This episode of Pediacast. We are a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike coming to you from the campus of Nationwide Children's Hospital. We're in Columbus, Ohio.

It's episode 588. We're calling this one Recurrent Fever Syndromees. I want to welcome all of you to the program.

As you know, if you are a parent, fevers are a very common part of childhood, and most of the time they are caused by infections and go away on their own, especially viral infections.

We see a lot of those over the course of every winter. But what happens

when the fevers keep coming back, often without a clear cause? Well, today we are diving into the

world of recurrent fever syndromes. What they are, how we tell the difference between typical

fevers and those that are more concerning.

We'll explore some conditions that cause repeated spikes in temperature.

Things like P. FAPA, which stands for periodic fever, aftis, stomatitis, pharyngitis, adonitis,

which is the most common recurrent fever syndrome in kids.

Of course, that's a mouthful. Periodic fever, aftis, phytis, pharynctis, adenitis, which is why we call it P. FAPA. Let's break that down, though, here real quick. Periodic fever just means it's a recurrent fever. It's like clockwork. You get it on a, you know, a set schedule rather than just hit or miss. Aftis stomatitis, those are just little mouth ulcers.

Pharyngitis means you have a sore throat, and adenitis means that you have some swollen

lymph nodes, in this case, often in the neck.

And so P. FAPA is fever, mouth ulcers, sore throat, and swelling in the neck.

But of course, there are lots of viruses that can cause those same symptoms.

So how do you tell the difference?

And that's what we're really going to dive into today.

There's also another one called familial Mediterranean fever or FMF.

That's another cause of recurrent fever spikes, temperature spikes.

And we'll talk a lot more about that one as well.

And of course, in our usual pedicast fashion, we have a terrific guest joining us for the conversation.

...