The White Falcon - 21.11.1980, Blaðsíða 9

November 21, 1980 White Falcon 9
Health care notes
A controversy in medical theory
and practice since ancient times
has been the question of whether a
physician (parent) ought to fight
fever, ignore it, or encourage it.
This "fever phobia" is an unneces-
sary burden for parents. This is
especially evident when Pediatric
Clinic and F.mergency Room visits
are reviewed, and we find that a
chief complaint of "fever" is far
and away the major presenting
problem.
Pediatricians emphasise that
fevers do not automatically re-
quire therapy (certainly not anti-
biotics); harmful effects of fever
are rare; fever is the normal re-
sponse to infection and may even
have some beneficial effect in
limiting virus growth.
Several guidelines may be
helpful in aiding parents to cope
with fever phobia:
1. What is "fever?" For the
age group six months to four years
a "high fever" may be defined as a
temperature greater than 104°F. A
mild to moderate fever may be de-
fined as a temperature between
101°F and 103.5°F.
Specific harmful effect to the
body really does not occur until
temperatures greater than 106.5°F
are reached.
2. Fever therapy with medica-
tion need not begin until the
temperature is over 102°F (3Q°C)
and/or preferably only if the child
is uncomfortable.
It is recommended that parents
sponge their children with lukewarm
water only if the temperature is
higher than 104°F and has not re-
sponded to medication, and the
child is uncomfortable. Do not
give aspirin every two hours as
aspirin will build up too fast.
It is suggested that parents do
not awaken a child from sleep for
temperature taking or administra-
tion of medication.
3. The single most important
factor in childhood fever is that
children between the ages of six
months and four vears have a very
labile temperature thermostat.
That is to say, the body re-
sponds to early viral or bacterial
infection with rapid and often mod-
erately elevated temperatures at
the very onset ">ss, and it
I I
0
But...does it fly?
A third addition to the flying force next to the Naval Station and Air
Forces Iceland Administrative building was displayed for one day last
week, but the mysterious looking craft disappeared and hasn't been seen
since. According to the resident military aircraft expert, Ensign Fred
"Leave my throttle alone" Taco, the craft is actually an aging Chevrolet
station wagon and was used in World War II for reconnaisance missions,
owever, LCDR Richard Baldwin, the officer in charge of the Air
Operations Department, claims his own POV was kidnapped by a group
called "Icelandic Trolls Incorporated."
Is often 24 to 48 hours before other
signs and symptoms appear.
This means that an emergency
room visit because of "temperature
of 104 for two hours" in a ma-
jority of cases results in a normal
physical examination and a diag-
nosis of "early viral syndrome."
4. Thus, first and foremost,
observation of the child's signs
and symptoms is more important
than the temperatures per se.
Parents can be reminded that the
main reason for consulting a
physician about fever, then, is
the presence of other worrisome
symptoms such as:
Difficulty with breathing,
painful urination, earache, deli-
rium, whimpering, irritability,
and pain.
The pediatrician usually does
not need to be consulted for fever
alone unless it is: high - 105°F;
the child is younger than three
months of age with fever greater
than 101°F; the fever persists
longer than 36-48 hours without
an obvious site of infection, if
the fever persists over 72 hours
in any illness.
Hopefully, then, these comments
will be incorporated into a parent
common sense approach to parenting
and will help to counteract fever
phobia.
Dosage Schedule
AGE
0-6 months*
6-18 months
18-24 months
2-6 years
6-10 years
Tylenol Baby Aspirin
0.3cc
0.6cc 1 tablet
0.9cc
1-1*2 Tsp. 1 per
1-1*5 year
adult aspirin
or tylenol
tablet
Separate mail
use Zip Code
To ensure that your Christmas
mail will arrive home in time for
Christmas and to help lower the
workload of base postal personnel,
the following suggestions are of-
fered: Separate all your cards and
letters according to size. Check to
see that all envelopes are facing
in the same direction with the ad-
dress side up. And be sure t in-
clude zip codes. For more infor
mation call the Base Post Office
at 2203.