Low grade fevers for one or two days....pattern

[Cristo]

I'm just wondering if anyone else has a child who ends up having short low grade fevers..often enough to notice...that go away and then return. For example...one day there is a low grade fever, throughout the night too, the next day there really isn't anything when the child wakes up, but at lunch, there is a low grade fever, then after school it is low, then it goes away, then at night the child has a low grade fever, and then it goes away. The following day it isn't there, until the night. Then nothing for one day. What is that kind of stuff?

[LNN]

DS used to have periodic fevers. Motrin would bring it down within 15 minutes, Tylenol would have no impact. Once the fever lasted steadily for 5 days, only dropping after Motrin. Other times, we'd go months, then a fever all of a sudden at 5pm, give motrin, 30 minutes later it would be gone for good.

 

The Pandas docs and our pediatrician never had an answer to this one. Our LLMD just nodded his head. Apparently it's a common lyme symptom. Not saying this is the cause in your case. Just passing along our experience for whatever it's worth (DS likely has/had both Pandas and Lyme - not sure which came first).

[Worried_Dad]

Our ds had this, too, when he first became ill, before we had a diagnosis and got him on abx. In his case, we think he had an unresolved strep infection causing the intermittent low-grade fevers. For him, those fever spikes have vanished on long-term augmentin XR.

[butterflymom]

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Edited February 2, 2016 by tampicc

[Cristo]

My husband has had intermittent low grade fevers, and he has lyme. I also believe it is possible to have a low grade fever for a few days with a minor virus. I would watch it for a week and see if it goes away.

 

Do pediatrician's test for lyme? Do I just ask for the test? HOw do I ensure that they will do the test? I read somewhere on this forum that someone asked their doctor to test their child, and the doctor said that their state didn't have lyme disease. I live in Ontario Canada.

[smartyjones]

my son would have random fevers and/or vomiting. it may have been once every 4-6 months or so. at the time, we thought that was just how his body handled whatever it had been exposed to.

 

he did have confirmed strep at 22 months. i can't remember if the fevers were before or after that.

 

at pandas onset at age 4 1/2, he did have a positive throat culture. we've since discovered other infections, including lyme.

 

i don't think we'll know for sure what it was due to. he hasn't really had that type of fever or vomiting since first on abx for pandas almost 2 yrs ago. now, just my belief, but i think it was probably low grade infection of strep, lyme or something else was residing in his body, perhaps some other new infection pushed him over the edge and we saw a symptom.

[airial95]

Both of my kids have had this happen, although my non-PANDAS daughter gets this more often than my son. Our pediatrician explained it by saying that when there's a minor virus or bacterial infection, a low-grade fever is a sign that the immune system is fighting something, you may never get any other symptoms. It's just a sign that your body is working to fight something off.

[trggirl]

My daughter has had these since she was a baby. She still does. The doctor always brushed it off as nothing.

[smartyjones]

in a healthy child or a healthy child with no siblings with other issues such as pandas, i would still believe it is the body's natural defenses. in a child with pandas or even a sibling with pandas, i would take it as something to investigate further.

 

at the time, for my son, we didn't have any reason to investigate further b/c the fevers were short-lived and not too often. however, now i do think it was from an unresolved infection. perhpas his body was dong 'okay' except when encountering another virus or bacteria and then it would resolve 'enough' but not fully until it was just too much and then we saw big symptoms. i only think that in hindsight -- if he were healthy now but still had random fevers, we'd still think it was how his body handled what he encountered.

 

again -- this always brings me back to the same issue -- how far do you investigate? what can you really do without big symptoms? you can't always be jumping over every little thing. once you've ruled something out, you can't be jumping back to it. you have to on some level, treat what you see and investigate reasonably but there are so many possible bacteria and viruses. i do wish we could test for every possible thing but i also see that is unreasonable.

 

for us, we had clear strep indicators. however, he wasn't fully healing. that's why we investigated more and we did find more. is it just a case of 'the more we look, the more we find'? were those other infections at play in the symptoms we saw? or were they viruses and bacteria that all of us may have inhabiting us but don't so much cause trouble? were they infections that were not showing symptoms but were inhibiting kicking the bacteria that was causing symptoms? we'll never know. i find myself more and more of the camp of trying to ferret out all infections.

 

i still know it is far off, but it's my hope that there will be a protocol for extensive infection testing for pandas/pitand symptoms and for slight symptoms for siblings of diagnosed children.

[LNN]

Regarding your question about lyme testing - I'm not sure how it would work in Canada. Your best bet is to contact this group

http://www.canlyme.com/ontario.html

 

They should be able to give you more accurate information for your situation. In the US, a pediatrician can order a lyme test thru any number of labs, but most labs follow the guidelines for surveillance set by the Center for Disease Control, which is an extremely incomplete guideline. So many on this forum have worked with specialists who order lyme testing thru one of several specialty labs that use a more complete spectrum of testing.

 

You may also want to contact the author of this article or her doctor.

http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/tickingbombcanadalyme.html

 

Apparently, lyme isn't stopped by the border patrol and it is in Ontario.

[momcap]

Do pediatrician's test for lyme? Do I just ask for the test? HOw do I ensure that they will do the test? I read somewhere on this forum that someone asked their doctor to test their child, and the doctor said that their state didn't have lyme disease. I live in Ontario Canada.

 

I'm in Southwestern Ontario. Our pediatrician told me we don't have ticks anywhere near our area. But I know we do because I have picked them off my cat. And my Mom who lives north of Sault Ste. Marie found a tick attached to her leg a few years ago. They're everywhere. I asked my pediatrician to run the Western blot for lyme on my DS7. He agreed, but it was negative. From what I'm reading that doesn't mean anything. It is very common to get a false negative on the Western blot. So we paid a small fortune to send blood to a specialty lab in the U.S., using our naturopath's office. I'm still waiting on those results. If you need a LLMD in Ontario send me a PM and I'll pass on the info I have. Apparently there's a good one in the GTA. And if you want to PM me anyway to talk to another Canadian PANDAS Mom I would be happy to share my email and phone number. Good luck!

[SSS]

Read this old thread today. My dd6 has had low grade fevers since an infant, when they sent us to the hospital for all kinds of tests, which all came back normal.

Lately, the fevers have been more on my mind, because I am noticing 99.8 during the day, often I can get 98.1 when she first wakes up. For years, probably 75% of the time I take her temp., it is in the mid-high 90's, with no other symptoms of illness. And by on my mind, I mean obsessing about viral protocols, is it lyme? et al.

I have had sooo many blood tests on this child. They all come back normal (except CamK.) We are doing 'pretty good/okay' after our IVIG's, giving Azith. 2-3 times a week, high prophylatic dose.

My 'normal' friends say, ah, lots of people run this way- at a slightly higher temp.

We have an appt. tomorrow with a new Ped. I am going to bring it up, but, I refuse to put her through more repeat blood tests.

When do you say: Enough? When you run out of money? (lol, but, getting pretty darn close.) What is perfection? My dd6 has been 'chronic' with this thing, pandas, for years. Today, I can say, she is happier than I've seen her.

Yeah, we have some issues. Clothing OCD is wicked, but, she can clothe herself (in the same outfit, or gray pants only) to go out into the world. Does well at school. Things are much better at home.

I'm just musing here, but, really, I am driving myself insane, or so used to 'fix, fix, fix' I wonder if I really do know how to let go.

[trggirl]

I feel your pain S & S. My daughter has those 99.7 and 99.8 fevers often and I can just see it in her face that she's not quite herself. And the doc just refuses to believe it is anything at all. It's so frustrating because I am convinced it's a clue. Does your daughter ever have high Lymphocytes? We have them on most blood tests. Another clue! And the doc just says its not high enough to worry about. At what point is it high enough to worry about????

 

We also have the high Camk with normal antineuronal antibodies.

[beeskneesmommy]

My son, who has PANDAS and had many Strep Throat infections prior to having his tonsils out last Aug., would have this waxing and waning low grade fever often, with few or no other symptoms. It was typical that docs would brush it off, but when I insisted upon a Strep culture, it would almost always return as positive. Are you getting your child cultured or does your kiddo have other infections/illness driving the PANDAS?

 

In addition, it turned out that it may very well have been unresolved Strep infections, as his tonsil apparently had lots of crevices in which the Strep "hid", basically causing him to have constant Strep for years that changed its strength, but never left him.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Beeskneesmommy

[SSS]

My son, who has PANDAS and had many Strep Throat infections prior to having his tonsils out last Aug., would have this waxing and waning low grade fever often, with few or no other symptoms. It was typical that docs would brush it off, but when I insisted upon a Strep culture, it would almost always return as positive. Are you getting your child cultured or does your kiddo have other infections/illness driving the PANDAS?

 

In addition, it turned out that it may very well have been unresolved Strep infections, as his tonsil apparently had lots of crevices in which the Strep "hid", basically causing him to have constant Strep for years that changed its strength, but never left him.

 

 

Thank you for the replies. Yes, this is the million dollar magic question, isn't it, is there strep hiding?

We did have a ramp up of symptoms, but I double dosed her Azith. this morning, and the day today was much better. Before today, I tried OLE the previous 5 days: she flaired while on that. Won't be doing that again.

We meet with a new Ped. tomorrow. *sigh* should be interesting. I'll ask for a culture. She has been secluded (out of school since last IVIG) but my DS13 was hanging around for a day with a kid last week who came down with strep. The torture for me is if knowing what exactly is triggering these fevers...because I don't think it is her 'normal', since I get regular reading off her, too.

Thanks again.