Jennifer Shu pediatrician
To avoid fever-reducing medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen – or when you just don't have any handy – you can try a non-medical approach to lowering your child's fever.
Reducing your child's fever doesn't help to cure the underlying illness or problem. (And a fever can actually help your child's body fight off an infection.) But if a temperature climbs high enough to make your child really uncomfortable or dehydrated, lowering the fever can help.
Here are some methods to try:
Call the doctor right away if your child is younger than 3 months old and has a fever. For a baby 3 to 5 months old, call the doctor if her temperature reaches 101 degrees or higher. Once she's 6 months old, call if her fever reaches 102 degrees or more.
No matter your child's age, call the doctor if she has a fever along with other serious symptoms, like difficulty breathing or purple spots on her skin. These can be a sign of a serious bacterial infection.
To help your child with cold and flu symptoms other than fever, check out our list of 11 safe home remedies for soothing a sick child.