looking for fever remedies?

Yesterday Mac got off the school van and said his stomach hurt. I chalked it up to riding backwards on the van (since Tuesday he's been sitting on the front seat which faces backwards). But he was very lethargic for the rest of the afternoon and just laid on the den carpet with the space heater blowing right on him for hours. About 6pm, he said he had a terrible headache which he's never ever said he had.

I immediately jumped from carsickness to meningitis because that's how I operate.

A nurse friend in SC fortuitously called as I was mentally preparing for Mac to have the spinal fluid drawn for the meningitis test and she talked me off the ledge.

I dosed up him with some Tylenol and then Advil before bed and let him sleep with me (Jimmy's in the US right now which is another reason I was sure we'd have a major catastrophe) so I could wake up every hour to lay my hand on his forehead to check for fever and to see if it looked like he was sleeping with a stiff neck.

Needless to say, neither of us slept well.

When the alarm clock went off at 5:30am, he said his stomach only felt a little funny and his head didn't hurt, so I thought we were all set to get ready for school. Then I felt his head and checked his temperature with the thermometer and he had a 102 fever.

He's been dosed with more Tylenol which, of course, means that right now, he's acting perfectly fine and healthy.

So Ruth arrived a little while ago to work and she was all very Latin American motherly about having a sick child. Pobrecito this and bebe that. You get the picture. That level of sentimentality isn't in my nature, especially for a little viral illness.

I told her I was giving him medicine to keep the fever down and she told me she really didn't like to take medicines and preferred to use things she had around the house to reduce fevers.

Would you like to know what I've learned as possible methods of fever reduction?

1. Dab some white vinegar under each armpit.
2. Dab some alcohol under each armpit.

and my personal favorite:

3. Slit a long green onion down the middle to open it up and press it against the bottom of each foot. You can also slide a sock on to keep the green onion in place.

I listened and was quite interested, but I think I'm just going to stick with the plain old Junior Chewables Tylenol for now as they seem to be working.