Lisa,

Although a mild fever can be beneficial since it helps to activate the immune system and inhibits the reproduction of many pathogens, a fever of 40C (104F) is dangerous for a child and especially dangerous for a child with CAH. Your first priority is to get his fever down and keep him from going into an adrenal crisis

I doubt the hydrocortisone is contributing to the problem unless Jesse is greatly oversupressed. Chronic and excessive dosing with glucocorticoids may suppress the immune system. I suspect that overuse of antibiotics is a strong contributing factor to his problems. First of all, antibiotics are useless against viral illness. Second, if used indiscriminately, antibiotics can wipe out most of the beneficial bacteria (most bacteria are actually beneficial) and leave only the strongest and often most virulent bacteria to take over. http://www.microbe.org/news/contributors.asp

Of all the items Jesse has had: 5 colds, bronchitis, hand foot & mouth disease and 2 cases of tonsillitis, not a single one can be unequivocally attributed to a bacterial infection. Colds are caused by viruses, bronchitis simply means an inflammation of the bronchi and may be of either viral or bacterial origin. Hand, foot and mouth disease is caused by enteroviruses and finally, tonsillitis simply means there is an inflammation of the tonsils which are part of the immune system.

So if antibiotics are not the solution and may actually be part of the problem what can you do? For those illnesses for which there is no magic cure you have to depend on the power of Jesse’s own immune system to fight the infection. Your job is to help him build a strong immune system. To do that he needs nutritious food, exercise and plenty of restful sleep. Since most of the food in the industrialized world is grown on soil that may be deficient in important trace elements, I also recommend a good children’s vitamin and mineral supplement.

I hope this helps.

Joan