Last night he started developing one of the side effects - fever. For the first time since mid-May, he did not sleep peacefully through the night, stirring every 1-2 hours. I was awake the whole night attending to him. Every time I picked him up from his bed, I could feel his little body warmer than usual. There was a sense of panic that arose within that took a while to settle.
His appetite reduced quite a bit; before he could drink 120ml of milk within 15 minutes, now just 60ml and he stopped drinking. We had to feed him his usual feed twice about 30 min apart. When a day passed and his temperature still remained higher than normal, I called my faithful best friend from secondary school and received very helpful advice from her.
She said, "If you are measuring temperature from the ear, if your child has temperature of less than 38.5 deg Celsius, there is no cause for panic. Take the infant paracetamol (goes by the name DHAMOL) as instructed by the doctor. Don't swaddle him or cover him with blankets to try to sweat him out, instead just let him wear loose comfortable breathable clothes."
"If temp goes beyond 38.5, it can be dangerous for the baby. Bring him to see the doctor immediately for another prescription. The ibuprofen liquid prescribed according to your baby's weight, will supplement DHAMOL, to bring down the temperature and you have to take both medications in conjunction, ibuprofen one hour after Dhamol. Ibuprofen helps with high-grade fever and Dhamol with low-grade fever."
"If you can't see a doctor yet and the temperature has risen above 38.5, start sponging him. That is, wipe his forehead, neck, arms and legs with a towel soaked with room temperature water. Let the water evaporate to bring down his temperature."
"The change from low-grade to high-grade fever can happen very quickly, and it can go unnoticed at night. So start filling up a schedule of people who can wake up to take his temperature every so often, every one hourly if need be."
"Make sure he drinks lots of water to bring down the temperature. If he does not like to drink water, than add a little ribena to the water for flavouring to encourage him to drink it."
I thought to post this if it helps anyone else.
As I was typing this, Hao Ran woke up and I picked him up from his rocker. For the first time in the past 24 hours, I felt his temperature normal. Double-checked with the thermometer and indeed it is back to 36.9/37.0! Bounced him with joy!!! Geshe Michael would call this instant karma! Hopefully the temperature stays down.
Newly recovered Hao Ran. Photo taken right after his temperature measurement.
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