BUFFALO, N.Y. — Parents looking to find children's acetaminophen and ibuprofen are finding a lot of empty store shelves.

Dr. Kathleen Grisanti, the president and medical director of the Pediatric & Adolescent Urgent Care of Western New York, says while fevers aren't necessarily bad — they're a body's way of dealing an infection — if that fever isn't kept under control, it could lead to a febrile seizure. And that's where the fever reducing and pain relieving medicines come in.

Grisanti says facilities are short on the liquid form of children's acetaminophen, like Tylenol, and liquid children's ibuprofen, like Motrin. She says there's more of a shortage of children's acetaminophen. Liquid ibuprofen can be an alternative for children over the age of 6 months.

Grisanti says there’s a way to reduce a fever without using medicines: parents can use lukewarm sponge baths, adding that it's important to not use cold water. She says you don't want a child to be shivering because that can send a message to the brain that they're cold and will send a fever even higher.

She also says sometimes unbundling children — taking off some layers — can help decrease some of their temperature, but it's important that they're not cold or shivering.