Addressing Common Concerns with Fever
Mary Jean Ohns, DNP, APRN, CPNP, CCRN, of Toledo Children's Hospital addresses frequent concerns that parents express when a child has a fever, in an interview filmed during the 2019 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners annual conference in New Orleans.
Mary Jean Ohns, DNP, APRN, CPNP, CCRN, of Toledo Children's Hospital addresses frequent concerns that parents express when a child has a fever, in an interview filmed during the 2019 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners annual conference in New Orleans.
Mary Jean Ohns, DNP, APRN, CPNP, CCRN: Some parents are concerned that the temperature will keep rising. So, if they don’t treat it or get it down they think it will just keep going up and up and up, which is not true. They’re worried about brain damage, that fevers cause brain damage, and that’s not true either.
They’re worried about seizures with fevers, and children can have febrile seizures. But if it’s a simple febrile seizure, which is a whole-body seizure that lasts less than 15 minutes and they have 1 in 24 hours—that’s the definition of a simple febrile seizure—those are totally benign. So, they can have seizures with fevers, but if it’s a simple febrile seizure, they don’t cause any harm.
