Causes of white fever in children
The cause of white fever in a child is a certain disease or other harm to health, but the fever itself in this case acts as a reaction to what happened to the child.
One of the cases is the appearance of an infection in the body of a small patient, and then the body reacts to it in a similar way. White fever in a child quite often becomes a consequence of such a common disease as ARVI. In addition, the prerequisite for it will be various types of trauma, swelling, burns, swelling and hemorrhage.
Also, significant emotional stress of a stressful nature can lead to this manifestation. It is quite capable of leading to white fever in a child and intense pain shock.
In general, we can name the following five key conditions that can cause this condition in a young patient:
- infectious lesion in the acute stage;
- infection with a virus, if the patient has a respiratory illness, then such a symptom may appear on the first day;
- bacterial infection for which incorrect therapy was carried out;
- a disease caused by inflammation, including pneumonia, otitis media, tonsillitis, rhinitis, pharyngitis;
- somatic diseases (both chronic and acute).
Antipyretic drugs
Main indications
- Increased body temperature.
- Headache, sore throat and other types of pain.
Features : all the drugs in this group have a similar mechanism of action and cause three main effects: antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory. The strength of these effects depends on the specific drug. For example, paracetamol has a very weak anti-inflammatory effect.
Article on the topic
Feverish search. How to choose and take antipyretics
Patient Information
Antipyretic medications should not be prescribed in a “course” in order to prevent a rise in temperature. You need to fight a fever when the temperature has already risen.
Do not use antipyretics without consulting a doctor for more than 3 days.
The main antipyretic drugs in children are paracetamol and ibuprofen. If necessary, they can be combined with each other. To reduce fever in children, it is not recommended to use acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). It can cause serious complications. Other antipyretic drugs (including analgin and combination drugs) can be used in children only on the recommendation of a doctor and under his supervision.
The most common side effects : allergic reactions, nausea, abdominal pain, erosions and ulcers of the gastrointestinal mucosa.
Main contraindications : individual intolerance, exacerbation of gastric and duodenal ulcers.
Symptoms of white fever in children
White fever in a child occurs in three stages.
- An initial sharp rise in the baby's temperature.
- Subsequent stabilization of this indicator.
- A drop in temperature to normal (can be either sudden or gradual).
Symptoms of this condition include fever, although the child's palms and feet feel cold. The baby's skin is pale, and if you press on a certain area, the white spot on it remains for a long time. The reason is that due to severe spasm in such an area, blood circulation is impaired.
The little patient is lethargic and weak and does not want to eat. Arrhythmia may also occur, and the baby’s body may become dehydrated.
It is worth remembering that these symptoms indicate that the child’s immune system has been put into action; as a result, the body, raising the temperature to 38.5 or 39ºC, ensures that the protein of foreign origin, which has entered the system from the outside, coagulates. The problem is that white fever is a dangerous disease, because if the temperature persists for a certain time, convulsions can begin, and dehydration will also occur. As a result, the child's life will be in danger.
In general, this condition is most often observed in children whose ages range from birth to three years.
When should you see a doctor?
It makes sense to consult a doctor if the temperature persists for a long time and does not want to subside. Also an alarming symptom will be the child’s general weakness and difficulty breathing. If the condition of a small patient is of concern, you need to call a pediatrician.
In the most serious cases of white fever in a child, a doctor can best determine what to do about the condition. Of course, in many cases, parents prefer to deal with the temperature on their own, but it is the doctor who will be able to accurately determine its causes and develop optimal actions.
Diagnostics
Diagnosis of white fever requires repeated temperature measurements to record that it has reached 38.5 or 39ºC. It is also necessary to check his palms and feet to see if they are cold (this is a symptom of this condition).
Treatment
It should be clearly established that this is truly dangerous white fever. Treatment of a child if his temperature has simply risen to 38.5 or 39ºC may not be necessary if he feels relatively comfortable in this situation.
The room in which the patient remains must, in any case, have just a warm temperature; there should not be heat there. It is necessary that the air is humidified; there is no need to wrap the baby up.
Drink should be given to him in plentiful quantities, and food should be given whenever he wants. Moreover, if the baby abstains from eating food even for quite a long time, you still cannot force him to eat. If the child already does not have enough strength, then all the remaining strength can be spent on digesting the food received, which will not improve his condition. The recommended drink is various fruit drinks and raspberry jam diluted in water; you can also give water, the main thing is that it is all warm and not hot. But, for example, such a very popular combination as milk and honey is actually not recommended in case of a sharp increase in temperature. The reason is that the milk curdles inside.
Since white fever in a child should be treated, first of all, by fighting the fever. The temperature, when it rises above 39 degrees, should be brought down by giving the child an antipyretic.
Medicines for white fever will be prescribed to the child by a doctor invited by the parents, who will first determine the cause of the little patient’s condition.
- If a sharp increase in temperature occurs as a result of an infection that is of bacterial origin, then the child needs to be prescribed antibiotics, but an antipyretic is not required, since they can bring down the temperature itself, but this will only camouflage the fact that the cause could not be dealt with.
- The doctor can also prescribe both an antipyretic and a second drug, the function of which is to influence the source of the disease, in particular, these can be antiviral drugs, as well as cough medicines.
It should be borne in mind that the effect of the antipyretic takes time. If only half an hour has passed after taking it, then with a significant probability the temperature simply will not have time to drop. It makes sense to wait for several hours, and after that in most cases it will go down.
At the same time, a drop in this indicator in a child from 39º to 38ºC would be quite acceptable; it would also be nice if it drops by half a degree, this will also mean that the body is coping with white fever. At the same time, it is not worth giving the baby antipyretics again, after he has been given the amount prescribed by the doctor. An overdose of these drugs can cause hypothermia when the child's temperature drops below 36.6ºC.
In addition, you can wipe the child using a damp sponge, but you should not rub him with alcohol. This compound negatively affects the body of a small patient. If it is abused, intoxication may result, after which his condition will only worsen.
It is also advisable for parents or other older relatives to remain close to the child. The fever when the child is alone is aggravated by the fear that he experiences in such a situation. When an adult is with him, this has a beneficial effect on him, after which his condition improves.
What is the phenomenon?
White fever is a special reaction of the body. “In normal practice, we do not divide fever in adults into ‘red’ and ‘white’. But nevertheless we encounter both manifestations. True, white fever in adults is much less common. How does it manifest itself? Hands and feet become cold, pale, and sometimes bluish. This occurs due to the centralization of blood circulation. Under the influence of the immune reaction, blood rushes to the internal organs, spasm of peripheral vessels occurs. Children may experience seizures in such cases, but this almost never happens in adults. There is a strong chill, a feeling that it is impossible to warm up,” says general practitioner, cardiologist Tatyana Shalygina .
In this case, the temperature often goes beyond 38 degrees, and quite far, it goes down extremely hard, and more often it stays still. But there are situations when a person has taken an antipyretic, and the temperature, instead of falling, continues to rise. Moreover, the numbers are already reaching critical levels. It is extremely difficult to endure such a condition, because intoxication intensifies, but relief does not come. You cannot take too many antipyretics, as there is a risk of overdose, which is fraught with its own dangers.
How to make an appointment with a pediatrician
If the situation has become urgent, then you can dial an ambulance from our clinic, whose phone number is +7 (495) 229-00-03. You can also contact us through our website using the feedback form.
Our medical center staff act as quickly as possible. Especially if we are talking about an emergency situation that requires urgent hospitalization. The clinic carries out diagnostics and immediately prescribes the optimal treatment method that will help your child overcome all the difficulties of the disease as quickly as possible.
Causes of white fever
Typically, when body temperature rises, the skin, especially on the face, becomes pink and hot. This is due to the mechanisms of thermoregulation in the human body. When excess heat is produced, the body tends to remove it. Otherwise, overheating of internal organs, protein coagulation and death occurs. Since we learned to fight fever long ago, such cases are now rather rare.
Excess heat produced is removed in two stages:
- dilation of blood vessels and an attempt to remove heat through the heated surfaces of the body;
- simultaneous cooling due to sweat secreted by evaporation from the skin.
This is how the body copes with fever on its own.
In some cases, the thermoregulation mechanism fails. The body thinks it is removing too much heat from the body when it is heated to very high temperatures. It begins to preserve it for the continuation of life. The mechanism of heat retention is the opposite of the conclusion: the blood vessels narrow, sweat stops being released. As a result, the person has a high fever and cold hands and feet.
White fever is very dangerous. Heat does not stop being produced in the body in response to the action of an infectious agent and inflammation, but it stops being released. As a result, overheating of internal organs can occur very quickly. This is especially dangerous for young children, since their thermoregulation is imperfect, and all processes in the body occur faster. That is, unpleasant consequences will occur much earlier than in adults.
