Quick- should I take her in? 5-day fever :(

[Amila]

Long story short, my 3.5 year old DD started complaining of ear pain Thursday night, and had a high fever. Hylands ear drops helped, but the whole next day she didnt move from the couch and was running a fever. The next day she seemed a little better, but still had a fever. At night it gets to 104ish. Complained of ear pain a few more times. Yesterday, she was out of it again and cranky. I haven't been able to take her in because we had massive amounts of snow here. The doctor prescribed amoxy over the phone and I finally caved in and started it last night- she is prone to UTI's, but she has no other symptoms so I don't know. Neither of my kids ever had an ear infection, so I am unsure of that too...her fever remained low all night, and shes more like herself today, but STILL has a 100.5 fever...this kid never gets sick. And when she does, it is for a day...

I should also note that last saturday she spiked a really high fever, like 104.5, that quickly went down (in like 6 hours) and she was totally fine.

Do I take her in?!?!?

[eli's mama]

i vote for take her in. my friends little one had a fever for that long with NO other symptoms and had pneumonia. Better safe than sorry.

[SquishyKitty]

I would take her in, but in the mean time, give her something for the pain (ear infections hurt!) and keep with the antibiotics.

[Violet2]

The lethargy is what worries me. When they just lay there, listless, that's sick.

I would also consider some fever relief. If you don't like to give motrin or Tylenol, that's fine, but maybe at least dose her at night so she can sleep a bit better?

What does your gut say? You've already got the abx so what else would the ped do with an office visit? I would maybe give the abx another day to kick in and re-evaluate but I can't see your LO.

Momma always knows what's ailing her baby. Listen to your gut.

V

[stik]

I wish I always knew what was wrong with my baby! But I guess my gut just isn't that finely tuned. Last year, my littlest had a fever that made her cranky and what looked to me like a bit of a sniffle that was just hanging around, and when I finally took her to the doc to get her ears checked after 5 days, she turned out to have RSV and pneumonia, and her O2 sats were down in the 80s. My instincts is to be more proactive now. I'd rather make an unnecessary sick visit than wait things out at home without knowing for sure that her lungs are clear and her O2 sats are OK. I've made peace with less-than-100%-necessary trips to the pediatrician.

If your dd is lethargic, you should definitely take her in. If her fever isn't improving after a few days on the antibiotics, you might want to take her in. If I were in your shoes, I would take my child in. I would also use warm garlic oil in her ears, make chicken soup with garlic and oregano if you think she'll eat it, and encourage her to drink a lot of fluids.

[Amila]

Thanks everyone! She is doing much better! Of course as soon as I get to the ped, her fever disappears! Her tonsils were very enlarged, and her ear was red, and the Dr. thinks that the second dose of ABX was probably working, thats why her fever was gone. So all is well! I feel better having had her checked out though.