Febrile Fits can scare the wits out of you !!!

On Saturday, Lucas was running a fever about 38.5 Deg C. at Granny's house. In fact that very morning we brought him to see his pediatrician. So we went thru the standard routine of giving him showers to cool him down and gave him the panadol syrup, thinking that it would do... We decided to go to IKEA for some window shopping and then head home around evening time.

At first Lucas was quite ok, jumping onto the rocking chair and fooling around. He even went down the lengthy staircase all by himself. At the 1st floor, we placed him onto the push trolley and wheeled him around. Then out of the blue, Lucas' head went falling to one side. Initially, Mummy still thought that Lucas was fooling around and tried to push his head back. But Daddy thought otherwise, because Lucas' face was pale and his eyes were starting to roll upwards.

Scared stiff in that split second, Daddy knew that Lucas was having a fit and he quickly lifted Lucas out of the trolley. Daddy could feel Lucas' whole body stiffening up and trembling. At the same time, Daddy placed his fingers into Lucas' mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue.

We placed Lucas down onto the floor(laying him by his side) and called out his name repeatedly. We kept talking to him "Lucas don't scare Mummy & Daddy ok? Wake up Wake up !!!" --------- Deep inside Daddy was praying to SOMEONE UP THERE "Pls help my son come to, I beg of you"

At the same time Mummy was constantly massaging Lucas limbs to get his blood flowing. Fortunately, after a good 3 minutes , Lucas finally came to but he was still feeling very weak. We dropped everything and head for KK Hospital straight away.

At the hospital, Lucas was admitted for observation because he has hit 39.9 Deg C. The doctor explained that what had happened was a term called "Febrile Fits" and it is pretty common for kids age 6 months - 6 years old to have such fits if their fever is too high i.e. more than 38.5 Deg C. Lucas was given panadol (insert into his behind ) and his temperature was monitored. After waiting for 2 hours, his temperature plummet to 36.5 Deg C.

Both of us have learnt valuable lessons from this episode -
a) That we should never take Kid's Fever for granted.
b) Do not panic! Lay the child on his side. Do not put your hand into his mouth as that might cause him to choke.
c) If the Febrile Fits persist for more than 15 minutes, call the Ambulance.
d) When we see our child suffering, we really wished we could take his place.

Phew... what a Saturday...