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Our child has 5 months now. He got vaccinated and got fever this evening. His temperature increased to 101.5 °F (38.6 °C). We have given him the medicine that his pediatrician suggested. But we wonder what extra care that we can take him to get down the fever.

In addition to the doctor's specific instructions (the medicine), is there anything we can do to make our child comfortable and speed his recovery?

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    Question stated as "treat" is offtopic for this site, since it is a medical question. These are not allowed. However, I think you meant something like "how to help my child go through fever", which is more a quetion of comfort than medicine. – Dariusz Jun 14 '14 at 11:23
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    Toddlers seem to spike higher fevers than adults. 101.5 was nothing unusual when my kids were little. Of course, the place to get medical advise is from medically trained people who know the patient, and it sounds like you've already gone there and done that. – Marc Jun 14 '14 at 13:39
  • Whenever my child received a vaccination, they gave me this scary paper saying if things went wrong to see the Doctor and that if it went seriously wrong, the government had a fund for it. -- I'd see a Doctor just to cover your butt. – Sylas Seabrook Jun 14 '14 at 13:48
  • @JeremyMiller I don't know how it's in other places, but here fever seen as a common standard side effect and does not count as anything being wrong. My own kids always had quite high fever (39 to 40) in the evening after the vaccinations. Drawbacks of going include discomfort to the child (temperature changes, getting dressed, etc.) & potential exposure to kids who have an actual infection. I definitely wouldn't worry about 101.5 = 38.6 Celsius. That's barely fever and does not need to be brought down. Note, that this is all my personal experience and no medical recommendation. – Erik Jun 27 '14 at 12:45
  • Related: parenting.stackexchange.com/q/626/4568 and parenting.stackexchange.com/a/8204/4568 – Tobias Kienzler Jul 9 '14 at 9:43
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First, you need to discuss this with a qualified medical professional, not get advice from a bunch of random strangers on Internet.

Having said that, 3 main things:

  • The MAIN potential cause of problems in a young child when feverish is dehydration. So hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Milk. Or Pedialyte if you have that sold. Or even water.

  • Fever itself is NOT considered dangerous unless above 104 °F (40 °C) (I even saw 107 °F (41.7 °C) figures in some places). So there's no great need to take special steps to specifically bring down the child's temperature, like iuprofen or other such medicine.

  • If you wish the child to be comforted, warm water sponge bath helps. And make sure they are in well aired area, NOT swaddled in hot cloths. You want air circulation to cool them down, not hot cloths to keep the heat in.

Further references:

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  • Note, if you're using milk to hydrate, skim milk is recommended. Skim milk is an effective hydration option, but fat-containing milk is not as effective. – Joe Jun 16 '14 at 21:44
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    @Joe - I meant breast milk given the 5mo age. According to our pediatrician it's effective. – user3143 Jun 23 '14 at 16:53
  • Breastmilk is certainly effective. However you might want to clarify that, that's not obvious to me. – Joe Jun 23 '14 at 21:45

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