Still feverish, but down to 102. I can hear him tromping around in the other room right now. And he's eating again. Thanks. :)

Just wondering if this is an autistic thing, or just my boy. I think I read something that said something about brain swelling and high fevers in autistic. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience.

none of my kids ever had high fevers.

fp's two cents

No, my boy has never had a seizure. Turns out my NT daughter gets the crazy high fevers, too. My mother told me about a month ago that my sister and I used to get them, too, so it appears that they are probably genetic and having little or nothing to do with the autism specifically, except for the possible genetic correlation.

Nicole, so long as you're not giving him that level of meds all the time, you're surely not doing him any damage. My father-in-law is a pediatrician, and he has told us many times (when we've called in a panic over another fever) that when it's super high like that, it's perfectly acceptable to alternate Tylenol and Motrin every three hours for 24 hours, and even to make the first dose a double-dose. Of course, all subsequent doses should be regular doses, and if the medicine cannot bring the fever down to lower than 102 and/or the fever lasts longer than 24 house with no other clear signs of sickness, take the child to a doctor.

We've been tempted more than once to bring him to the emergency room, but my father-in-law tells us that that will only make matters worse, that if there are no seizures, ER docs will only do the same thing we can do at home, that is to hit him hard with a big dose of Motrin and give him a cool bath, but we'd have to do it in the discomfort and after the long wait of an ER.

One thing he always asks (again, when we call in a panic in the middle of the night) is whether they are able to touch their chins to their chests without apparent pain. One very serious childhood illness that is often accompanied by a sudden and extremely high fever is spinal meningitis, which can be fatal very quickly, but is quite rare. If they have the high fever and pain trying to touch their chin to their chests, that's one of the red flags.

What I have read about it, parents usually say that their child's stereotypic behaviors diminish when they are very ill or hospitalized for any reason. Some think this may have to do with diet or possibly the fever. Either way, my boy doesn't have a lot of stereotypic behaviors, mostly his autism is language and social-skills related, and he certainly doesn't gain any language or social skills when he has a high fever. Our daughter (who is neuro-typical) get the same crazy high fevers, and my mother has told me that my sister and I also did when we were younger, so I think this is just some genetic thing, probably completely unrelated to his autism. Just when you have an autistic kid, you wonder if every odd thing about them may be related to the autism, so I thought I'd ask some other folks.

there's the Augmentin (a powerful anti-biotic) theory.
Some think it brings autism on ...
My son took it once or twice unfortunately ...