How Can You Tell if you Have FEVER?

When Do You Have Fever?
from the article - Check Your Symptoms - What to do for Fever Symptoms

By Kristina Duda, R.N., About.com Guide

Updated October 19, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

The most important step when determining what to do about fever symptoms, is to check your temperature with an accurate thermometer. Several types of thermometers are available and they work in different ways.

1. Oral (digital or manual)
2. Axillary (digital or manual)
3. Rectal (digital or manual)
4. Tympanic (digital) - scans ear temperature
5. Temporal (digital) - scans skin on forehead

* Check Your Temperature the Right Way

Once you have accurately taken your temperature, evaluate whether or not you need to take action to bring it down.

* In adults, a temperature over about 100 F is considered a fever.

* In children over 6 months old, a temperature over 101 F generally needs treatment. It is important to consider how your child is acting when deciding the course of action for a fever. If the child is lethargic and eating or drinking poorly, you should treat the fever more aggressively than if the child is playful and active.

* In children 3 to 6 months old, a temperature over 101 degrees F requires a call to the pediatrician.

* In children 0 to 3 months old, a rectal temperature over 100.4 F requires a call to the pediatrician.


Once you have decided that you actually have a fever and need to treat it, you should consider your medication options. The most common medications to treat fever are:

* Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
* Ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin)
* Aspirin

If your child is younger than 2 months old and has a fever, you should call your pediatrician before giving him or her any medication.

Tylenol is safe for children over 2 months old.

Advil and Motrin are safe for children over 6 months old.

Aspirin should not be given to children under 18 years old unless instructed to by a doctor. It should never be given to a child with cold or flu symptoms because it can cause a serious disease called Reye's Syndrome.

MY THOUGHTS

in case you've forgotten, 100F is 37.7 centigrade. take note that aspirin should not be given to kids below 18 months. According to health.yahoo.com, "Reye's syndrome is a disorder principally affecting the liver and brain, marked by rapid development of life-threatening neurological symptoms".