Fever in 6 week old

[jen&james]

I have 3 children and my oldest had a fever from last friday to monday on and off. It was as high as 103.8 at one point.  I was hoping that was the end of that but then my amost 3 yr old woke this morning with a fever.  I also have a 6 week almost 7 week old and I am so worried about her getting this virus and getting a high fever.  Unfortunately the boys have been kissing and hugging her before they came down with this and it is impossible to keep them away, they love her so much.  She is exclusively breastfed so I am hoping my body is offering her some protection.  What is the protocol for a infant this young if they get a fever?

[Llyra]

Normally, a health care provider would recommend that a baby under two months old be taken to emergency care for any fever at all. That's because serious infections can move very quickly in such little ones. It is not a pleasant process, evaluating a newborn's fever-- involves really unpleasant things like lumbar punctures-- but it's all intended to rule out serious infection before it's too late to do anything to help baby. If you're concerned about what to do, or what might happen, if baby does start running a fever, I would put in a call ahead of time to your health care provider. They can at least give you specific information about what their protocol would be, so you know what to expect.

However, a breastfed newborn is the best protected member of the family, against ordinary viruses. Baby has all the benefit of the antibodies received from your colostrum and the ongoing protection of your milk. I don't think I'd lose any sleep worrying too hard about it, although I might try some precautions of handwashing and keeping them separated as much as possible.

[MyFullHouse]

Protocol for the first two months is to call the ped for anything over 100.4.  Your doctor may then want to send you to the hospital to rule out bacteria.  We just went through that with our now-6wk old at 3.5 weeks (also picked up germs from the sibs) and it was not a fun experience.  Since she doesn't currently have a fever, I don't want to freak you out needlessly, but I'll share our experience if you ask me to.  FWIW

, our little guy wound up perfectly fine, but we had to put him through a lot of "just in case".

[jen&james]

I just hope it doesn't lead to that.  Hopefully my breastmilk will be enough to protect her.

[MyFullHouse]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you both!

My guy fought it off for 3 weeks (some of the other kids were sick from the day we came home) before caving.  You have 3 more weeks of bm benefits going on over there than we did, which is certainly a positive thing!

[bdoody11]

DD#2 came down with a fever this past summer at 7 weeks. It was passed from my older DD even though I was nursing both of them at the time. DD#1 had been seen at the peds the night before DD#2 fever started and we were told it was a strong possibility they both would get it. Thankfully, my dr. was comfortable with a watch and wait approach since we knew where DD#2 got it from. Perhaps your dr. would feel the same.

[CookAMH]

Ditto what others have said, and I would recommend that you dose up on vitamin C and D immediately, and babe will benefit from that.