What does a fever actually mean? - Mayo Clinic Press (2025)

If your kid has a fever, you’re in good company — with everyone. Fevers are the body’s natural way of fighting off bad things. But fevers can still bring up a lot of fears and questions. For example, should you try to treat a fever, or let it run its course? Can fevers harm the body? And if your kid has a fever of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, should you bring them to the doctor?

On this episode of Mayo Clinic Kids, we’re joined by pediatrician Dr. Jay Homme to go over all our fever facts, fears and feelings.

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Dr. Angela Mattke: Hello, I’m Dr. Angela Mattke, a pediatrician with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and I specialize in helping parents make sense of medical issues. This episode is about fevers, a topic my guest, Dr. Jay Homme, is pretty familiar with.

You put your hand on your kid’s forehead and it’s warm to the touch. “Oh, no, they have a fever.” Immediately, you’re gonna have to rearrange your entire day. Call the school or daycare and consider all of your options. If your kid has a fever, you’re in good company with just about everyone. Fevers are the body’s natural way of fighting off bad things and every healthy kid I know has had a fever at one point or another. But that doesn’t make it any less scary when it happens to your kid.

Your little one’s fever can send your mind in a dozen directions. Should you try to treat a fever or let it run its course? Can fevers actually harm the body? And if your kid has a fever over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, should you bring them to the doctor?

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Jay Homme to go over all the fever facts, fears, and feelings. Jay is a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and has seen his fair share of fevers over the years. Jay, I’m so excited to have you here today to talk, probably about one of your favorite topics, fevers.

Dr. Jay Homme: Angie, I always look forward to talking with you. And you’re right, this is one of my favorite topics because there’s so much to talk about with fever, and it’s one of the things that is almost ubiquitous throughout childhood.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Probably all of us, like I mentioned, even myself, have had a fever at some point, but the definition of what a fever actually is, can get a little bit vague depending on who you ask. So what medically counts as a fever?

Dr. Jay Homme: Well, we hear terms like low-grade fever or high-grade fever thrown around. Definitions are just something people have agreed upon. In our profession, pediatrics and family medicine, those of us that care for children on a regular basis, most of us have agreed that if the temperature is 104 or higher — that is above what is a typical body temperature for most generally healthy children. For a lot of healthy patients, that number doesn’t matter as much as how long it’s going on and what else is going along at the same time. But if you ask me to be specific, I say 104 or higher.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Okay. Why does our body create fevers? They have to serve some type of purpose for us. So how do they actually help us?

Dr. Jay Homme: Well, that really is it. The age old question. What is the point? There’s got to be a point. One of my favorite things about fevers is they tell us something is going on. They don’t necessarily tell us what is going on, but fevers seem to be a reaction that the body goes through. In many circumstances, it’s a sign that there’s some inflammation going on.

There’s some irritation somewhere, and the body is trying to respond to that, using various chemicals or immune cells, and that can change our set point in our temperature. Once in a while, there’s strange or weird conditions where the body’s regulation system just gets a little off. Most fevers are related or a response to something. And the most common reason for fevers in children is some type of infection.

Dr. Angela Mattke: When does a fever occur over the course of an illness?

Dr. Jay Homme: Fevers are one of the early signs. They usually start at the beginning of that illness, and they go away. So those fevers should be the first two, three, four, maybe five days, but then they should be going away. Now the runny nose, the nasal congestion, the cough, the sore throat, those may last longer.

But if a child has been sick with some of those common symptoms, runny nose and cough, with the absence of fevers, and then they show up several days in, or they were there, they went away, and now they come back a few days later, that’s not the expected time course. That’s a clue. That’s a child that maybe now has an ear infection or pneumonia, as a complication of a common virus. And so there’s not only the duration, but the pattern when they come during the illness. It can be pretty instructive and helpful.

Dr. Angela Mattke: A common refrain I hear from parents is concern about a temperature being too high and harming the body. What do we know about that?

Dr. Jay Homme: You and I, we’ve been doing this long enough that we’ve read about or probably even seen some of the really rare situations, but the general principle that I try to tell parents is if their child is generally healthy they will not have a fever that’s so high that it’s going to harm them.

In general, a fever that is generated from within the body, at an elevated temperature in response to something, may have symptoms that it’s bothering them. It’s making them look at or feel ill, but it’s not so much the number that I’d say, “Okay, that number is so high, it’s going to cause parents to worry about things like brain damage.” Yes, childrens’ temperatures can get high enough to cause injury to their body, but I would say it’s exceptionally rare that their own body is going to generate that temperature itself.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Agreed. One other thing that I tell parents is it’s not always the degree of the temperature that I’m concerned about. It’s how your child’s acting and we can get really caught up in numbers, but you can have a kid that looks horrible that has a temp of 99.9 and you can have a kid who looks fabulous and is running around the room like you said earlier, with a temp of 104 and is eating and drinking and otherwise looks well.

Dr. Jay Homme: There are some situations where the degree matters to me. There are certain patient populations, children that are unimmunized, children that have immune deficiencies and infants in the first two months of life.

Because that fever may be the only sign or may be the earliest sign of a serious illness in those children, but otherwise after the first couple months of life in otherwise generally healthy children, those that are immunized, it’s the duration of the fever that I’m more interested in than the degree of the fever.

Because we’re moving away from the common and the mostly normal into the potentially abnormal and what I like to call time sensitive diagnoses, things that we want to figure out before it gets later than we would prefer.

Dr. Angela Mattke: I’m so glad you mentioned that, that time period. It’s that three to five days is really the time you need to contact your medical professional or sooner in those populations that you mentioned, especially those infants. I love, I learned this from you in my training, babies are cute. We love babies, but we can’t trust babies, right? That’s what you always say. Because they can be sick and it can be really serious.

Dr. Jay Homme: That’s true. And again, thankfully, most of the time, it’s not, but they are a higher risk group and we have a lower tolerance for that risk in that group.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Why are they a higher risk group?

Dr. Jay Homme: There’s a few reasons. Some of the reason is the immune system. And we’ll say there’s some immaturity to their own immune system. They have some immunity from their mothers, but they have some degree of immaturity of their immune system, their own ability to fight off serious infections.

They haven’t been immunized against some of the more worrisome things. And also babies, they’re cute, but they don’t know that much, and they don’t know that they’re supposed to show certain things if some things are happening. They might just have a little bit of a fever that’s too high or a little temperature that’s too low, but otherwise kind of look normal baby-ish, because let’s be honest, babies don’t do that much.

It’s different from the older kid that can tell you, mommy, I don’t feel good. Or they don’t move their arm because they’ve got some bone infection. We have to be a little bit more cautious with them.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Jay, I remember in residency, we were slammed in the emergency department and triage was like, “Can you come look at this baby? We don’t have a room for him, but I’m a little bit concerned. They had a fever at home. They don’t have a fever here.” And I walk out there and look at this baby less than two months of age and just grunting. And that kid had MRSA osteomyelitis, a bone infection. It’s true. They don’t show many symptoms and that kid had a fever and the parents were really smart to bring them in.

Fevers don’t usually happen in isolation. They’re more of an external symptom of something happening below the surface. Think of them as the first chapter of a story. And sometimes it’s just the quick story of fighting off a round of the flu. But if that fever drags on, we might be dealing with an ear infection epic, or the whole pneumonia saga.

It may start with that high temperature. If you’re looking for a number, keep an eye out for 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more. What’s more important is the length of the fever, concurrent symptoms, and how your kid reacts. Are they not their usual self or downright miserable? Take that into account too.

If your kid’s fever lasts more than three to five days, or if the fever shows up after other symptoms like cough or runny nose, it might be time to contact a provider. And these guidelines are different if they’re very young, unimmunized, or immunocompromised. Remember, fevers are a common part of childhood.

And only about 1 percent of childhood fevers are part of a serious medical problem. They’re usually not something to panic over. That said, let’s talk about when you should be concerned and possibly seek out a medical provider. One of the most common reasons we see children getting fevers is because of illnesses like viruses, but what are some other reasons for fevers in children?

All the other reasons are, I’d say, significantly less common, but they do occur. Some children develop inflammatory conditions at a young age. Certain types of inflammatory arthritis, or maybe they’ve developed an inflammatory bowel disease or a condition like that.

Anything that causes inflammation in the body, fevers can be part of that. And those are some of the conditions where the fevers don’t follow the typical pattern of other, common infections, they last longer or they’re kind of a little more erratic, so in those cases, inflammatory conditions or malignancies, cancers in kids, almost always, even if a fever was one of the early signs, there’s going to be other things that go along and make us suspicious that things like that are happening.

The child is looking sicker. The child has other unusual things associated with it like bruising or bone pain or losing weight inappropriately. The fever is just one sign. For those rarer things, there’s other things that go along with it. Or the absence of common respiratory symptoms like runny nose or cough, or the absence of things like the common rashes or sore throats that go along with some of the summertime viruses or the goopy red eyes.

Or there’s even inflammatory conditions in anyone that takes care of kids on a regular basis and has heard of or seen a kid with Kawasaki’s disease. Medicine’s a lot of pattern recognition and we’ll see they have fevers, plus this, plus that. We start thinking of things like these rarer, but not so rare that we don’t see them conditions.

One thing that can be scary for families is when a child has a seizure in the presence of a fever. And we call that febrile seizures. What are they, who gets them, and how serious are they? Because I imagine for the family at that moment, they’re terrifying.

Dr. Jay Homme: They certainly are. Febrile seizures or seizures associated with fevers can be very scary for parents. Now I want to differentiate a febrile seizure from a seizure associated with a fever. Now it may sound like the same thing…

Dr. Angela Mattke: A seizure associated with a fever is a little bit more serious because in those cases children usually have a really serious underlying infection, such as encephalitis or meningitis, which are infections in the brain or surrounding the brain. And the seizure is a complication of that infection and the fever is associated with their illness.

Dr. Jay Homme: But when I refer to a febrile seizure, in particular a simple febrile seizure, these are children typically between six months and maybe five years of age who, during the setting of an illness that has, fever, usually at the time, just before the fever comes, maybe while it’s going up or maybe what’s coming down, they have a generalized seizure.

It’s scary. They’re stiff, they’re shaking, they’re not responsive. It can last a few seconds up to sometimes several minutes. Parents may do things very appropriate, like call 911. The ambulance may bring them into the emergency department, and within a few minutes, an experienced clinician says, “Ah, it’s just a febrile seizure.”

“What do you mean? It’s just a febrile seizure? I thought my kid was gonna die. I called 911!” We came in with lights and sirens and we just said, “Oh, this is a febrile seizure. But what a febrile seizure is is a seizure with a fever, but there isn’t another worrisome, underlying cause for it. Sure, they may have a virus that could have an ear infection, but something caused that.

In the case of simple febrile seizures, they’re pretty common. Three to five percent of children will have them. Less than half of those children will ever have a second one. And there’s nothing that we feel like needs to be done to try and prevent them in the future. I think a lot of times parents or caregivers will be a little more in tune to fevers in the future.

They’re going to get on that Tylenol a little sooner, ibuprofen sooner. But the literature would suggest we can’t prevent or predict these things. Some children will have them repeatedly, but as I mentioned, less than half of children will have a repeat, and then there’s also the concern about, well, does this put my child at higher risk for having seizures in the future?

And the honest answer is yes, but the real answer is it takes the general population, which has about a 1% chance of epilepsy or ongoing seizures, and it doubles it, but that means it’s 2%. It’s still a really rare change, but it’s a scary thing for parents. But within families, sometimes families know about this because there is a family history that goes along with this. It’s not uncommon to hear that an uncle had them or the mother had them when they were young. And so sometimes there’s a familiarity, but if it’s the first time, whoa, it’s a big deal.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Absolutely. I feel like I’m so glad you said the family history thing. Cause as soon as it happens the parents start telling grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles, and they’re like, “Oh yeah, so and so had him. And oh, you had him as a baby and yeah, it wasn’t a big deal” and those kinds of things. Jay, do you have a certain point when a fever rises to the level of needing to see a doctor in a clinic versus when they need to see someone in the emergency department?

Dr. Jay Homme: Sure. Let’s just start with a reminder of those populations that are at higher risk where we want to see them sooner. Infants in the first 2 months of life. I advise parents to just bring those children straight to the emergency department and based on how old they are and based on what else is going on, we’ll help them.

Make recommendations about what to do about it if those children with immune problems or under-immunized children, we’re going to want to see them sooner. It doesn’t necessarily mean immediately, but children that are looking very ill, respiratory difficulties, concerns for dehydration, significant changes in the way they interact with other people.

We call that altered mental status. Sometimes the emergency department is the right place for them. If it feels like an emergency, that’s a reasonable thing to consider. If you’re not sure, call. Oftentimes a nurse line or a clinician line, we can help you make that decision. Clinic is a really good place for fevers that are going on more than the two to three days or if they have some other symptom going along that you’re concerned about.

But there are times where fevers are signs of emergencies and those children typically look pretty sick or have an underlying health condition. For instance, if they’re undergoing care chemotherapy for cancer and they have a fever, that’s an emergency.

Bring them to the emergency department because we can get them the care they need quickest in that situation. But if we flood the emergency departments with children with routine fevers and causes, then the true emergencies might be delayed. I’m empathetic to parents because I am one. You’re one.

And there are times we look at our kid and like, “I don’t know, I’m not sure.” And at least reaching out to some kind of resource line, we can help you make those decisions.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Sometimes, though not often, fevers are a sign of something serious, like inflammatory conditions or cancer, but those will usually be accompanied by more uncommon symptoms like rapid weight loss.

A febrile seizure is the opposite scenario. The outward condition is uncommon and scary, but the underlying cause is harmless. Only 3-5 percent of young kids may have them, though usually only once. And these seizures aren’t preventable or predictable.

All you can do as a caregiver is keep an eye out and ask family members if the condition might be genetic. A fever can be alarming, and it’s perfectly natural to be concerned and want to seek emergency services for your loved one. When in doubt, call your provider. Now, let’s talk about how fevers can be treated at home and at the clinic or hospital.

How important is it to actually take a temperature? A lot of times parents will put their hand on their kids’ head and they can tell if they have a fever or not. Do we actually need them to take it or is that just semantics?

Dr. Jay Homme: When I’m hearing from a parent or a caregiver, then I might say, did you take their temperature? They just feel warm to you. And sometimes they say, “Well, they just felt warm to me. And I jokingly refer to that as the mom-ometer instead of the thermometer. This has actually been studied, the mom-ometer is not very specific, but it is kind of sensitive. I’ll say moms, if they think their kid has a fever, they probably had some degree of temperature elevation from their baseline.

However, I’m not going to make a lot of decisions based on that. That might maybe say, “Okay, in this case, why don’t you go ahead? Let’s get a thermometer. Actually, let’s document that just in case this is something that’s going on longer, or it’s one of these rare conditions where it just keeps coming back.” And then, yeah, we should know numbers because that helps make recommendations.

Dr. Angela Mattke: This is a question that I’m sure you get asked all the time. What’s the most reliable way to take a kid’s temperature and any tips for getting the most accurate read? Because kids are a little squirmy sometimes.

Dr. Jay Homme: There are times when it’s pretty important. Those little babies in the first couple months of life where we may actually recommend things like spinal taps or being in the hospital, we want to be pretty accurate with that. In those cases, I recommend a rectal temperature, a temperature in the bottom.

It’s known to be more accurate because it’s less subjective to what’s going around in the environment around the child. There are these forehead thermometers, there’s ear ones. But, if we’re really wanting to make important decisions on numbers or duration, then doing something consistently, that’s probably more helpful than trying a whole bunch of different things.

Good old fashioned thermometers under the tongue work pretty well, but rectal for the young ones, oral or ear, or sometimes forehead for everyone else is generally a pretty reliable way to get it.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Those popsicles that we recommend when kids are dehydrated and not wanting to eat do get in the way of taking an accurate temp.

Dr. Jay Homme: Or good old Ferris Bueller’s, where they put the thermometer against the lamp.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Earlier you talked a lot about why fevers are part of the body’s process of fighting off an infection or disease. And a lot of people wonder if that means we should really just let the body kind of try and do its thing and not lower the fever. If the fever is in the lower range should you treat it to break it or should you just let it run its course?

Dr. Jay Homme: I wouldn’t go so far as to say you should do either, the way I talk about when might you choose one or the other, those fevers that are telling us something’s going on, but not necessarily what’s going on. If they’re having an impact in another domain, like they’re causing the child to not want to drink well.

I want that child to drink well. That’s probably a time treating the fever might help them do something else. It’s important for them to do that, to drink their fluids. Maybe they seem pretty irritable. They’re not sleeping well, or they seem uncomfortable with the fever. Well, we can do something that might relieve that.

Those would be a time where it’s okay to treat that fever. But if your child has a fever, but they’re drinking fine, they’re otherwise acting reasonably well, they don’t seem that it is perfectly safe and reasonable to let that run its natural course.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Absolutely. And if you do decide to treat the fever at home, what are some tips that you have for families on how to do that? The medication do’s and don’ts.

Dr. Jay Homme: When you go to the store you can see all sorts of things all over-the-counter. People will sell you all sorts of things. It can get a little confusing, but by far and away the most common fever-reducing things are either acetaminophen, most people call it Tylenol, or ibuprofen. A lot of people call it Motrin or Advil.

They’re not the same medicine. They’re not the same dose. We’re using them for the same reason, but if you’re going to use a medicine, you need to understand why we’re using it. What the dosage is, that’s proper.

The most common mistakes that parents make, not intentionally, is either using too low or sometimes too high a dose, or doing it too often, or maybe not as often as they can. Generally keeping track of that, if you’re going to do it more than once in a while, keep track so you’re not using medicine too often or too high of a dose.

Dr. Angela Mattke: When you’re exhausted and your kid’s been up all night for days on end with some illness, like you got to write it down or you’re not going to remember. Like I’m a doctor and I write it down because there’s just too many other things you’re trying to manage as a parent sometimes.

Dr. Jay Homme: Some people also ask like, “Hey, if the fever responds to medicine, does that mean it’s not worrisome? Or should I not give it because I want to know what’s going on?” I generally feel a little reassured if temperatures come down with medicines, but I don’t wait too heavily on that. Over my professional career now, I’ve come to believe and feel like there’s enough evidence to suggest that I don’t think that we’re going to suppress a clinically important fever.

One that we really want to know about by giving routine doses of acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Parents need to worry that they’re not going to get that important clue if they’re doing it for a reasonable reason, like their child is uncomfortable or they’re not drinking well because of it.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Two other things I would add to that. Parents seem to always not want to give the med when they’re coming in for the appointment and the kid looks horrible, and they feel crummy, and they’re not drinking. I will always believe you. If you tell me there was a fever, I don’t have to document it in my office, and so that’s like one really important thing I want parents to know. We believe you when you say the fever was 103. You don’t have to show it to us.

Dr. Jay Homme: Well, I will say some places like our emergency department now have protocols in place so kids don’t have to sit in the waiting room having high fevers and being uncomfortable. They’ll give the medicine there and sometimes that’s really beneficial because when they do get back and they see the clinician, the doctor, the nurse and they’re looking better, less might be done.

Sick children have more things done to them, even if they don’t need to because we don’t want to miss important things. But the child that got the dose of ibuprofen in the emergency department and they’re back in the room 30 minutes later and now they’re active and now they’re drinking, that’s good.

Dr. Angela Mattke: I was gonna say, the other thing is that treating the fever helps your kid feel better when you’re sick and you feel crummy. You don’t want to eat and you don’t want to drink and that’s one of the main things that gets kids in trouble with fevers is when they become dehydrated.

And if we can keep them feeling comfortable and keep them drinking, I really don’t care if they eat their Cheerios or their other food, I just need them to drink.

Dr. Jay Homme: Sometimes we’re the cause of the fevers. Childhood immunizations. Fevers are a common side effect for many of them. I think we can respond, but we don’t need to prevent giving Tylenol or giving ibuprofen just because your child got routine vaccines.

They may not have ever gotten a fever. They may never need it, but if they start to develop signs that all their muscles are kind of sore from the poke or they have a routine fever within the first 24 to 48 hours, it’s okay to treat that. That’s all right.

Dr. Angela Mattke: And I would add on to that, we see a lot of kids coming into the office when they’re sick with maybe a mild viral illness, maybe a low-grade fever. And the question is, can we still give them immunizations or not? And I always go back to that study when kids had fevers less than 102.5 and they gave the immunizations and they actually had a little bit better immune response. Their immune system is already woken up and ready to go.

Dr. Jay Homme: That’s right. There are some situations where we’d say, “Well, why don’t we wait?” For me, an example is, if they’re on day 2 or 3 of fevers, and if we get to day 5, now it might be time for some blood work or something like that. I’m probably not going to give the vaccine that could extend that.

But you’re right. Most of the time, it’s still safe and effective to give immunizations in the setting of minor illnesses that have fevers as part of the symptoms.

Dr. Angela Mattke: People try to do other things to bring down the fever. And one of those things that I hear a lot is I put them in a cold bath. Is this something that’s helpful or maybe not so helpful?

I would say no, I don’t think that’s helpful because oftentimes our children when they’re young, they really can’t tell us how they feel, but people that are old enough and have high fevers often feel cold, not hot. It’s a weird sensation and putting them in a cold bath isn’t going to make that better.

Dr. Jay Homme: It’s also this idea that, well, we can bring it down through some external means. That’s probably not the case. Now, we don’t need to add to it. We don’t need to turn the heat up in the room. But cold baths, if they feel better with a cool washcloth on their forehead or something cool to drink, but to immerse them in cool or cold water, no, I wouldn’t suggest that at all. That has much more potential to cause some minor harm than to help.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Let’s say a caregiver is bringing a kid in that has a fever. How are you going to go about figuring out how to treat them and kind of evaluate them going forward?

Dr. Jay Homme: Well, first and foremost, just getting a good story. When did this start? What are the other symptoms that are going along with it? When they start feeling warm, they start to have a runny nose, a little bit of cough.

It’s been going on for a couple, two, three days. Temperatures are starting to go down. But I’ll ask questions first. Then I go looking. Sometimes we find things that are clues. Most of the time I’m not finding anything that makes me more worried. There’s no funny sounds in the lungs. They’re not breathing unusually fast when their temperature is down. They don’t look dehydrated to me. I can say this is most likely this thing. We’ll call it a virus. We blame a lot of things on viruses, but I’m not finding something that suggests something more worrisome or more serious. But if I look at the exam, I see a red swollen joint or the child doesn’t want to move an arm or a leg, or there’s an unusual rash of the skin.

Those are clues. We look for those clues. We come up with patterns. And sometimes that leads us or me to do some testing. There are times where I can’t make a diagnosis without a test. If I have concerns a child has strep throat, the only way to know is to do the test. That’s not a clinical diagnosis, it’s a clinical suspicion, and it’s confirmed by a test. The next thing is doing a reasonably full physical examination and then making decisions and recommendations based on that.

Dr. Angela Mattke: What about when families use cultural or traditional techniques to treat a fever? I’m thinking of special teas or soups or things of that nature.

Dr. Jay Homme: It’s something that I’ve learned more about from my patients than taught to my patients over the years. As we’re becoming more and more multicultural, I asked things like, “Well, what have you tried at home?” Anything that seemed to help and different cultures may try things that I wouldn’t have thought of to recommend.

And then I just sort of evaluate, in my senses, can I think of a medical reason why that might help. If so, great. If I can think of a medical reason why that might harm, then I might steer them away from that. But if there’s not a strong reason I think it causes harm, I’m not going to discourage families from doing things that they have a sense that they’re trying to help their children.

And I want to be part of that. I don’t want to be a barrier to that. But I’ll still talk about, “Hey, if they’re going on this long, or if your child has these other things, you can do some of these things, but I want to hear from you again, or I want to see them again under these circumstances. When to come back or when to call back are those return precautions that are pretty important.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Knowing all that we do about fevers, it can still be really scary for parents. Any words of reassurance that you can offer to them?

Dr. Jay Homme: Don’t fear the fever. We don’t want to create fever phobia.

That’s one of my worries about telling parents of newborns, if your child has a fever, bring them to the emergency department. I don’t want them to fear fevers forever. I want them to be aware of fevers early. I actually add to that, after their two month visit, when they start getting vaccines, when they’re a little bit older, I don’t really care about the numbers much anymore.

I care about what else is going on. And parents can hopefully take that same approach. But when it’s the first time, first time for anything, we’re here as a resource for you. And I actually have to remind some of the more experienced parents who are used to their kids having fevers and getting sick when they have another baby enter the home.

Dr. Angela Mattke: Well, remember in this case, that’s not okay. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Jay.

Dr. Jay Homme: Well, it’s fun to chat with you about this common, interesting, and important topic of fevers in childhood.

Dr. Angela Mattke: There’s a few ways to treat a fever from home before you consider a visit to a provider. The “momometer” isn’t a medically acceptable instrument, but it may let you know something’s off before you get an actual thermometer. There’s plenty of options, like an ear thermometer or a forehead thermometer, though a rectal thermometer is most accurate for babies. Just keep checking your kid’s temperature consistently to monitor any major changes

But say their temperature is below that 104 degree line and they still have a fever. When should you just let it run its course without treatment? If the fever’s not bothering the kid or causing any irregular behavior. And while you wait it out, they can drink fluids and avoid making it any worse with cold baths.

If it is time for standard fever medicine, make sure you read the label so you give a proper dose. One brand of acetaminophen may have a different dosage than another brand of ibuprofen. And no need to hold off meds. You’re about to see the pediatrician – chances are, they’ll be giving out the same medicine you have at home. A significant illness will resist the medicine anyway, so try your options at home first before bringing your kid in to a provider.

Parents have been handling fevers for generations. There’s nothing to fear. But if that fever’s more serious than you thought, there are medical providers available to investigate and test until they know the full story that fever’s trying to tell them. No matter what happens, know you have resources at home and at the clinic to make the best decision for your kid.

That’s all for this episode. But if your kid has something else going on or you have a topic suggestion, send us an email at mcppodcasts@mayo.edu or leave us a voicemail at 507-538-6272, and we’ll see if we can help you out. Thanks for listening!