There are 2 studies about fever that ought to catch everyone's, especially every parent's, attention. But if you missed them and you're now getting hot under the collar wondering what was in them, let me quickly lower your temperatures by telling you. First, you know how every parent today figures that a temperature rise of 0.0000005 degrees in their little darling is cause for an instant phone call to the doctor - even at 4 am - as well as for putting the little bundle on round-the-clock acetaminophen to reduce his fever?

According to a study published in the journal Pharmacotherapy, however, if Bundle's temperature rise is due to the flu, giving him antifever medications may actually keep him sick longer. In this study, volunteers were infected with several different kinds of infections including influenza A. Some volunteers were then given antipyretic pills to lower their fevers (either acetaminophen or aspirin), while others were put on my mom's preferred anti-everything regime: they were given a stern lecture to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to write their mothers more often, and told to tough it out.

The surprise is that flu victims taking antipyretics were sick longer than those who took no pills. In fact, the more antipyretics volunteers took, the longer they were ill. Why? One possible explanation is that for still undetermined reasons, taking an antipyretic prolongs some infections, especially the flu, a possibility that really appeals to those of us who believe that you develop a fever to help you fight an infection, and that automatically lowering a fever during an infection is not a smart thing to do.

Now, this study was done on adults, and results may be different in kids. Also, some fevers can cause problems by leading to fluid and electrolyte loss and to excess fatigue; in some kids fevers can lead to convulsions; and at very high levels, a fever may even be dangerous. So, some fevers should be lowered, but these findings argue that you should avoid treating every temperature rise with medication.

In another study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers measured the temperatures and examined the gums of 21 young kids. They then correlated any symptoms these kids may have been having, symptoms such as crying for no apparent reason, drooling, and fever - the kind of symptoms, in other words, we often attribute to "teething" - and what they found is that a child's temperature was the same on each of the 5 days before a tooth erupted. That is, teething doesn't produce a fever.

They also found that teething didn't lead to any of the other symptoms mentioned earlier, although as the parent of a young son who cried endlessly for the first several months of his life, I must say that I prefer to believe his tears were due to teething (or colic), and not, as some had it, my parenting skills. As for his mom's parenting skills causing him to cry so much, I better not comment on that. She proofreads all these items.