When a child has a fever, it is difficult to maintain composure. Parents immediately seek to help the baby, but often do not know how to lower the temperature of the child. It should be noted that an increase in temperature is even useful, because it helps the body overcome the disease.
Most often, high temperature accompanies infectious diseases. In the majority of children, temperatures up to 38 degrees do not cause serious discomfort. Immediately bring down such a temperature is impractical. Antibodies that contribute to the destruction of the infection begin to act actively only at temperatures exceeding 38 degrees. Thus, it is not necessary to lower the temperature if it has not reached 38-38.5, however, there are cases when it is necessary. First of all, it is necessary to lower the temperature for children up to a year old, for children with poor heat tolerance, if the temperature does not drop for more than three days, if there have ever been convulsions against the background of the temperature, if the child has diseases of the cardiovascular system.
It is necessary to immediately seek the help of doctors if: convulsions appear, the temperature does not drop after taking medication, if the fever is accompanied by vomiting, apathy, refusal to drink, a rash appears on the body, breathing is difficult.
How to lower the temperature without medication
If you don’t know how to lower your baby’s temperature, use the following guidelines.
If the skin turns red, the arms and legs are warm and the child does not feel chills, it should be undressed, and the temperature in the room should be 23 degrees. Then give non-hot tea with lemon or unsweetened fruit drink. Then wipe the baby with a cloth or towel that needs to be moistened in water at room temperature. Vodka-based alcohol rubdowns will also help bring down the temperature. To do this, dilute vodka with water in a ratio of 1: 3. You can tie the ankle joints and hands in the elbow bend with gauze soaked in water, or put ice wrapped in tissue in the inguinal and axillary region.
Another widely known way to lower the heat is to immerse the baby in room temperature water. Many parents are afraid to do this, but if the temperature reaches critical levels, this method can be very effective.
Let your baby drink as much as possible. At high temperatures, the child often breathes, sweats and loses a lot of moisture.
It is often necessary to ventilate the room where the child is and periodically moisten the air.
Answering the question: how to reduce the temperature in a child, it should be noted that physical methods of cooling the body cannot be applied if the skin is pale, the marble pattern appears on the skin, the legs and arms are cold, the child experiences chills, as well as if there were previously cramps against the background of temperature.
How to reset a child’s temperature with medication
If it was not possible to bring down the temperature without the help of medications, you can give the child the following means:
- Paracetamol. It can be given to babies starting from the second month of life. It must be taken orally both before and after meals in a proportion of 10 mg per kilogram of weight for up to a year, and 10-15 mg / kg for children over. Frequency of use is every six hours.
- Nise. It should not be given to children under 2 years of age. Dose - 1.5-3 mg / kg of body weight per day. It is necessary to divide the daily norm into 2-3 doses.
- Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen can be given to children starting from 3 months. This drug has a strong antipyretic and analgesic effect. The dose at one time is 5-10 mg / kg of body weight. Frequency of admission is every eight hours.
- Analgin. Apply from the first days of life. The dose of one dose is 5-10 mg / kg of body weight. The frequency of admission is 6-8 hours. It is prescribed only in exceptional cases, when funds based on paracetamol and ibuprofen do not work.
All of the above methods are only first aid tools. Before lowering the temperature in a child with the help of medications, you should carefully read the instructions and study the contraindications.