That Next Febrile Infant Could Be Perfectly Fine—or Not. New Guidelines May Help You Get It Right

A couple you’ve never encountered before come in with their 10-week-old baby. They’re first-time parents who are very nervous because their pride and joy has a fever of 102 and their pediatrician’s office is closed. The child appears to be fine otherwise to you, but now you’re nervous about attributing the fever to an unnamed, run-of-the-mill virus or dismissing it as just one of those things infants experience. New guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, distilled into a new article published by JAMA Pediatrics, offer evidence-based guidance that may help ease your mind. Major recommendations distinguish between approaches for the very young (8 to 21 days of age) and “older” infants up to 60 days old. The article also evaluates the relative merits of various recommendations, as well as addressing practical questions regarding the ease or difficulty of implementing them. For something a little more urgent care-specific, try reading the JUCM articles Approach to Fever and Drooling in Infants and Toddlers and An Age-Based Approach to Fever of Uncertain Origin in the Pediatric Patient.