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Date issued: December 2022

Review date: December 2024

Ref: A-524/NB/ED/Fever in Children

PDF:  Fever in Children final December 2022.pdf [pdf] 106KB

What is a fever?

• A fever is a temperature greater than 38°C.

• You can take the temperature by placing the bulb of a digital thermometer under your child’s armpit for 3 minutes with their arm held against their side.

• You may also use a tympanic thermometer. This is the type you put in your child’s ear.

Is fever dangerous?

• Fever in itself is not dangerous, although children can feel miserable with a fever.

• The cause of the fever is the most important thing to think about, rather than the fever itself. In children most fevers are caused by viral illness. Some are caused by more serious infections or by other diseases.

What shall I do if my child has a fever?

• Keep the room at a comfortable temperature and don’t overwrap or underdress your child. Keep your child lightly dressed.

• Don’t bathe them in cool baths or sponge them down with cool water: it doesn’t work and can raise their temperature.

• Give plenty of fluids including cool drinks, ice pops, etc.

• Check on them in the night, to make sure they are not becoming more unwell

• You can give medicine to reduce the temperature as directed below. You only need to do this if your child is uncomfortable with the fever, or with the cause of the fever (e.g., a sore throat).

Observe your child for signs that they are getting worse, these can be:

• Developing a rash that doesn’t go away under a pressed glass.

• Having difficulty breathing.

• Not passing urine or producing tears when crying.

• Having a sunken soft spot in infants.

• Becoming very sleepy or floppy, or not responding to you like normal.

Can I give medicines to help?

There are two medicines that can be bought from your local pharmacy that can help bring a temperature down. These are called paracetamol (e.g., Calpol) and ibuprofen (e.g., Nurofen).

Try to give just one of this type of medicine. Giving both medicines either at the same time or alternating them doesn’t bring the child’s temperature down any quicker.

Give one medicine, either paracetamol OR ibuprofen and see if it works (usually within 1 hour). If the child is still miserable, then give the other medicine.

Paracetamol: Give the amount recommended on the box regularly every four to six hours to a maximum of four doses a day. If your child hasn’t responded one to two hours after paracetamol, you can give your child ibuprofen.

Ibuprofen: Give amount recommended on the box regularly every eight hours to a maximum of three doses a day. Side-effects sometimes occur with anti-inflammatory painkillers; the most common is that they can make asthma worse, so should be used under instruction from a doctor in children with asthma.

When should I contact a doctor again (GP or Emergency Department)?

• If your child has a fit.

• If your child develops a rash that doesn’t go away when the skin is pressed under a glass.

• If your child is having difficulty breathing.

• Your child stops passing urine.

• If your child becomes very sleepy or not responding like normal.

• If you are more concerned than when you first saw the doctor.

• Your child becomes more unwell.

• If the fever lasts more than 5 days.