Fevers, Children & Chiropractic
On Sunday while I was in New Hampshire, my son Alex woke up with a high fever and was a unhappy, lethargic little boy. He spent the morning just lying on my shoulder, or with my sister holding him. He was burning hot with the fever — getting up to 103.2 degrees.
Since we were scheduled to fly back to Atlanta that afternoon, I contemplated what to do. Should I really bring him on an airplane or just stay up north one more day? My sister suggested I give him Children’s Tylenol to bring down the fever, which she said would “get him up and running around”. However, did I really want him up and running around, or did I want his body to do what it had to do and heal whatever was going on? Once that Tylenol wore off, wouldn’t he be lethargic and feverish again?
I made a few phone calls and was able to delay my flight home until Monday morning. I adjusted hiim and spent the afternoon snuggling with him, when he wasn’t being held by my sister. I trusted that his body was doing what it needed to do to get rid of the fever. Yes, I could have given him medicine to bring down the fever, but my main interest was getting rid of his problem and I trusted that his body could do that without any help from the outside. If medicine got rid of the fever, that was just getting rid of the symptom and wasn’t getting rid of the problem.
I checked in on him in the middle of the night and felt him finally cooled off. I knew that the fever was gone and he’d be fine by morning. Sure enough, when he woke up on Monday he was his happy, ‘ole self, and we were able to fly back on Monday without complication.
Please remember that fevers are a good thing — its the body’s way of killing off whatever is going on, and while medicine may bring down a fever, it doesn’t do anything to get rid of the problem. Trust the fact that the body has an amazing ability to heal itself. The next time your child has a fever, make sure they get adjusted as soon as possible to facilitate the healing process, don’t interfere with the healing by giving medicine and trust that the body will heal itself.
