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I don't agree with your advice about Tylenol, it has zero medical benefit.

Lowering fevers is not necessary in any way, does not protect, it does not help heal, the best you could say is maybe it makes a baby (and child) a bit more comfortable. But in exchange the illness lasts a little bit longer.

And this is not my personal opinion, this is what the best available studies say: fever reducers have no medical value.



It’s more about helping them sleep and stop crying.


For most illnesses, you are correct, reducing a fever is unnecessary. However infants and toddlers are at risk for febrile seizures should their temperature increase too high, too quickly. In those scenarios (fast rising temp) there is considerable medical benefit to intervention.


What you write is commonly believed, but not actually true. There is no medical benefit to intervention:

"The most consistently identified serious concern of caregivers and health care providers is that high fevers, if left untreated, are associated with seizures, brain damage, and death. It is argued that by creating undue concern over these presumed risks of fever, for which there is no clearly established relationship,"

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/127/3/e20103...


Can you link to some of these studies? This medical advice you are dispensing online disagrees with what I've been told by doctors and nurses.

Also not sure if you have a kid but I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that making a sick infant comfortable is not worthwhile.


Here: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/127/3/e20103...

"It should be emphasized that fever is not an illness but is, in fact, a physiologic mechanism that has beneficial effects in fighting infection"

"and limited data have revealed that fever actually helps the body recover more quickly from viral infections, although the fever may result in discomfort in children."

"There is no evidence that children with fever, as opposed to hyperthermia, are at increased risk of adverse outcomes such as brain damage."

> that making a sick infant comfortable is not worthwhile.

Keep in mind in exchange the illness last longer. There are other ways to make a sick infant comfortable. You nurse them, you hold them, a cool cloth on the forehead helps a lot. Some babies like the vibration of a car ride, parents usually know what makes their baby happy - the hard part typically is finding time to focus on doing that. Obviously it's easier if they sleep in their crib (and for some parents that's the best option).

But what you should NOT do is think "My baby is sick I have to give the baby Tylenol!" You don't. (I've even seem parents wake their baby because it was time for the next dose!) A bit to help with comfort? OK. But the main thing is don't think you are treating their illness.


In my experience, sick babies do not want to sleep in their crib. Nor in the car. They would be frightened and uncomfortable and want to be held.

Tylenol is not for treating the illness. Maybe the parents you're referring to don't know what it does. It is meant for decreasing the intensity of the symptoms. One of those symptoms could be a fever and potentially the body aches that come with that. But then you have to define the word "fever".

Giving the baby Tylenol as you're describing is probably not a good idea. Using it as the tool it is meant to be I would say is.


I have never understood the parents who recommended the car as a way to get the kid to sleep. In my experience there is no better way to make the kid start screaming than strapping them into the car seat harness.




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