Hi Natalie,

My 4 yr old SWCAH son has had a couple of viruses that seem to linger with fluctuating temperatures. I’ve found that he "rides out " the bug with extra hydrocortisone (usually just double doses for a couple of days). If your daughter has a virus, then the antibiotics will not touch the bug. The extra medications of antibiotics, cough medicine and probably Tylenol can all interfere will the body’s own immune system, so that viral infections sometimes will take a couple of days longer to recover from. This happens in particular with fever reducing medications. Viruses usually prefer lower temperatures to thrive in the body, so our bodies naturally increase their temperatures (what we call a fever) to disable the virus. When we use medicine such as Tylenol to reduce the fever, we are reducing the body’s ability to fight the virus, so the infection often lasts a few extra days.

I hope your daughter is feeling better. Its always a little scary when our children are sick. Take care - Jill T