Have No Fear — Fever Phobia Is Still Here!

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Given the efforts to educate our families that fever by itself is not a disease, and even enhances one’s ability to fight off infection, one might think that parental fear of their young (or even older) child having a fever is no longer as substantive as it was several decades ago when the term “fever phobia” was coined by Dr. Barton Schmitt. Unfortunately, this may not be the case, based on a recent survey by Enarson et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2140) of approximately 800 families in Edmonton, Canada. Almost three quarters of the parents surveyed think fever by itself is dangerous, with febrile seizures also remaining a key concern. A point of optimism is the low percentage of parents who expect antibiotics when their child has a fever. There are a lot of myths that still need to be busted about fevers based on the data in this article, and hopefully by reading it, you can begin to cool down the concerns parents continue to have about this hot topic.