My child has a fever of 103, My mom told me to put her in a cold bath and got mad because i told her no!!!!!!!

Question

I always was told to use luke warm water not cold! Isn't that to much for a baby?? She is 10 mths

Answer 1

I agree, give her some Tylenol and take her to the ER right now!

Fevers that high can be dangerous. Anything higher IS dangerous. Put her in the car and leave right now!

Answer 2

A cool bath is first aid and a luke warm bath may not provide the proper cooling needed. You can also apply cold packs to the feet or under the arms to lower the body temp. Even sponging a child down will help lower fevers.

Do not give your child aspirin but Tylenol or ibuprofen are both safe. The best effect is to alternate.

A fever of 102 is not that big a concern in a small child if it is short term. If it goes up or stays high you need to call the doctor but spikes like that are common.

Answer 3

I was told that if my baby has a fever under 102, to give a luke warm bath, definitely not cold, use tylenol and see if I could get the fever down. If the fever doesn't go down call him immediately. If I can't get in touch with him (which is very rare) take the baby to the emergency room. At 103 its time to forget the bath and take more serious action. In answer to your question, a cold bath isn't necessary. My baby gets cold enough after sitting a while in a hot bath. A luke warm bath is cold enough.

Answer 4

Luke warm not cold. Cold water will shock her system. My son is almost 9 months and I would never give him a cold bath especially not when he's sick.

My daughter had a 104.3 fever this summer when she was 2 1/2. I called her pediatrician in the middle of the night and he said it was a virus. Different babies respond differently to getting sick and a high fever isn't necessarily a reason to panic. I've found that Motrin works better then Tylenol for high fevers. Doctors recommend alternating the two but nobody knows who originated that and it isn't backed by any scientific studies. Luke warm baths, lots of fluids, and Motrin has always worked for my daughter's high fevers.

Answer 5

A fever of 103 in a 10 month old is not quite dire.

Give tylenol and bath in lukewarm water. Let her eat popsicles too. See if you can get the fever down within an hour or so and then call the doctor. A trip to the e.r. will be a wasted, exhausting expensive trip and doubtful if they will do much more than call her doctor, give her tylenol or children's advil, bath her and give her popsicles.

I wouldn't use cold water either.

Good luck and let us know how she feels tomorrow.

Answer 6

You were right never put the baby in a cold bath. The bath needs to be lukewarm to bring down a fever so not too warm either.

Answer 7

Cold water will cause the baby to shiver and it will actually cause the temperature to rise more. Call the doctor and see what they suggest. Your mother is just trying to help and figures that she did it and you turned out fine, so there should be no problem. Just let her know that you are going to go by what the doctor says. Not that you don't believe her, but you should be calling the doctor anyways. 103 temp is high but as long as the baby is acting ok then most likely she will be ok. Just make sure you talk to the doc!!

Answer 8

SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME.... I totally feel you.
Tell her this advice that my pediatrician told me. New studies show that cold baths bring down fevers to fast and could cause long term bouts of seizures.
What I did was left the baby in a onezie and took a little towel with water and rubbed the baby like doc told me and alternated b/w tylenol and baby motrin.

Answer 9

Put that child in a cold bath. If you take your child to the hospital, that is what they will do to lower the temperature. That fever is high for a baby. If it gets much higher, you may have to use an alcohol bath. At 105 brain damage CAN occur.

Answer 10

The best you can do is have cotton or clean cloth dipped in cold water, let it be soaked for a 30 seconds then sqeeze the water by your hand and keep the same cloth on the forehead of your child for 5-7 minutes.

repeat the process and you will see the fever going down.

Don't bath the child either by cold or lukewarm water.
if required can use cloth using lukewarm water to clean the baby using drops of germ killers or dettol.

Answer 11

It sounds like the issue here is you and your mom.

Did you ask for advice? If so you should recieve it politely regardless whether you agree with it.

Was the advice unsolicited? You are the only mother your child has. Grandmas tend to think they area 'second mother' to the child- they are wrong. You are mom. You must do what you feel to be best, based on what your doctor, experience, and other information have told you.

That aside, your pediatrician probably has someone on hand to answer questions at all hours. If not, call your emergency room and ask for the question to be relayed to the ped. on call. You should recieve a callback shortly with response, and should not be charged any fee for this. A few peds, however, are staring to charge a nominal fee for a call to their office that requires the ped himself (as opposed to a nurse) to get on the phone. Regardless, it's for your baby.