*This post is sponsored by Children’s Advil. *
When your child comes down with a fever, do you ever feel like you’re just guessing when it comes to treating it? Well, you’re not alone.
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, the makers of Children’s Advil, recently conducted two surveys of more than 1,000 parents and 250 pediatricians nationwide and found that more than half of consumers (52%) report feeling anxious, fearful or helpless when their child comes down with a fever. In my experience, I just want to make my babies better, ASAP. I hate seeing them sick and feeling miserable (heck, I don’t like being sick myself, who does?)
The study found that there are many misperceptions among parents on how to properly treat and medicate their child’s fever.
- The overwhelming majority of pediatricians (94%) feel that their parent population needs more education on fever management. They consider parents to be either somewhat or not very knowledgeable.
- Almost half of pediatricians (44%) claim that they receive the most fever-related calls in January.
- One third of pediatricians estimate that up to half of their patient’s parents (26-50%) have taken their child to the emergency room due to a fever before calling them.
- Nearly three-quarters of pediatricians (72%) state that they often hear that parents send their children back to school or daycare less than 24 hours following their fever.
Almost half of the pediatricians survey reported that the greatest misunderstanding parents convey about fever is that all fever medication contains the same ingredients. For example, Children’s Advil, contain ibuprofen, the medicine pediatricians use more for their own kids’ fever.
There are some key tips for parents to remember when it comes to diagnosing and treating fevers:
- Always read and keep the cartons for complete warnings and dosing information on your child’s fever medication.
- Refer to and use only the dosing device and information that comes packaged with the medicine.
- If known, dose child based on weight, as this is the most appropriate method. If weight is not known, use age. Administer the appropriate does preferably based on the weight of the child.
- Adult strength medicines should not be administered to children.
For more information on treating children’s fevers and Children’s Advil, please visit: http://childrens.advil.com/
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