#272 Stopping Your Fever May Be a Bad Idea

It's a very normal emotion to want to help your child when they have a raging fever, are feel poorly and want nothing more than for you to hold them.

The chances are most will try to bring the temperature down – either with medicine or other measures, such as warm baths.

On today's episode of Life By Design we explore the question...

Is fever reduction a good thing or could it actually be bad?

What we covered:

• What is the physiology of fever? Understanding why and how a fever works is the first step to figuring out if we should let it run or fight to bring it down.
• What does the research say? We explore the body of peer reviewed research to look for some answers and what we uncover is shocking.
• What does an iguana have to do with answering the question at hand? Jamie shares a story from the literature that clearly highlights the logic of fever and it's expression in animals with no internal fever creating mechanism.
• What temperature defines an emergency case? Is there a set point at which we need to jump in the car and rush to the hospital?
• What about seizures? They can't be good right? Can fever cause seizures?
• What are the signs it's time to call in the cavalry and seek medical testing and possible treatment?
• The multi-step process to help our children (and ourselves) and support the body as it manages an immune system response.
• One hypothetical effect following a fever that can be neither confirmed or denied by research, but is reported frequently by parents.