Fever Takes a Bath

How to bring down a child's temperature

(HealthDayNews) -- When your baby has a fever, there are two traditional ways to bring down his or her temperature: with a tepid sponge bath or with medicine.

Researchers at the University of Arizona studied which way worked best.

As reported in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, they treated 20 infants who had fevers. All the infants got a dose of acetaminophen, but half also were given a sponge bath.

The babies were monitored, both to see how feverish they were, and if they showed signs of discomfort -- crying, shivering or goose bumps.

In favor of sponge baths: the fever went down faster in the first hour. Against sponge baths: the babies showed a lot more signs of discomfort.

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