Austin’s First Fever

Austin was sent home from school today (for the first time) with a fever…his first that we know of.  As early as 6am this morning, I noticed that he was behaving a little strangely when taking his bottle.  He slept great last night, going from 8pm to 6am, but when he got up I could only get him to take 4oz of formula.  When daycare called Amanda late in the day, they said that he was fussy, not eating well, had a runny poop, and they recorded a temperature of 101.2 degrees.

I went and took him home (at the end of the day, around 4:45), and he was definitely hot.  But, he was also pretty happy…if I didn’t know better, I’m not sure that I would have noticed anything wrong.  I played with him at home for a while until Amanda got home, and he basically seemed fine.  Then I handed him off to Amanda, and something about how she touched him or moved him (or maybe it was totally random) set him off screaming in pain.  It was a tone of cry that we’ve never heard before, not even when he got his shots…he was definitely hurting, and we couldn’t figure out what was doing it or how to comfort him.

Eventually, he calmed down, and I took his temperature at a barely-elevated 99.4 degrees.  Still, that cry was enough to make us worry (and we couldn’t help but observe that he has been weaned, and not getting Amanda’s fresh antibodies, for just under a week), so Amanda took him down to the after-hours clinic at Kaiser.  By the time she got there and saw the doctor, Austin had no fever at all.  

There was basically no diagnosis (his ears were perfect!)…the doctor suggested that it might be a stomach bug, and said that something has been going around.  And, in fact, I was knocked down by a 24-hour stomach thing from Saturday morning until Sunday morning of this past weekend…maybe I passed that along (sorry, kiddo…that wasn’t pleasant).  But when Amanda brought Austin home, he was happy as a clam.  He ate his evening bottle just fine, he was giggling incessantly at Amanda who was making silly faces, and there was no further crying.  Now, he’s in his bed and sleeping well.  I’ll keep him home from school tomorrow and watch him…I’m crossing my fingers that it’s just a healthy fun day for me and my boy.  Maybe we’ll pop in to JPL and showcase our health to my colleagues.  

I’ve also been meaning to note that we have never given Austin any oral medication.  No Tylenol for fever or teething, no antibiotics, no laxatives, nothing.  We’ve used some antibiotic ointment on his eye, but he has really been very healthy.  We’re happy for that, and hope that he has really weathered this first fever so easily.