To help understand the purpose of a fever I want you to think about the last time you went camping in the woods. Think about what you had to do to the water before it was safe to drink. I hope you BOILED IT! Why did you boil the water? To kill off viruses and bacteria. Viruses can only survive and thrive in certain temperature ranges, so when the temperature goes up they start to die off. That's why your body develops a fever; to kill off viruses and bacteria because they cannot survive in an inhospitable environment.

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Benefits of Fever in Nepean:

• Stimulates the immune system, more antibodies that attack the exact type of invader that your body is suffering from
• Increases interferon production, blocks the spread to healthy cells

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Fever facts:

A temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is not the normal temperature for everyone. That's what most of us have been led to believe but that's merely a statistical average, so "normal" for most can be a bit higher or lower.

The fevers you should be worried about are from an obvious cause.

Most serious fevers come from things like being outside in the heat to long causing heatstroke, poisoning due to something toxic or foreign in your body.

Many fevers are bacterial or viral infections that the body's own defense mechanism will handle without the need for any medical help.

Untreated fevers caused by viral or bacterial infections do not rise inexplicably and will not exceed 105 degrees.

The fear here especially for parents is that the fever will continue to rise. The body is so amazing that other than cases of heatstroke, poisoning or other external causes of fever that your body with an infection-induced fever will prevent the fever from reaching 106 degrees.

Doing things to bring the temperature down by sponging or medications is actually counterproductive.

When you have an infection, think of the fever as a helping agent, not a curse. Your body releases pyrogen that increases the temperature to help your body fight. So, when we artificially reduce the fever in ourselves or our children, we will feel more comfortable, but we end up interfering with the body's own healing ability. Further concerns of too high a fever can be of febrile seizures, which are VERY scary, especially in a child. The good news is they are relatively uncommon, one study showed 1706 children who suffered febrile convulsions failed to disclose a single death or defects.

Is there a time that fever needs some medical attention? Absolutely!

Listed below are instances where you should seek medical attention:

• Infants 1-3 months with a temperature greater than 38 degrees Celsius
• Child has fever for more than 3 days
• Child not playing, very lethargic not responding
• There is also a rash
• Being dehydrated - not having any urine output.