Seeing something that shouldn't be there. -Febrile Delirium-

My eldest son turned three.
From that morning, he had a runny nose and a slight cough,
so I thought it might be the start of a cold.
That said, children often play quite energetically even with a fever, making it difficult to keep them still just because they aren't feeling well.
In my son's case, his appetite drops noticeably,
so I often use meal times to help him realize that he isn't feeling well.

We spent the day lazing around until night,
and when it was time to sleep, we put him to bed as usual.
His body was hot and his fever was rising,
so my wife and I talked about how we needed to take him to the hospital first thing in the morning.

He seemed uncomfortable and had trouble falling asleep, but he eventually drifted off.

A few hours after he fell asleep, he seemed to wake up and was crying uncontrollably.
I hugged him and said, "It's tough, isn't it? It's okay, it's okay," but he wouldn't stop crying.
In fact, the volume of his crying just kept increasing.

My son and I were sleeping in the bedroom,
and he was terrified of something.
Even while I held him, he pointed to various places,
crying and screaming,
"Go away!" and "Take it away! Please!"
Thinking he might be afraid of the dark due to the fever, I turned on the lights, but it had no effect.
He desperately told me, "I want to go to Mommy!" so we headed to where my wife and daughter were sleeping in the living room.

Even then, he was still terrified.
He was crying and screaming in a way I had never seen before.
About 30 minutes later, he finally calmed down enough to have a conversation.

When I asked, "What's wrong? What do you see?" he replied,
There are lots of bugs.Even while we were talking, he would occasionally look scared as if he could still see the bugs, though not as intensely as before.At this point, my wife and I were both able to handle the situation, so we calmly managed to record a video.
I thought it would be easier to show the doctor than to explain it verbally the next day.

--
The next day, although he still had a fever, he was completely calm and back to his usual energetic self.
However, he clearly remembered last night, saying, "There were lots of bugs yesterday. I cried a lot."

--
When I told the doctor about it during our visit,
he said, "That's febrile delirium."
Embarrassingly, I only knew about "febrile seizures," so I looked up the symptoms online and learned about "febrile delirium" for the first time, confirming that was likely what it was.

Fortunately, I was relieved to hear that it wouldn't cause any lasting damage to his brain, but I feel so sorry for him because he must have been truly terrified.

According to the doctor:
- It can happen when children aged 1 to 10 have a high fever.
- The number one thing they see is "bugs."
- It usually settles down in about 30 minutes, but if it lasts longer than an hour, if they are still lethargic the next morning, or if they are acting differently, such as spilling food everywhere, you should call an ambulance immediately (as other conditions might be suspected).
- When they are in a confused state, they might suddenly start running or try to leave the house, so do not take your eyes off them.

He can't open the front door and go outside on his own yet, but since this can happen up to the age of 10,
he will likely be able to unlock the door by then, so I'm glad I learned about this now.

Now that he has fully recovered, I am relieved,
but this has become a lesson for me,
knowing that this can happen whenever he is unwell in the future.
Since it seems there is no way to prevent it, I will just have to be diligent about basic hand washing and gargling to try and keep him from getting a fever as much as possible.
I suppose it's inevitable once he starts kindergarten and gets exposed to everything.

By the way, the doctor at the hospital said the ranking of things children see is:

1st: Bugs
2nd: Dwarves
3rd: A stranger (man)

Man, that must have been terrifying.

I hope it never happens again.