Melanie Nilles

*yawn* For the last two nights we’ve had a sick baby in the house. When she’s not comfortable, no one is. She doesn’t go to sleep very easily either. With her fever at its peak around 104 and the medicines not helping much to bring it down, last night at least, we were all miserable. She was crabby and not wanting to sleep, or all over the place when she was actually trying to sleep.

The internet is a great resource, but I had neither the inclination nor the attention for it at 1 am. I’ve seen kids have febrile seizures, which scared me, but I learned from that not to worry. I also know that fever is the body’s way of fighting infections, since most viruses are killed by temperatures above a certain threshold, which is why we get feverish. But when a baby is miserable, what can a parent do?

Relax and make your baby comfortable. I don’t like to overmedicate my kids but with her fever not falling under 102 with medicine last night, I was tempted. The purpose of the medicine, however, is to alleviate other symptoms like aches and chills that may accompany a fever. According to what I’ve no read online, bringing the fever down is more of a secondary effect of the medication. Although our baby girl’s temperature was still elevated, she acted more normal having the medicine. The only thing a parent can do beyond that is use non-medication ways of making them comfortable if the medicine isn’t working.

I had maybe three hours of sleep total, next to her hot little body stripped down to a thin onesie. While my body heat wasn’t helping in the fight to keep her cooler, I felt better that she was more at ease being with me than alone in her bed miserable with this illness.

Today we’re all playing catch up on sleep, except for the little one, who fights it all the way. Not much else will get done, but there isn’t much you can do with a sick child.