Can alcohol reduce fever?

In real life, fever is a common condition, and there are many reasons for fever. It may be a symptom caused by a cold, or inflammation of a wound. If you have a fever, you can wipe it with alcohol. Alcohol has the effect of dissipating heat. When the human body has a fever, wiping it with alcohol can relieve the high fever.

Can alcohol reduce fever?

Wiping the body with alcohol when you have a high fever can dilate the blood vessels in the skin, increase the heat dissipation capacity, take away a large amount of heat, and relieve symptoms. But please pay attention to the following points when using it.

concentration. The ethanol concentration of medical alcohol is 75%. When you use it to wipe the body to cool down a high fever, it needs to be diluted to 25%-50%, which is roughly equal to one part of medical alcohol plus the same amount of water. Too high an alcohol concentration will not only irritate the skin, but also absorb a large amount of moisture from the epidermis.

temperature. When adding water, the water temperature should be slightly higher than body temperature. The principle is to test the water with the inside of your wrist and make sure it is not hot. The alcohol mixed in this way has a temperature close to body temperature, and will not cause discomfort due to being too cold, and it also avoids the alcohol evaporating too quickly due to the water temperature being too high.

gauze. When wiping, it is best to use a small piece of cotton gauze or handkerchief, which has good water absorption and moderate friction. Dip it in alcohol, wring it until half dry, and then wipe the body. If you don’t have gauze, you can also use a small towel. In order to avoid waste, it is best not to soak it. Just wet one corner of the towel.

Part. Wipe the vascularized area from top to bottom. From both sides of the neck to the arms, then from both sides of the armpits to the palms, and then from the back of the neck down to the back. Then rub the lower limbs, from the hip through the outside of the leg to the instep, from the inside of the thigh to the sole of the foot, and from the back of the thigh through the knee to the heel. Rub the upper and lower limbs and back for 3-5 minutes each. Focus on the large blood vessels such as the armpits, elbows, groin and behind the knees to improve the heat dissipation effect. The chest, abdomen and other parts are sensitive to cold stimulation and should not be wiped

Precautions for reducing fever with alcohol in children

In order to reduce fever quickly, some parents will wipe their children's entire body with alcohol and keep wiping until the fever subsides. Wang Junyi pointed out that to reduce fever, alcohol wipes only need to be applied to the armpits, thighs, neck and other major arteries, and there is no need to wipe the entire body, otherwise it is likely to cause alcohol poisoning in the baby. In addition, after wiping, cover your child with a blanket.

It should be emphasized that wiping with alcohol is only suitable for situations where the child has high fever without chills or sweating. If the child is already sweating, it means that the body temperature has begun to drop, and it is not suitable to wipe with alcohol at this time.

In addition to the physical cooling method of wiping with alcohol, using ice packs, cold towels, and warm water baths are also common ways to reduce fever for babies. However, since babies have weak constitutions, experts recommend that once a baby has a fever, parents should take the child to the hospital as soon as possible for diagnosis and treatment by a doctor to avoid danger caused by improper handling.