It's 2 am. Your child is hot to the touch, coughing, and more limp than you've ever seen them. You reach for the thermometer — and then the dread sets in. Is this just another monsoon bug, or is it H1N1?

For families across Delhi-NCR, that 2 am question is getting harder to shake. H1N1 has been climbing through the monsoon, with 1,349 cases reported so far. But when it comes to children, doctors say the number glowing on your thermometer may be the least useful thing in the room.

What matters is how your child is behaving — how they're breathing, eating, drinking.

So how do you know when flu-like symptoms can ride out at home, and when it's time to move?

"H1N1 doesn't come with a label," says Dr Shravan Krishna Reddy, a paediatrician, neonatologist and paediatric nutritionist at The Family Tree Hospital, Tirupati.

In a conversation with The Better India, Dr Reddy explains what parents should watch for when their child develops flu-like symptoms, what they can safely handle at home, and the warning signs that should never be ignored.

The thermometer is not your best source of information

Here's the uncomfortable truth: H1N1 can look exactly like any other viral fever at first. Sudden fever, cough, sore throat, a running nose, headache, body pains, chills, exhaustion, no appetite. Some children also throw up or have loose stools.

But the fever number, Dr Reddy says, should not be the thing that sets your anxiety level.

"A child with 102°F who is talking,........

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