit from it? I'm not talking about very high temps of course or if he is really badly ill.. but just a little temperature. Its the bodies way of killing off whatever virus or bug is causing him to be poorly... if it is doing that why do you need to bring it down? They do say the more thing your body deals with as a littl'un the better your adult immune system is.

If i'm way off here apologies..

From listening to my fiancee (who is an A&E snr staff nurse) many parents have a habit of not cooling their kids down enough, some even keeping them wrapped up with the notion that being hot is 'good for them'

As well as the previous good suggestions, you could keep a fan on and open the windows to get a breeze going.

Febrile convulsions are not meant to be nice to watch