*Always contact your doctor for medical advice. This is not medical advice, but the opinion of the author.
Reducing a fever is usually an uneducated, fear based move. It is another example of taking something that rarely gets out of hand and trying to control it when it’s a good thing. It is interfering with something that is actually amazing, perfect and yes, HEALTHY! That is the allopathic way, isn’t it? Control, interference and treating symptoms?!
Something invades your body that is seen as foreign and not congruent with health within your body. Your innate intelligence knows it needs to take care of this to maintain health. One of the ways it does this, is by raising your body’s temperature so it will be too warm for the foreign object to survive. If you lower your child’s fever, what does that mean? It’s actually not complicated! It means your body isn’t warm enough and you just made your child’s body the perfect environment for that foreign jerk once more.
The average body temperature is 98.6. Wait. Are you average? Is your daughter or son? I know I am not. Most of the people in my family have an average temperature about .5 to 1 degree lower than that (we had so much fun w/a thermometer one day b/c we don’t use one on a regular basis). If you don’t know what YOUR normal temperature is, what are you basing your decision that a fever is too high on? Someone else’s average?
Everyone seems to freak out if a temperature gets above 102.5 or 104 or 104.9, etc. I don’t know where people are getting this from. First of all, I don’t use a thermometer. Why? I know that my child’s body knows EXACTLY what temperature it needs to be better than I do. Why do I need to know what it is? Control? And why would I think I know what temperature it should be? Why would I give a fever reducing drug? Well I wouldn’t. Why would you?
Don’t believe me? Only believe doctors? How about this from Alan Greene, MD, FAAP:
“Many parents fear that fevers will cause brain damage. Brain damage from a fever will NOT occur unless the fever is over 107.6 degrees F (42C) for an EXTENDED period of time.* Many also fear that untreated fevers will keep going higher and higher, up to 107 degrees F or even more. Untreated fevers caused by infection will seldom go over 105 degrees unless the child is overdressed, or trapped in a hot place. The brain’s thermostat will stop the fever from climbing above 106 degrees F.”
I also have the comfort of knowing if there is no interference in my body, then my brain and body can communicate and regulate my temperature just right so that it is high enough to keep me healthy and low enough to keep me healthy. A chiropractic adjustment is more comfort than Tylenol any day. Chiropractic removes interference. Tylenol introduces interference.
So, ask yourself next time your child has a fever, “Why is it there? Do I really know better than the body where it needs to be?” Before you introduce harmful drugs, “Do I want to allow my body to heal or do I want to make my body the perfect environment to stay unhealthy?”
Leave the fever alone! It is on your team!!!
*emphasis added by yours truly
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
OH MY GOSH I LOVE THIS POST!
So so true! I don’t even have one of those little temp sticks either! Gave my oldest tylenol once or twice for teething pain and it did no good. I really think that people make their children more sick by reducing their fevers, and then wonder why the infection goes nuts.
It’s fun stunning people with this very situation! I agree 100,000% with you, Brandon! Any time anyone in our family comes down with a fever I do what seems crazy to all of the people who’ve never really thought about it. My body is trying to be hotter, so I bundle up and help the process!
I can tell you that since we do this, not one person in my family has had an illness last more than 48 hours … YOUR BODY KNOWS BEST!!! Get the message and help it along rather than continually try to slow it down and get in the way. The ONLY time that any of my kids get medication for an illness is when the aches/pains/coughs/whatever is bad enough that they are not able to get decent rest. Then I give them the least amount of children’s tylenol or preferably a home remedy necessary to allow them to get the sleep their body needs to fully focus on the healing at hand.
Great topic as always, and it’s good to see that we are consistently on the same page, Dr. Harshe.
Excellent topic! One, in which I am sure will bring in lots of conversational comments. I am with you on this one, though! Doctors have people scared to death about fevers and unless it is medically needed to break it, it is best left alone. My oldest son has had some issues with fever in the past and actually cause seizures that were fever induced. So when his gets up to high I do break it. My other 4 who have never had any issues from fever, I allow the fever to do it’s job!
Thanks Dr. Kuhn, but I can’t take credit for this info as January wrote it. But that being said, yes, we are on the same page with you as always!
I like the idea of this, but what happens when your child has a seizure due to the quick rise of said fever? My daughter has had six (seizures with fevers) so far and no other reason for said seizures. I am all for no drugs and chiropractic care, but my daughter even had a seizure the same day that she was adjusted, so any advice would be appreciated.
Ami, have tried going to an upper cervical chiropractor? Sometimes specificity when it comes to adjusting C1 is what’s needed. Check out http://upcspine.com to find one near you.
Not that other forms of chiropractic aren’t good. It’s just that trying something different might be your answer.
I believe that is what the chiropractor adjusted the day she had her most recent seizure. But I will check to be sure. Thank you for the input.
I like the information here, but it has such a condescending air that I don’t feel I can share it with anyone. If it is being used to validate the opinions of those that are already aware, then I guess it’s just fine, but as an instrument to share valid information in a respectful way, I feel it falls short. I’m sad about this, since I feel many could benefit from reading it…
D,
Thank you for complimenting my information. This post is one of the most popular thus far on The Atlas of Life. MANY people have reposted it and I have been asked permission for it to be printed to give patients in a Chiropractic office. Many of my friends expressed to me that they did in fact learn from this post (and of course others who already agreed or have this knowledge did like it). I can not please everyone. I did not write it in a condescending way, but rather straight forward and to the point. I can not be responsible for how it is taken and read by every single person. You are not obligated to share. Thank you.
January
YES YES YES! I get SO tired of telling the SAME people this every.single.year. We also do not own a thermometer. I’ve learned to tell by the feel of my kid’s skin how they are feeling. My oldest tends to run hot, so when he’s sick, he feels like he’s on fire!…..The other two run cooler and barely feel warm when they are sick. The only time we “interfere” is if they need a little help sleeping, and we use homeopathics for that. <3 Excellent article.
Love the article is so true except that the fever is not to kill germ fever is an action to make us sweat and release the toxins or acids that are changing or terrain from an alkaline state to a acid state. Germs are the result, not the cause. The terrain is everything, the germs are nothing. Maintain your alkaline design and you will be fine.
I like this post – except for the title, and I very rarely medicate a fever. I have to admit though once it hits 104 and the breathing becomes rapid with moaning whilst asleep – I do get itchy and towards the end of my comfort zone. I tried a big google last time and so much of the information is massively contradictory – with some suggesting a rapidly rising temp that continues to 104 can be a serious infection and you should visit the emergency room!
Could you share the references/research behind this piece please?