Prophylaxis
It is usually hardly possible to completely protect small children from one or the other fever episode, because to avoid a fever, the triggering infection or inflammation must already be prevented. However, studies have shown that babies who have been breastfed until the end of their pregnancy have received full immunological maternity protection via the antibodies contained in breast milk and are thus increasingly supported in their immune defenses. Febrile infectious diseases then occur significantly less during the transitional period, when the infant does not yet have a fully mature immune defense system of its own. In addition, if the parents have an acute cold, direct contact with the child should be avoided in order to avoid infection with febrile infections.
Complications
Especially small children can easily lose too much fluid too quickly during fever/sweating, which is due to the very large body surface area compared to their body weight. If it also refuses to drink at the same time, dehydration can quickly occur. Signs of this can be a lack of wetting of the diaper within the last 6 hours or a very dark yellow urine, but also dryness of the lips and tongue, lack of tears when crying and a sunken fontanel.
In some infants between the 5th month of life and the 6th year of age, a febrile convulsion (occasional epileptic seizure) can also occur at a temperature of >38°C and above, the cause of which is not yet precisely clarified, but in no case can it be attributed to a disease process in the infant’s brain. A genetic predisposition for the excessive discharge of nerve cells at elevated body temperature is suspected. The circumstances in which the infant twitches his arms, legs or face during the spasm, twitches his eyes, pauses for a short time for breathing and possibly even gets blue lips when he loses consciousness can be very disturbing and frightening for the parents. However, a distinction is made between the uncomplicated, one-off febrile convulsion, which lasts less than 15 minutes and disappears on its own, and the complicated febrile convulsion, which lasts longer than 15 minutes, occurs several times within 24 hours and can lead to permanent neurological damage (development of epilepsy possible).In 90% of the cases the febrile spasm stops of its own accord without therapeutic measures and does not reoccur in the following 24 hours.
