babies and fever

I have had quite a few hits from google searches on babies & fevers since I've posted about L being sick.

L is 9 months old, and this was the first time she had a fever. I admit that I usually diagnose a fever by touching my kids -- but when I do follow up with a thermometer, I'm pretty accurate. At her highest, L's fever was never above 103. Granted, that's pretty high and I was concerned!

I had the best success in keeping her fever down by alternating Tylenol and Motrin. I would give her a dose of Tylenol, then 3 hours later I would give her a dose of Motrin, then 3 hours later another dose of Tylenol. I did this for probably 12 hours and her fever did finally break after 3 days of having a fever almost constantly. I also took lukewarm baths with her and nursed her often.

Our most recent visit to the pediatrician was not for a fever, but for congestion and wheezing. She had a very audible wheeze when she was attempting to breathe, and she also had a pretty hard cough. I put some eucalyptus oil in a diffuser to help her congestion, and used the bulb syringe to try and give her some relief. The wheezing continued and she started to have a blue-ish ring around her lips. This was my clue to immediately take her into our pediatrician's office. Thankfully, they could fit me in right away -- otherwise I would have taken her to the ER. She had been wheezing audibly for a few hours before I took her in.

2 days later, she's still wheezing, but just slightly. She had a breathing treatment (nebulizer) with albuterol in the ped's office and I've been doing them at home every 4-6 hours since then. She absolutely *hates* the mask, so I've been nursing her and holding the mask near her chin during treatment. I have also been given the advice to do the treatment while she sleeps, but our nebulizer is very noisy and she is a very light sleeper. I'll stick with nursing her during the treatment.

Between her treatments, and my oldest also needing the nebulizer the last couple days because of his asthma -- I feel like I'm on an albuterol high! It feels yucky to me (heart racing mostly), but my son tells me he doesn't mind because he can BREATHE when he's done.