Question
When my baby, who is nine months old, keeps having a fever that doesn’t go away, it has happened once before. The fever lasted for several days, and after a day of intravenous fluids, it improved. I need assistance in understanding the cause, whether I should continue to give fever-reducing medication, and whether I need to administer intravenous fluids again.
Answer
A routine blood test can be conducted to confirm whether the fever is caused by bacterial or viral infection and to proceed with symptomatic treatment accordingly. Treatment should primarily involve antibiotics, as simply using fever-reducing medication only addresses the symptom without curing the root cause. If the body temperature is very high, oral fever-reducing medication or the use of naproxen and other antipyretic drugs can be considered, along with drinking plenty of water and adopting physical cooling methods to help the body recover.