As every parent knows, fever in children is no fun for anyone. My 4-year-old recently had a fever, and all the conflicting advice I was hearing about what to do about it was enough to leave me feeling like a hot mess. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to hit up two experts in their fields for the latest skinny on fevers, and here's what I found out:
Fevers Aren't All That Bad
Fever in children isn't a disease that requires treatment. It's the body's natural way of healing itself."Contrary to popular belief, you can rarely tell the severity of the illness by the height of the fever," says Charles Shubin, M.D., Director of Pediatrics at Mercy FamilyCare, a division of Family Health Centers of Baltimore.
According to Dr. Shubin, with some exceptions, such as newborns, fevers are nothing to fear. Febrile seizures, which are convulsions that some small children experience with fevers, can be frightening for parents but they're generally harmless.
