Myth 3 - A fever is good for you.
While a fever is a sign that your body is fighting an infection, lowering the fever will not make it take longer to get over the infection. You do not necessarily need to treat your child's fever, but in most cases, fever can be treated as a comfort measure. Treating a fever, especially if it is caused by an infection, will not help your child to get better any faster either, but it may help make it feel better. If your child has a fever, especially if it is low grade, but does not feel bad, then you don't really need to give him a fever reducer.
Treatment of a fever can include using an over-the-counter fever reducer, including products that contain acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil). If you child has an infection, using a fever reducer will not help your child to get better any faster, but they will probably make him feel better. You should also give your child a lot of fluids when he has a fever, so that he does not get dehydrated. Keep in mind that treatment of a fever is usually to help your child feel better, so if he has a fever, but doesn't feel bad, especially if the fever is low grade, then you do not need to treat the fever.
Is it safe to alternate acetaminophen and ibuprofen? If you are using the correct dosage of each medicine at the correct times, then it is probably safe, although there is no research to prove that it helps. The problem is that it is easy to get confused and give an extra dose of one or the other medicines. If you are alternating fever reducers, then write down a schedule with the times that you are giving the medicines so that the correct medicine is always given at the correct time.
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(c) 2001 by Vincent Iannelli, M.D. (http://pediatrics.about.com), licensed to About.com, Inc. Used by permission of About.com, Inc., which can be found on the Web at www.about.com. All rights reserved.
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