At what temperature do you call a child? At what temperature does the baby have to call an ambulance?

A rise in body temperature during illness rarely causes adults to call an ambulance, and even to the district therapist, many go only for the sick leave, if necessary. Diseases today are accepted to be carried on their feet and do not waste time on bed rest, the good for combating the symptoms of pharmaceuticals offers a wide range of drugs.

Adults can afford not to go to the doctor with fever, but ignoring the fever in the child for the parents is unacceptable, since the decline in infant mortality in our century was due to the achievements of modern medicine that provides timely assistance to small patients.

There are urgent cases when physicians must intervene immediately, so parents should know at what temperature to call an early child.

What temperature is normal for a child?

Many people know that the classical 36.6 degrees is not an indicator of normal temperature for everyone, because the metabolic processes take place in the body in every person in different ways. For children, this is even more just, since thermoregulation in a growing organism is only being formed and strongly depends on the age and activity of the child.

If the baby's first months of life have 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 the temperature of the body at rest will not exceed 36.8 degrees. However, excessive wrapping and heat can strongly affect the thermometer's reading, because the baby needs to provide comfortable conditions and not to wrap it up.

Elevated temperature may be the norm for a child

After massage, crying, feeding, the temperature of the baby can slightly increase, which is the norm. The first hours after vaccination can also provoke an increase in this indicator.

The child after active games, especially in the heat, can get hot and sweat in a natural way, but even under such conditions, the thermometer should not rise above 37.4 degrees.

Some children have a normal temperature of 37 degrees. However, if earlier the usual indicator for the child was 36.6 degrees, but after the transferred illness within a week or two, the thermometer shows 37-37.3 degrees, you can suspect a hidden inflammatory process, which is the reason for going to the doctor. He will examine the small patient and prescribe the necessary tests.

When you should be alert?

In the overwhelming majority of cases, parents can independently cope with the fever in a child with a habit of medication and physical means. However, experienced moms and dads know at what temperature to call an ambulance child should be immediately.

The general rule is this: the smaller the age of the baby, the greater the risk of negative consequences of ignoring the heat. For infants, the thermometer reading above 40 degrees is an unequivocal reason to immediately call an emergency room, especially if the child is not even three months old.

Concomitant symptoms in the form of rash, vomiting and abdominal pain, the presence of blood in the stool and vomit are a signal to attract medical care, no matter at what temperature. Call an ambulance child immediately, if the suddenly rising temperature within half an hour failed to bring down the febrifuge.

What to do before the arrival of doctors?

In anticipation of the ambulance you need to release the baby from clothes and diapers, lay it on an oilcloth with a sheet, cover with a diaper and wipe with warm water, drink abundantly. Periodically, the temperature should 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 the heat transfer and will only exacerbate the situation.

It is forbidden to wipe the child with vinegar and alcohol-containing liquids that can absorb into the skin and cause poisoning, not to mention burns of the tender baby's airways.

Exceed the dosage of antipyretics without an individual doctor's recommendation is prohibited.

Parents of children who react to fever with febrile convulsions should know by experience what the temperature is causing the baby. As a general rule, in such cases, do not wait for a rise in temperature above 38 degrees, and if measures to reduce it do not work, call the emergency room.

When is the fever good for the child?

The anxiety of inexperienced parents is easy to understand if a one-year-old child has a temperature of 39 degrees. The kid can look lethargic, cry and be capricious, but it also happens that the heat does not affect either the appetite or the sleep of the baby, and only a hot forehead and flushed cheeks give malaise.

It is known that by increasing the body temperature the body is activated to fight foreign viruses and bacteria, secreting interferon and special immune cells. Therefore, doctors do not recommend to bring 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 symptoms of disease

There are cases when the child's illness does not follow the usual scenario of "runny nose - cough - fever". It also happens that, as soon as a pathogenic organism becomes a target of the immune system, a child's fever without symptoms appears .

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 fever without symptoms the child does not show any signs of illness 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 the child has a temperature of 38. Do you call for an ambulance if there are no other symptoms and the child does not express concern? Before dialing the emergency number, it is worth checking whether the child has overheated, is not it too wrapped up, is not it worth his bed at the battery, whether he got overheated as a result of an active game or walking in the scorching sun.

Overheating often can explain the fever in a child without symptoms. The reasons for this state should be eliminated immediately. To do this, it is necessary to eliminate the perceived inconveniences and create comfortable conditions for the baby: cool and moist air, along with an abundant drink. Within 30 minutes the temperature should be normalized.

How long does the fever last?

Fever, including without symptoms, should not last more than three days, as a prolonged fever can speak of a complication of the disease. A negative factor is also the repeated rise in temperature after the child has not suffered from fever for several days. Such situations require compulsory medical examination.

Parents usually know by experience how much heat a child can have because children are different and the body's response is individual. This allows them to calmly meet another fever in the baby and not panic. Usually the body temperature is normalized on the fourth day. Otherwise, you need to call a doctor at home.

Young physicians and dads are advised to carefully monitor the condition of newborns and children of the first year of life with fever. If it is difficult for the baby to suffer, there are worrying symptoms in the form of rash, vomiting, diarrhea, febrile convulsions, difficulty breathing, the question of at what temperature the baby has to call an ambulance gets sharper, because in this situation it is urgent to relieve the condition of the crumb Readings of the thermometer. Sometimes procrastination can cost him his life.

Temperature in children over 1 year old

Parents of infants more often than others ask the question of at what temperature to call an early child. 1 year is a special age for a baby, because his body is already adapted to the environment. And his mom and dad now know how their child reacts to the heat, and they know how to help him.

By this time, in the absence of neurological diseases involving febrile convulsions, the thermometer stops scare parents, even when it shows that the temperature is 38. Do I need an ambulance at a higher temperature in children of this age? Yes, if rubbing with warm water, copious drinking and airing, together with antipyretic drugs, do not give an effect.

Dehydration can become a serious problem for the baby, even if the cause of fever is covered in banal ARVI. A one-year-old child has a temperature of 39 degrees, which stays stable for 1 hour, ceases to be useful. It concerns not only babies, so a call to the emergency room is necessary.

Since the body of each person, adult or child, is unique, the answer to the question of at what temperature the child should be called up has no unambiguous answer. Parental intuition, close observation of the child and regular consultations of the pediatrician and neurologist are much more effective than universal councils that are 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 doubts and reproach yourself for not acting.