FEVER IN CHILDREN

10.2 Yahswant R Gabhale, Nikita Shah, Mukesh Agrawal

Fever, the commonest problem in pediatric practice, is defined as the rise of body temperature over and above the normal range for age and diurnal variation. The upper limit of normal temperature is higher in newborns (38°C) and declines gradually with increasing age, till adult level (37.2°C) is achieved by puberty. Body temperature also shows a circadian or diurnal rhythm, being highest in afternoon and lowest in early morning. In practice, fever is defined as a rectal temperature gt;38°C (gt;100.4°F), roughly equivalent to oral temperature of 37.5°C or axillary temperature of 37.2°C fever exceeding 40°C (gt;104°F) is generally termed as hyperpyrexia.

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