Is 37.4 degrees considered a fever?

Everyone who has children at home knows that babies are very prone to fever, especially when seasons change. If the baby is not taken care of carefully, it will easily lead to a fever. When the baby has a fever, parents should be able to measure the baby's body temperature in time. Some parents reported that their children had a fever, took some medicine, and the temperature went down, but it was still 37.4 degrees. So is 37.4 degrees considered a fever?

If the baby has a fever, parents will be very anxious and don’t know what to do. Sometimes they will give the child some medicine to lower the temperature, but some babies’ temperatures will still remain at 37.4. But is 37.4 degrees considered a fever? Many parents want to know.

Is 37.4 degrees considered a fever? Generally speaking, a child's body temperature is normal between 36.2℃ and 38℃. General definition: Fever is defined as rectal temperature above 37.8℃, oral temperature above 37.3℃, and axillary temperature above 36.8℃.

The correct way to measure your baby's temperature is to measure it under the armpit for 10 minutes, then take it out and read it. The normal basal body temperature of children is 36.9℃-37.5℃. Generally, when the body temperature exceeds the basal body temperature by more than 1°C, it is considered a fever. Among them, low fever refers to body temperature fluctuating around 38°C, and high fever refers to body temperature above 39°C. Continuous fever for more than two weeks is called long-term fever.

The above-mentioned basal body temperature refers to the rectal temperature, which is measured from the anus. Generally, the oral temperature is 0.3℃-0.5℃ lower than the rectal temperature, and the axillary temperature is 0.3℃-0.5℃ lower than the oral temperature. In the hot summer, the temperature is very high and the baby's ability to regulate its own body temperature is poor. When the mother holds the baby, the heat is not easy to dissipate, causing the body temperature to rise. However, this kind of fever usually does not last too long. Put the child in a cool place, give the child some cool fruit juice, or give the child a warm bath, and the body temperature will return to normal after a few hours.

When a baby has a cold and fever, the first symptoms are a shortened tongue, red tongue, less tongue coating, or even if there is tongue coating, it is scant and dry. If the body temperature is high and the tongue is crimson, it means that the baby is suffering from severe heat damage and loss of body fluids, so the baby will often take the initiative to ask for water. If accompanied by dry stool, there will often be a foul odor in the mouth. This situation often occurs in the early stages of upper respiratory tract infection or infectious diseases, and mothers should pay attention to it.

Babies with severe fever may have thick red thorns on their tongue, just like the bayberries on the market. This type of bayberry tongue is more common in babies with scarlet fever or Kawasaki disease.

There is a thick layer of yellow-white scale on the tongue, indicating milk and food stagnation. When the baby eats too much, or eats too much greasy food, and the spleen and stomach digestion function becomes worse, he or she will often show symptoms of bloating, pain, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and in severe cases, vomiting. The vomit is the food eaten the day before that has not been digested, and it has a sour and smelly smell. If you observe the baby's tongue at this time, you can see a thick layer of yellow-white dirt on the tongue. The tongue coating is sticky and not easy to scrape off. At the same time, there will be a sour and smelly smell in the mouth.

A mottled and uneven tongue like a map indicates digestive dysfunction or a long-term illness. Geographic tongue refers to a pale tongue with one or more peeling tongue coating. The edges of the peeling are high and protruding like a frame, shaped like a map. There will be discomfort or slight pain when eating hot porridge. Geographic tongue is generally seen in digestive dysfunction, or the baby has been ill for a long time, which causes damage to both the Qi and Yin in the body. Babies with geographic tongue tend to be picky eaters, have a partial diet, love cold drinks, have unstable sleep, and kick the quilt randomly. Smaller babies are prone to crying, hot flashes and sweating, sallow and dull complexion, weakness and thinness, fear of cold, and hot palms.

A smooth tongue without coating indicates a weak constitution. Some babies who often have fever, repeated colds, poor appetite or chronic diarrhea will have a crimson tongue like fresh meat, with all the tongue coating falling off and the tongue surface smooth like a mirror. Medically, this is called a mirror red tongue. Babies with mirror tongue often have symptoms such as loss of appetite, dry mouth and frequent drinking, or abdominal distension.

Parents should be able to observe the baby's fever in time. If the baby has a fever, he should take some medicine in time. The baby will still have some discomfort symptoms when he has a fever, and careful parents can find out. Is 37.4 considered a fever? Through the above introduction, we know that the body temperature is normal between 36.2℃-38℃, so don't worry.