A baby brings joy and pleasure in the family. The new addition attracts everyone and keeps all enchanted with his babyishly innocent activities.  What’s more, every person from the household wants to either cuddle the baby or give him a peck. Due to this or other reasons, baby can catch infection and fall ill. When the newborn baby becomes feverish, the anxiety swells up manifold as the immunity of small infants is very low. In such circumstances, the first thing any parent would do is to get to the pediatrician.

Every parent should know what can be called as a fever in a baby. The normal body temperature in human beings is 98.6 F (37.0C). But in new born babies it can vary in the range of 2 F. If the temperature is above 100.4F then it can be said that the baby is having fever. Before consulting a doctor, there are some time tested traditional homely tricks to resolve newborn temperature issue which should be tried first.  Before going to the child specialist, you can always try these remedies and control the fever.

Homely tactics 

• First thing to do if your baby is having fever is to breast feed him more often as fever makes the baby lighter and reduces the fluid from his body. Also the mother’s milk provides more immunity to him and enhances his fighting capacity.
• Constantly sponge the body of the baby with towel wet in cold or chilled water.
• Keep ice packs on his forehead or even shower of cold water is advised in high fever.
• If the baby is taking other liquid diet apart from mother’s milk, then liquids with more sugar and salt content should be fed to the baby.
• Fruit juices (non bitter) in small quantity can also be given.
• During the fever the baby may start shivering. Cover his body with blanket and keep him warm. Over warming may result in perspiration and his fever will come down. After the fever has gone, remove the blanket.
• Do not let the baby exert too much as he has become weak due to fever. Keep him happy and clean as well as well fed.

If the fever still persists it is advisable that the doctor should be called. But during the waiting period, do not keep the baby lying down or alone. Instead, hold it upright so that the baby can relax and breathe evenly. Keep the baby in well ventilated room and put on loose clothes.

During high fever, there is possibility that the infant may vomit. So it’s necessary to hold the baby in proper position and tilt it when he vomits. All these methods are preliminary and instant action should be taken if the home cures do not work. The above tips are to be used at the initial stage for sure. But if the fever persists, you can continue the doctor’s prescribed medicine and the home cures simultaneously as these home remedies do not have any side effects.