Management of the febrile child
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51481/amc.v46i2.453Keywords:
fiebre, padres, Costa RicaAbstract
Introduction: Fever is one on the main reasons for pediatric consultation, and sometimes parental concern to it may produce ""fever phobia"". This may lead to inadequate use of hospital emergency consultations and inappropria-te treatments.
Objective: To elucidate the degree of perception, know-ledge and treatment given by parents to the febrile children admitted to the SI- HNN.
Materials and methods: We performed a prospective descriptive study including parents or legal guardians of those children admitted to the Infectious Diseases Division of the Hospital Nacional de Niños de Costa Rica, between January and April of 2001. To those who met inclusion and exclusion criteria, a questionnaire was given prior explana-tion of the study dynamics.
Results: A total of 100 questionnaires were collected. Sixty one percent of those who were interviewed considered as essential the use of a thermometer to make the diagnosis of fever, and 43% defined fever as any temperature above 38°C. Development of seizures was the most feared complication in 75% of parents. At home, seventy one percent of them have some type of treatment for fever.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that many parents who were interviewed do not have an adequate knowledge of fever, its implications and treatment. This raises the neces-sity of promoting evidence-based information that may help parents to deal with this common and important symptom.
Downloads
References
Kramer MS, Naimark L, Leduc DG. Parental fever phobia and its correlates. Pediatrics 1985;75:1110-3
Ipp M, Jaffe D. Physicians' attitudes toward the diagnosis and mana-gement of fever in children 3 months to 2 years of age. Clin Pediatr. 1993;32:66-70
Kai J. What worries parents when their preschool children are acutely ill, and why: aqualitative study. BMJ 1996;313:983-6
Parkinson GW, Gordon KE, Camfield CS, Fitzpatrick EA. Anxiety in parents of young febrile children in a pediatric emergency department: why is it elevated? Clin Pediatr 1999;38:219-26
Blumenthal I. What parents think of fever. Fam Pract1998;15:513-8
Casey R, McMahon F, McCormick MC, Pasquariello PS Jr, Zavod W, KingFH Jr. Fever therapy: an educational intervention for parents. Pediatrics 1984;73:600-5
Graneto JW, Soglin DF. Maternal screening of childhood fever by palpation. Pediatr Emerg Care 1996;12:183-4
Kluger MJ. Fever revisited. Pediatrics 1992;90:846-50
Kramer MS, Shapiro ED. Management of the young febrile child: a commentary on recent practice guidelines. Pediatrics 1997;100:128-34
Kai J. Parents and their child's fever: do as I say, not as I do? Fam Pract1998;15:505-6
Banco L, Jayashekaramurthy S. The ability of mothers to read a thermo-meter. Clin Pediatr 1990;29: 343-5
Crocetti M, Moghbeli N, Serwint J. Fever phobia revisited: have parental misconceptions about fever changed in 20 years? Pediatrics 2001;107:1241-6
Schmitt BD. Fever phobia misconceptions of parents about fevers. Am J Dis Child 1980; 134:176-81
Hewson P.Paracetamol: overused in chilhood fever. Aust Prescr 2000;23: 601
Graham NM. Burell CJ, Douglas RM, Debelle P, Davies L. Adverse effects of aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen on immune function, viral shedding, and clinical status in rhinovirus-infected volunteers. J Infect Dis 1990;162: 1277-82
Mayoral CE, Marino RV, Rosenfeld W, Greensher J. Alternating antipy-retics: is this an alternative? Pediatrics 2000; 105: 1009-12
Krantz C. Childhood fevers: developing an evidence-based anticipatory guidance tool for parents. Pediatr Nurs 2001;27: 567-71
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2008 Acta Médica Costarricense
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Los autores que publican en la revista Acta Médica Costarricense pueden distribuir, copiar, remezclar, retocar, leer, descargar, imprimir, buscar y crear a partir de su obra de modo no comercial, indicando los créditos a la revista y sus autores y compartir su obra en las mismas condiciones. Para ello se aplica la licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
