Let the Body Learn from Fever
Conrad Ho
In and before 2002, Yu Sum had had quite some incidents of fever, with high points at 1040F. He was not even 2 years old then. Of course, we brought him to a doctor of mainstream western medicine right away just to make sure. He would be fed with all kinds of drugs until all symptoms were gone.
In 2003, Yu Sum got fever 2 times, highest at 104.50F. Both happened when the parents were out of town. Both had no other apparent symptoms. The doctor treated it as common flu. The drugs given were antipyretic plus antibiotics. His temperatures were 1010F during daytime and would went down to 990-1000F after taking oral antipyretic. During night-time, it would hover around 1040F and could be lowered to 1000-1010F only after taking rectal antipyretic. It would shoot up again after 4-6 hours.
I was told that the homeostasis of babies were not too stable. Each mechanism as a check and balance of other mechanisms was still in a developmental stage. Taking antipyretic after the relatively safe level of 1010F was to give time to the body to be trained up to initiate and control fever. With this rationale behind, we began in 2003 to first bathe him in water of 950F when his temperature soared above 1010F. If it went beyond the safety level again after the bath, then, we would give him medicine.
Up till end of April 2004, Yu Sum had fever twice already. The first time was really high, around 104.50F. He was whispering nonsense in bed. Some bright red rash appeared around joint areas. Even rectal antipyretic had limited effects and we had to keep him in water, too, to cool him down. When the sickness went more stable, with temperature dropped under 1040F, we brought him to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. On top of antipyretic from western medicine, he gave him some herbal medicines for eliminating internal “heat”. In this way, he would not have high fever so readily.
After taking the herbs, the rash went crazy all over the body and Yu Sum scratched his skin till blood came out. The temperature remained high, though no more nonsense was heard. A few days went by and the rash, the itches and the temperatures subsided. The internal “heat” was leaving the body. Then, we changed to a homeopath for even less biochemical interventionist treatment, to maximize the learning opportunity for Yu Sum’s body.
In April 2004, the whole family went to Northern Guangdong to trek in the mountains. Yu Sum caught a cold but we did not have any medicine. We were forced to let his body do whatever it could to deal with the situation. We could only estimate that his temperature had reached 1020F because we had no thermometer either. Maybe due to the “training”, he fully recovered by the end of the second day. This was exceptional as his fever usually lasted for 8-10 days with high points minimum at 1040F.