When you have a new born baby, you have so many concerns, worries and fears running through your head. You do your best for them, but they cannot talk to you which makes things difficult. Nothing is more worrying than when your baby is ill. You take their temperature every five minutes, read, check and double check the calpol box before giving them the medicine or call someone for advice. We second guess ourselves, we doubt ourselves, but no-one knows our baby like we do. We need to trust our instincts.
If you listen to our mothers we would wrap the little lambs up, let them sweat it out. This is the worst thing we can do. I learned the hard way about the dangers of fevers. Lucas has always had issues with high temperatures, but nothing compared to the 4th December 2007. He was just under one year. He’d had an upset stomach but nothing major. His temperature was up but not by much. It was at 38’C. He’d had calpol but nothing else. He was bum shuffling about the floor (he never crawled just bum shuffled) when he fell back again one of his toys and went limp.
I picked him up and he started to shake. His arms and legs were shaking violently. His eyes were vacant. He was looking at me but not at me, straight through me. I tried to remain calm, no idea how. I called my sister in law, who is an A&E sister, not only that she was off that day as it was her birthday. She jumped straight in her car. As soon as I got off the phone, Lucas’s lips went blue, he stopped breathing. I took him outside to cool him and called 999. By the time I got through to the ambulance operator he was starting to come round. Being outside in December, in Scotland, certainly has it’s uses.
The lovely operator spoke to me and got me to check Lucas over. She told me an ambulance was on it’s way. She was going to talk to me until the ambulance got there. Thankfully my sister in law arrived and she could issue any treatment. The rapid response ambulance came first, then the ambulance, all a bit of a blur at that point. Thankfully Lucas had regained consciousness. But still floppy.
Lucas had his first febrile convulsion. The high temperature triggered it. His wasn’t that high but he is sensitive to it. After some information, explanation, tests and some medicine we were discharged.
Having to call a 999 ambulance and seeing your baby stop breathing is the most horrific thing I have ever experienced.
This wasn’t his last 999 ambulance due to his fevers. His lips and nails go blue and his hands and feet go cold, when his temperature starts to go up. The doctors explain this as his body shuts parts down due to the shock.
He has outgrown the convulsions now, but he still has the blue lips, etc and his fevers still spike. Every time he is ill, even with a small cold he gets a high fever. We have to deal with them quickly. Firstly giving brufen and paracetamol. Next stripping him down to his under crackers. He doesn’t like the tepid bath, so I give that a miss. The sponging down helps, but I read about adding some vinegar helps bring in down. I am not 100% sure but I think it does help. The main thing is to trust your instincts and get in there early with the medication.
One thing I came across recently was Babyglow. These are clothing which change colour if your baby’s child’s temperature rises. I wish they had these when Lucas was a baby it may have saved me a lot of heartache.
If you want to read further on febrile convulsions, what to look for and what to do. You can go here.
How do you deal with illness? Does your child suffer from high fevers? How do you cope?
This post is protected under copyright. SusankMann 2009 – 2014