Thursday, December 22, 2005
Fever!
The wee one had been fussing a lot and teething yesterday morning. I went to work for 3 hours and came home to find the nanny rocking her and saying the baby felt hot and the baby whining "oh, oh." She had not eaten well that afternoon and been fussy. I took her temperature, 101! I panicked (I knew I would the 1st time she was sick) for a bit and gave her tylenol and called the pedi. The answering machine replied that they were closed and to go to the the emergency room.
The baby went to sleep in my arms and I pulled myself together. I thought back to my pediatric rotations and all the advice I used to give worried moms on the phone. I remembered, as long as the fever responded, the physical exam normal, and the baby was eating and drinking there was no reason to rush to the ER (in order to wait 6 hours to be seen by a doc who may or may not like/ be experienced in babies.) I rocked here and she woke a bit later and her temperature was down. She took 4 ounces of formula and didn't whine as much. I started to feel calmer.
My doctor brain clicked on for a bit and I decided that she either had a virus or this was from teething. I know the experts say teething can't do this, but many moms I know can attest that this is possible. She was fussy the rest of the night and woke twice, but the temperature stayed normal. This morning she almost seemed like her old self and by lunch she was good as new. Later I noticed a rash on her chest and back and I attibuted that to the viral infection. She is still teething though, so maybe just a double whammy for my poor baby.
I spent some time beating myself up for having a cold this past week, seeing lots of patients in my new clinic with colds, flus, and coughs, and taking her out to eat with my family this weekend, AND then I stopped myself. Babies get sick. It is possible that it had nothing to do with me. Babies get better the vast majority of the time quite rapidly.
The baby went to sleep in my arms and I pulled myself together. I thought back to my pediatric rotations and all the advice I used to give worried moms on the phone. I remembered, as long as the fever responded, the physical exam normal, and the baby was eating and drinking there was no reason to rush to the ER (in order to wait 6 hours to be seen by a doc who may or may not like/ be experienced in babies.) I rocked here and she woke a bit later and her temperature was down. She took 4 ounces of formula and didn't whine as much. I started to feel calmer.
My doctor brain clicked on for a bit and I decided that she either had a virus or this was from teething. I know the experts say teething can't do this, but many moms I know can attest that this is possible. She was fussy the rest of the night and woke twice, but the temperature stayed normal. This morning she almost seemed like her old self and by lunch she was good as new. Later I noticed a rash on her chest and back and I attibuted that to the viral infection. She is still teething though, so maybe just a double whammy for my poor baby.
I spent some time beating myself up for having a cold this past week, seeing lots of patients in my new clinic with colds, flus, and coughs, and taking her out to eat with my family this weekend, AND then I stopped myself. Babies get sick. It is possible that it had nothing to do with me. Babies get better the vast majority of the time quite rapidly.
