Treating a Fever Naturally
Even though many physicians routinely suggest giving over-the-counter meds like Tylenol to bring down a fever, the body’s defense system remains inactive when the fever is artificially suppressed. This means that treating a fever with acetaminophen (Tylenol) may actually lengthen the illness!
Many parents don’t understand that the fever is generally not ‘the illness’, but the body proactively going on the offensive against the illness. Among other things, the body uses fever to mobilize the body’s immune system, and to literally attack pathogens, which do not thrive in hot environments. And so, routinely lowering your child’s every fever is literally hampering their body’s effort to overcome the illness. When the fever is instead monitored while it is allowed to fight the disease at hand, it mobilizes the body’s immune system. This is also believed to have potential long-range benefits for the immune system.
Most important is “How does your child seem to you? How are they acting?”
In an adult, the level of the fever generally reflects the severity of the illness causing it. This may not be the case with a child; in fact, it could be the opposite - very small children may have their temperature drop below normal when they are very sick.
That said, there are times when it is judicious to lower a very high fever, or when as parents we’ve reached our threshold of feeling safe. Times like that in our family have included when I was still newly postpartum with #2, and just too exhausted to manage a very hot restless toddler who was prone to febrile convulsions. Another time the first grader and his dad were both steaming with high fevers, unable to fall asleep in the wee hours, sleep which we all desperately needed…
Luckily there are natural approaches that help the body with its heat without nullifying the fever benefits. The following technique, lemon leg wraps, is astounding. I’ve used them four times, each time with the miserable individual falling asleep in relief nearly instantaneously. In the case of the hot dad (so to speak LOL), it worked for a few hours, and then the fever surged again and I did the wraps a second time. He woke feeling spent, as adults do from high fevers, but the fever had broken and he was on the mend. This recipe is one of several reasons that I recommend to all my clients that they always have a few lemons in the refrigerator drawer. You never know when you’ll need lemon leg wraps, but I guarantee it’s nearly always when all the stores are closed!
I’d love to hear from you when you try these, and to see pictures of the your wraps!
Of course, always check in with a trusted advisor if you feel unsure, or out of your depth. As always, I am charging you to use common sense, to not ignore concerning signs in a sick child, and to seek medical care when appropriate.