Today we took Ethan to the ER at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. His fever kept rising and wasn’t responding well to Tylenol (unless we combined with Motrin). If we gave him both Tylenol and Motrin, the fever would go down, but as soon as one of the medications wore off, it was up to 103 again. To me and Aaron, 103 seemed like a scary high fever, so we called the pediatrician this morning, and she said we should take him to the ER to be evaluated. He didn’t really have any other symptoms – no runny/stuff nose, no coughing or trouble breathing, etc. We weren’t scared for his life or anything, but we didn’t want to wait until the fever hit 104 or greater before we took him in.

The doctor saw him quickly when we arrived at the ER. They took urine and blood samples for testing, but the results came back clean. The doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with him at all, except for the mysterious fever (and the mild crabbiness and fatigue to accompany it). She was very nice, but explained that 103 in a baby his age isn’t very high. Its not even considered a fever unless it is 100.7 or higher. She said a fever becomes scary when its over 105, but even then, its not a concern for seizures or brain damage unless its 106/107 or higher. So we were being overly cautious, but she said that is our job as parents. Better to be safe than sorry. Aaron thought we were being overly cautious since Ethan didn’t seem like he was sick and didn’t have any other symptoms, but he wasn’t going to argue with me and tell me going to the ER was a bad idea. I’m glad that it was nothing.

They are going to do cultures on his blood and urine, and if any bacterial infections show up, they will call us.

The doctor said that it could be due to teething. 103 is a bit high for a fever due to teething, but its not unheard of. Teething is at least part of his problem. His top gums are extremely swollen and purple today, and you can tell that it is hurting him a lot. He has bitten me many times today while nursing, and it HURTS. We have given him a cool washcloth to chew on, and even that seems to hurt him. He has lots of chilled teething rings, barley teething biscuits, and cold washcloths to help him out.