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If my 5 year old child have fever, should I wait 48 hours before I give him antibiotics?
Feb 9, 2013

Dr. Ivana Dabaj Pediatric Neurology
Usually a viral infection causes fever that starts to decrease after 48 hrs. So after 48 hrs he will still have fever but either the frequency decrease (so for example instead of having 39 every 4 h it will be every 8 hrs) and/or it will decrease in intensity (so instead of 39 it will be 38.5 or less). After 48 hrs of giving only anti-pyretics (medication to decrease fever) you should take your child to your doctor and he might give him antibiotics if necessary but it can always be viral and he might not prescribe antibiotics. It all depends on the physical exam.
If your child has fever but he is ill looking, sleeping a lot, vomiting a lot, and you feel he is not doing well you should directly take him to the Dr.
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