Sick baby.

[rivka]

Yesterday after dinner, Alex had about one degree of fever. She seemed pretty miserable - clingy, fussy - so we dosed her with Tylenol. She was cool and comfortable by bedtime and went right to sleep, but I left the bottle of Tylenol on the attic steps just in case, a dose pre-measured in the dropper.

She slept until 5:30 and woke up crying. I went upstairs and tried rubbing her back and giving her the pacifier. Then I picked her up and sat down with her in the glider. Hot baby. Hot forehead, hot legs, just a sad feverish girl as she buried her head into my shoulder. She opened her mouth obediently for the medicine dropper and then clung to me.

I rocked her for about twenty minutes, and then poured her back into bed. She was mostly asleep and made not a sound with the transfer. Just now I heard a whimper upstairs, and then silence.

Poor little girl. I am worried that she felt so hot so early, given that fever is usually lowest in the morning and rises through the day. I'm glad this is Michael's day to stay home with her - no matter how good your nanny is, when you're sick you want your parents.

Comments

fever

[(Anonymous)]

Remember that babies and young children run much higher fevers than adults, so the low numbers you are getting aren't scary. As long as she remains relatively asymptomatic(albeit, sleepy)I wouldn't feel at all irresponsible taking her around other children at story hour. You both enjoy it, and it will do you good!

Re: fever

[rivka.livejournal.com]

If she were truly asymptomatic, I might. But it's pretty obvious that she feels lousy. Yesterday evening and this morning, she kept crawling into my lap and putting her head down on my shoulder. And she's been fussy. And on the lethargic side. It's a low enough fever that I don't feel any need to call her doctor, but I believe that she is genuinely sick, and probably contagious.

If she seems to feel well enough to go out tomorrow, we'll go to the park. That way she can have an outing without putting anyone else at risk. This is most likely a harmless bug for a healthy child like Alex, but I have no idea whether any of the children who attend story hour, or their parents, are immunocompromised.