It’s scary.
No matter how much you’ve read, how trained you are to deal with it – when your little baby gets her first fever, it’s frightening.
It happened to us this weekend. She was fine before bedtime, then all of a sudden she was incredibly hot. I was worried, so I had her in bed with us. She woke for her night feed, then right after she was done, she had a seizure – called a febrile convulsion. I was terrified. She was twitching, went unconscious and turned blue around the lips.
My immediate reaction was to get to the hospital. We bundled up and took off. On the way there I tried to get in touch with our doctor. No luck. So (apologetically) we rang our midwife. I talked to her while we sat parked outside the ER.
The dilemma was this: We decided to go with a delayed immunization schedule, so Nadia hasn’t had any vaccines yet (she starts at her six month appointment). So I worried about going into the hospital unless of course we needed to – which is what we were trying to figure out.
- I know about 20% of all ER visits are baby’s with fevers.
- I know fevers often accompany teething (which I believe is starting with Nadia due to her increased drooling and gumming of all things).
- I know baby’s have fevers, and so long as they remain low grade fevers, they help build their immune systems.
- I know this.
But I was scared.
In the end we went to the drugstore, got some baby Tylenol and went back home to break the fever with a lukewarm bath, sponge baths, nursing and watching her carefully. None of us got much sleep. But after about 36 hours, the fevers subsided and now she’s fine.
I spoke with our doctor and she felt we did the right things. (We kept track of her fevers, when she ate, when she vomited, her pees/poops, her skin tone and told everything to our doc.) From our reports our doctor comforted us by saying Nadia’s episode didn’t sound at all like any of the illnesses that we would have vaccinated her against if we had followed the typical immunization schedule.
But it was scary. And it did throw into question our decisions as parents.
Now that it’s over, I do feel much better equipped to deal with the next time. And of course, there will be a next time.
What I’d suggest for all first time parents is this: In one of your early well-baby exams, ask your doctor about some of the “firsts” you will experience. Of course it’s always good to call your doctor when they happen, but it helps to know what you might expect.
And know, you will likely be scared too. They’re our babies.
