Don’t Overtreat Children’s Fever

Aggressive treatment of children’s fevers could be counterproductive. A new report in the journal Pediatrics points out that fever is a response to infection that is often beneficial. It slows the growth of bacteria and viruses and enhances the immune response. The reason to treat a child’s fever should be to keep the child comfortable rather than simply to lower the temperature, but 85 percent of parents queried said they had awakened a sleeping child to give fever-reducing medicine. Up to half the parents surveyed have administered the wrong dose of medicine, with about 15 percent giving a child too much ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Parents should get over their fear of fever and pay more attention to other symptoms of illness.
[Pediatrics, online Feb. 28, 2011]