Parents of all ethnicities had trouble recognizing the range of normal temperature - 97 to 100.3 degrees - though Hispanic parents were the least likely to view those temperatures as normal. That doesn't surprise Keane.
"People think 99 is a fever and it's not," she said. "Most kids can tolerate 102 with a big glass of ice water."
Crocetti said parents were all over the chart in pinpointing a fever - some guessing as high as 108 degrees or even 120, while another said 90 degrees, with the rationale that "when it's 90, it's hot outside."
Many parents learn about treating fever from their mothers and grandmothers, not from medical professionals, doctors say. Putting a child in a cold bath, for example, might actually drive up the fever. Alcohol baths can be harmful, too, because some of the alcohol can be absorbed through the skin of younger children and sedate them.
Many doctors say parent re-education is the right prescription.
"It's a long tradition. It's hard to overcome it and say, `You don't really have to treat the fever too aggressively,'" said Dr. Robert J. Ancona, head of pediatrics at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. "Treating fevers under 101 [degrees] - which many people do - is pretty much out of the question. Fever is not an emergency."
The exception arises in newborns. Doctors worry when babies younger than 3 months develop fevers because they have immature immune systems and are not as well equipped to fight infection. An elevated temperature could be the only sign of a serious infection, whereas older babies tend to have other symptoms, too.
When a young baby has a fever over 100.3 degrees - a relatively uncommon occurrence - a doctor should be called.
Doctors urge parents to treat the symptoms, not the number on the thermometer. If a child has a 102-degree temperature and is running around and acting playful, treatment may not be necessary. If that child isn't feeling well, go ahead and give Tylenol or Motrin, just don't exceed the dose on the package, doctors say.
That's how Nan Walker, an Arnold mother, approaches fevers with her son Hadlee, 6. "As soon as you catch it, you just keep an eye on it," she said. "If he's still physically active, I'm OK with it."
Only when he starts feeling flushed and uncomfortable does she break out the Tylenol.
