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You are here: Home / Parenting/baby / The Doctor will tell you what is good for you…

The Doctor will tell you what is good for you…

August 14, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 11 Comments

One of the things that nobody warns you about when becoming a parent is the amount of times your child will get ill. The amount of times you will hold a thermometer to their skin, hold a sick bowl or administer calpol at 3am. The amount of times you will question yourself about whether to call the Doctor/go the hospital or call NHS direct..the amount of times you will ask your partner “What do you think we should do?”

Being a parent is hard. I imagine as your child gets old it gets a little easier as they can tell you where it hurts and how much etc etc but when you have a toddler with a consistently high temperature but no visible signs of any other affliction- what do you do?

This week began with us laughing about our lazy daughter. She was asking earlier than normal to go to bed and having teenager like strops when being woken from her daytime nap. We laughed about it. Lazy girl.

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Then on Monday night she felt hot! Really hot. Her temperature when I managed to get a reading after all her wriggling was a steady 39.3. I gave her calpol, it didn’t do much. We gave her ibuprofen and it reduced enough for us to think we didn’t need a Doc but not enough for any of us to sleep peacefully. She slept fitfully in a bath of sweat but the next morning she was a little brighter (still hot) her appetite didn’t return and she wasn’t her usual beaming self but we weren’t too worried-just teething surely? Yesterday was much of the same with a terrible nights sleep for all of us, fever again with an obviously unhappy girl and calpol/ibuprofen doses every 4 hours. We were all exhausted and slept until an unheard of 10am. Mad. When she woke she was sad, really sad. Whining and telling me she was crying, not wanting food and incredibly hot.

I gave in. I called the GP for advice. My Doctor listened to all I said and asked me lots of questions. He told me that he wasn’t overly concerned from what I’d said and that he would see her Thursday morning (24hrs later) I almost agreed but I looked at her peaky face and sad eyes somehow knowing she wasn’t right. He agreed to see her today – he wasn’t happy about it but I insisted.

At the surgery the first thing he did was take her temperature, then he took it again and then once more. It was 40.2. He didn’t quite believe it. He told me that we may have to take her to the hospital. After a (very ) thorough check he established that she had an ear and throat infection and was probably in a fairly huge amount of pain. Poor Izzy. I felt awful. I think he did too. I’m so glad I insisted but still feel guilty that I left her suffer for several days.

But how do you know when to make that call? How do you know it isn’t just teething or a fever which would break on its own?

When do you brave the wrath of the inquisitive doctors receptionist when you dare to ask for an appointment? Or the GP’s critical face when it really is nothing?

I would say if you feel that something isn’t right it probably isn’t. It’s better to check. Only you as a parent know your child. Even today when Izzy quite frankly looked hideous and ever so sad the GP told me he was astonished at a child looking so well with that high temp and infection but to me I knew – she wasn’t right. I don’t think I will do that again, leave it so long because I felt I was being over cautious.

How do you decide when to take that next step? Is it when they aren’t sleeping or sleep too much? Not eating/drinking or do you just know?

One thing I do have to say is the Cbeebies show Be Happy, be healthy and get well soon has made GP visits so much easier as Izzy gets excited saying Doctor Doctor and is very relaxed about being examined. Thank you Dr Ranj.

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Filed Under: Parenting/baby · Tagged: Cbeebies, Doctor, Dr Ranj, ear, fever, health, temperature, toddler

Comments

  1. Circus Queen says

    August 14, 2013 at 9:58 pm

    Hope Izzy gets better soon. Poor love. I had an episode like that with my daughter when she was 15 months. She had tonsillitis and was in a lot of pain. But I was on my own in another country and just wasn’t sure about taking her to the doctor. In the end I just chatted with a friend over the phone, a paediatrician, and he advised me to just keep her hydrated as best I could and give her Calpol. It was horrible but it did go and we got through it. To my surprise, if we’d been here in the UK, she would routinely have been given antibiotics. I, personally, am not keen on antibiotics so actually, I’m pretty glad my friend took a less medicalised view of the situation. Not something I’d care to repeat!

    Reply
    • munchiesandmunchkins says

      August 14, 2013 at 10:10 pm

      Thanks for comment, I think if calpol/ibu had worked I would have been the same but she got worse unfortunately. I hate antibiotics and always try to avoid them if poss but this time it seems we had to do it. Such a hard call to make..Grrr it must get easier yes? X

      Reply
      • Circus Queen says

        August 14, 2013 at 10:13 pm

        Absolutely wasn’t sort of saying how you should have handled the situation, by the way. More just commiserating over toddlers getting awfully unwell.

        Reply
        • munchiesandmunchkins says

          August 14, 2013 at 10:19 pm

          Ah yes I didn’t think that don’t worry! X

          Reply
  2. Donna@MummyCentral says

    August 15, 2013 at 12:09 am

    Poor Izzy. Hope she feels better soon.
    Parents are supposed to fight for their children – and it’s better to have a doctor think you’re an over-protective mum, than have a child who is in a lot of pain.
    Go with your instincts and try not to worry about what others think of you.
    And it does get easier when they’re older, and they can tell you what’s going on.
    But you’re doing a great job xxxx

    Reply
  3. Josanne says

    August 15, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    Oh poor mite. Get better soon princess.
    We had something similar, but only ended up as a 24 hour thing with Lily. We called NHS 111 just to put our minds at rest, as her temperature was 39. She seemed tired, a little listless but that’s all. We just wanted to know at what temperature we should begin to worry. Hubby spoke to an extremely helpful paediatric nurse and allayed our concerns.
    I also agree with the Dr Ranj comment.
    x

    Reply
    • munchiesandmunchkins says

      August 15, 2013 at 9:57 pm

      Thanks for your comment, it can be so scary. She is a lot brighter today thankfully xx

      Reply
  4. Franglaise Mummy says

    August 16, 2013 at 8:07 am

    Oh no 🙁 How is she doing now? I had that with L at about the same age, her ears were fit to explode. It’s so hard to decide what to do with poorly little ones. Hugs xx

    Reply
    • munchiesandmunchkins says

      August 16, 2013 at 11:24 pm

      She’s ok just rather grizzly! On the mend now xx

      Reply
  5. Andrea says

    August 16, 2013 at 2:15 pm

    We had the same thing a couple of months ago, I felt like the worst Mother in the world 🙁 Poor babies just can’t tell us what’s wrong

    Reply
    • munchiesandmunchkins says

      August 16, 2013 at 11:23 pm

      It’s so hard isn’t it? I think you just have to go with instinct but its difficult.x

      Reply

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