3.5 yo with fever, vomiting. I've never had a sick kid before.

[MrsMike]

Ds RARELY gets sick. Every now and then he gets a fever around nighttime and it's gone by morning, with no other symtoms. He started with a fever very late last night. It was around 102.5 (101.5 under arm). He only slept, very fitfully, for 3 hours and woke up screaming and demanding to watch Caillou. He layed on the couch with me and vomited about 3 times. There were blueberries from about 9 hours prior in there (along with raspberry sherbert so my carpet is a mess). I gave him a shower, some tummy tea and ippechacauna (sp?) and nux vomica. After vomiting he was up and running around, very playful. He dozed off for maybe an hour before getting up again. His fever keeps hovering between 102 to 103. He's his normal self, though he has gotten a little sluggish towards the afternoon, not surprising as he was up since 3am. He's napping now, which I hope brings the fever down.

I realize that I don't know what to do with a sick kiddie. As I said, he has never really been sick. He has had a runny nose from teething in the past and the only other time in life he vomited was when he ate too many pierogies too quickly. So, I feel a little bit at a loss and don't know if I'm doing everything "right." I got him to sip some water and more tummy tea and he begged for sips of my rooibos. He ate a small bit of toast with honey and also some bites of a fruit leather that he begged for. I ended up taking him out for a few mins for fresh air and then a car ride as it was the only way I could get him to fall asleep. Ugh...I guess I'm just venting. It just feels weird to have a 3.5 year old and not really know how to make him all better. All of my friends have had sick kids since infancy and are experts on it. Of course, their advice is to give him pedialite and gatorade . My mom tells me to keep doing what I'm doing.

[Cascadian]

Keep doing what you're doing - giving extra TLC and ride it through. It doesn't matter if the kids have been sick in the past - it's never fun.

My DDs were never sick until the eldest hit preschool, then it was a circus of illness until her immune system was strengthened via illness. I really do believe that kids need to get ill at this age to strengthen their immune systems. You can try and try to keep them away from illness and be proactive with probiotics and nutrition until they hit school age, but really, the body needs to rally its forces and code white blood cells against viral and bacterial invaders.

[Levana]

I second that!

I usually only get nervous when the fever hits 104 and does not go down for 12 hours. Fever helps the body to heal, so it's usually a good thing and a sign that the body is fighting whatever it needs to fight. I also put more emphasis on how DD is behaving than the actual temperature. If she is still herself and maybe even playing and running around, I do not worry much. With vomiting I only try to make sure she drinks something - even sugary drinks that I usually try to avoid.

Good luck!

[One_Girl]

When my dd is sick I feed her whatever she will eat, give her ibuprofen every six hours if she has a fever, have her sip water, and if she is vomiting I have her sip a little soda every once in a while to help her tummy. I used to not believe in giving her whatever she could stand eating because I don't like her eating junk food, but when she is sick she won't eat unless the food is really really good and that has led to some very serious visits to the doctor so I just let her eat what she will eat and focus on only healthy food for a long time after she is better. She went into the ER one time and had no sugar in her urine at all. I also wasn't a big fan of soda, but when my dd starts throwing up she doesn't stop and the soda actually works.

[MrsMike]

Thanks! He is feeling much better today. He fought sleep a lot yesterday and I think that was part of the problem. His fever went way down after he slept for the night. I also gave him whatever he asked for. We're not big on juice here, but he begged for white grape juice so I let him have it. It sucks when they're sick!