Ear thermometers - useless? Or is it me?

[LadyAcony]

I bought an ear thermometer a few months ago and have had my doubts about it, but it seemed to work ok.

Today I'm sure DD has a fever. She also keeps saying she feels cold and then hot, which is a dead giveaway IMO.

I've tried the thermometer about 5 times and it says 37.2 degrees.

Could I be using it wrong? I've done my best and tried a few different ways.

Could it be faulty?

Or does she just not actually have a fever?

It's obviously important because if she has a fever, we'll need to stay home and get her tested, and I can't go out and buy a different thermometer with a clear conscience! If you know anything about ear thermometers, please share.

Anyone?

Have you tried taking your own temperature to see what the reading is, it might be giving an inaccurate reading?

Try it on yourself and see if it gives an accurate reading. How old is your dd? Make sure you pull her ear out gently and insert the thermometer firmly. Do both ears as they are often different shapes and give different readings. Or alternatively see if her back feels hot to the touch. She's feeling hot and cold so I'd take that as yes, she has a fever.

You need to ensure you grasp the top of her ear, and pull it both up and out in order to straighten the ear canal. Tympanic (ear) thermometers take a temperature reading on the ear drum, so if it’s hitting the ear canal it will give a lower temp.

There’s lots of videos on YouTube demonstrating the technique if you have issues as it can be a little tricky if you’ve not had a healthcare professional show you how.

Thanks for the replies - I'm now wondering why on earth it didn't occur to me to check my own temperature. Feeling like an idiot!

DD is 8, I should have said.

Going to check my own temperature now, try both of DD's ears, and see what happens. It's entirely possible that the thermometer is faulty.

I could ask the neighbours but one is old enough to be at higher risk and on the other side they have a baby and a toddler, I'd hate to risk getting them sick. I do have plenty of friends in the neighbourhood though who'd be happy to do a covid-safe dropoff.

Thanks for thinking along with me. I think my brain's stopped working properly lately

goes to watch YouTube videos

I find both the ear thermometers and the forehead ones to be really unreliable!

Well a quick view of a YouTube vid and a second try (taking temp three times as recommended) indicated a fever. Fortunately I doubt DD has managed to get coronavirus, but we can now go ahead with the whole process and find out for sure.

We have the newest Braun ear thermometer and a forehead one too from Boots.
Both are absolutely crap. Give totally different readings ( forehead one always much lower)
The Braun ear one is the one our surgery uses.

@LittleOverwhelmed

How high is the temperature?

I got 37.5 on the third reading. I think if I'd kept trying it might have been higher, but DD wasn't enjoying my efforts much. Will give it another go in a bit.

Incidentally if I don't change the ear cap on mine every time I use it the temp creeps up by .1° each time