Many parents worry too much about the danger of childhood fevers and tend to overtreat even the mildest temperatures, according to research unveiled yesterday by Johns Hopkins doctors. A little fever, they say, may actually be good for kids.
The findings confirm what pediatricians have heard from panicked parents over the years - especially those who call because their child has a temperature of 99 degrees (it's not technically a fever until it hits 100.4 degrees, doctors say). Often, they report that they've given more medication than necessary for higher temperatures.
"Parents have this idea we've got to get fever down at all costs," said Dr. Michael Crocetti, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and an author of the study. "Fever actually helps, for most infections, to fight the infection. It helps our immune system work better."
The Johns Hopkins Children's Center study, presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu, was drawn from 487 interviews with parents of patients at two Baltimore clinics. Researchers found that parents gave their children acetaminophen and ibuprofen more often than recommended - and that some parents develop severe "fever phobia," a fear that fever will cause brain damage and death.
"Parents for some reason have gotten the message that fever is dangerous and haven't gotten the counter side, which is fever fights off infection," said Dr. Virginia Keane, a pediatrician at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "Most of the viruses that infect us can't live at temperatures higher than 101 degrees. If you're not uncomfortable, it's good to have a fever."
Only fevers above 107 degrees can cause brain damage in children, Crocetti and others said. Those temperatures are rare and not typically the result of infection. Instead, they're usually brought on by heat stroke or hyperthermia, a condition caused, for example, when a child is left too long in a locked car.
In most cases, the doctors said, fever is simply a symptom of an underlying infection - say, chickenpox or flu - that the fever is fighting.
The study compared how parents of different ethnic groups view fever. It found that black and Hispanic parents were more likely to describe themselves as "very worried" about fever than white parents.
Still, 80 percent of the parents said they had roused a sleeping child to give fever medication, even when the child was resting comfortably. Doctors say this is not necessary.
