Fever Phobia

Peanut's had a cough for the last couple of days. It hasn't been too frequent, he's had no other symptoms and he's been acting normal.

Then, this morning, he started running a low grade fever.

Great.

Fevers for me make me question every little thing about my kids' behavior, attitude, activity level, food consumption, etc... I think it stems back to my parents typically taking the line that you're fine unless you have a fever. So when my kids have a fever, I tend to think, oops, something must be WRONG. I do this with myself as well and am constantly asking the hubby to check and see if I feel warm when I've got a bug. And, probably 90 percent of the time, I don't.

Most of my fever paranoia was dissipated during Peanut's toddlerhood. He was constantly coming down with mystery fevers that had no other symptoms. He was once diagnosed with a "fever virus," whatever the heck that is. During that time period, my pediatrician comforted me with the wisdom that a fever means a body is fighting something, it's a good sign and is not, in and of itself, cause for worry.

So, this morning, armed with the knowledge that my kid's fever was only in the low 99s, I put him in his swim suit and took him to swim lessons.

Does this make me a bad mom?

All I know is that he was acting fine, wanted to go and actually did great during his swim lessons. To make myself feel better, I did speak to the nurses line at my pediatrician's office later and they think it sounds like a tiny cold and unless he's at 101 for 3 days in a row, we're doctor's-office-visit free.

Meanwhile, I'm restraining myself from checking his head too often and whipping out the thermometer too many times. The last thing I want is to give him the idea, by asking too many times how he feels, that he can use that as a ploy to get out of stuff in the future.

It's bad enough kids are like petri dishes passing along all their germs, I don't need to add to the equation by passing along my own phobias.

And yes, Y parents, barring any increase in symptoms and/or fever, we'll be back in the pool tomorrow. After all, he probably caught it from one of your kids anyway.