pediatric fever/septic workup

[asapstat]

What are your "age guidelines" for pediatric fever workups? I always thought the "fever >101 and under 6 months of age " was the criteria for complete workup.ie blood/culture/urine etc...ER MD told me it is now considered only for under 8 weeks as "mandatory"...what is your practice/protocol ???

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

We use 0-30 days with documented rectal temp of 100.4 or higher - gets the full work-up including LP, cultures, CXR. Nowadays if they are older than 30 days (full-term birth) then we do it case by case.

[newfloridaRN]

we usually do a case by case... but under 3 months old gets brought back RIGHT away.. no waiting in the lobby for newborns with fevers.

[Darlene K.]

Infants 0 to 2 months with a rectal temp 100 or greater gets a full septic w/u. CBC, B/C, CMP, cath U/A, and L/P if all labs are WNL.

[Darlene K.]

Infants 0 to 2 months with a rectal temp 100 or greater gets a full septic w/u. CBC, B/C, CMP, cath U/A, and L/P if all labs are WNL.

[TraumaInTheSlot]

ive seen it go as high as one year, but only if the doctors cant find a source of the fever. if the kid has a fever and they find a blazing ear infection, then they wont do a sepsis workup, unless the child is not vaccinated.

[TraumaInTheSlot]

ive seen it go as high as one year, but only if the doctors cant find a source of the fever. if the kid has a fever and they find a blazing ear infection, then they wont do a sepsis workup, unless the child is not vaccinated.