Arguments regarding how to handle and analyze 7 year old boy’s fever
My 7 year old boy started feeling unwell Sunday morning. Then built up a high fever last night. The fever continued this morning and is subsiding. This 8:30am his fever is 38.5 degrees celcius.
My wife and my mother in law blame raw liver for my boy’s problem because my wife ate COOKED liver and had loose bowel movement. I just pointed out in the previous article that the difference is my wife ate COOKED LIVER and a different liver. Besides, my 5 year old boy also ate raw liver and he is fine and I ate the same raw liver and I am fine.
I pointed out that it might be the YAKULT. More than a year ago I had banned and stopped the buying of Yakult because our neighbor Mrs. Montanez sternly warned me about her personal tragedy with Yakult which she said she thought she would die. Sure, the other kids drank yakult, but each kid drank a different bottle. Roll the dice and be the unlucky one.
I also suspect the yogurt. Dairy always made my stomach turn.
In the heirarchy of the blame game for illness I will rank them like this:
- Manufactured products – in this case Yakult
- Processed products – in this case yogurt
- Cooked items – in this case cooked goat, cooked rice, cooked vegetables
- Raw food – in this case raw goat liver, raw fruits
In the evening my wife was panicking because our 7 year old was getting emotional and she said delirious. Yes, I remember feeling like that when I get a fever, as if I was going to die. Well, not with me around. I know what to do. And since my wife was suffering from a tummy ache, loose bowel movement, I had to take over caring for our son. Gladly.
The argument regarding my wife’s panic is she is thinking about those times and stories about children’s brains being fried because they had high fevers. Then my mother in law thinks the child should be given a drug! Paracetamol. I flatly said if you insist on drugs, I will never give it, you give it.
This is what I always stress about fear and panic. Never fear. Fear is what the drug advertisers use to seduce you into using their idiotic means that do the actual injury. This is just a fever folks. Get over it.
So last night I did my thing. Just got an ice pack and tried cooling my boy enough to ease his discomfort. Just enough because fever is the body’s self cleansing mechanism. My boy did not feel like eating so he just had hydrating fruit like rambutan and coconut juice by his side. And by his bedside was me constantly in touch with him.
The cold temperature of the ice pack was too much for him. It was better and more soothing for him to sleep with my hands gently, slowly stroking his hot forehead. With the temperature difference between my hands and his forehead his heat transfers to my body. This is very basic thermodynamics. I’m an engineer for those who don’t know. This got him to sleep and I held him through the night.
I think this is how nature intended the caressing of parents to somewhat function. I noticed that because of this caring I was doing, my own body temperature dropped automatically so that there was a greater difference in me and my boy’s temperature so we could have more heat transfer. Good.
This morning, with the suggestion of my mother in law we use a hand towel, water, some ice, and some organic vinegar and constantly put the hand towel on his forehead.
Currently my boy is asleep in his grandma’s bed. He wanted to sleep there.