Recently, I received a written feedback regarding our mailing about degree° in that the following statement was written:
“I would give children who already suffered from a febrile seizure bountiful antipyretic medication and additionally drugs that reduce seizures as soon as they catch an infect.”
Now this is probably a very individual decision!
I, for my part, don´t want to drug up my child to the eyeballs every time it has an infect! This might be not the mainstream parenting, but for me to administer medicine is the last action I take. Because drugs always have some side effects. Always!
Here I see one key argument for degree°, namely that I exactly see how the fever goes up or down and I can be certain that it is enough to apply e.g. calf wraps. Because I see exactly what´s happening when I apply them or anything else.
So the feedback continued like this:
“And after I gave my child the medication I can check the effect by simply lying my hand on its forehead.”
Don´t get me wrong! I use my hand, too, to check if I think that my child has a temperature. That´s the first thing I do. But then, if I think that my child is warm I get the thermometer and take the temperature! Because I want to know how high the temperature is! And I also want to know what the exact effect of some action I took was and how long it took that I saw something at all! I can see this with degree°! But I can´t feel that with my hand and I also can´t see it with a usual thermometer (Except, if I am taking the temperature every minute. But I don´t.).
Seeing the exact temperature curve empowers me to choose the right treatment for my child. It gives me certainty that I do the right thing!
