To not have a thermometer?

[GenerationGap]

And have never taken either of my children's temperature? What is this obsession about?

This is during illness obviously not at other times!

Why would you not want to take your DC's temp?

Its the only way to know if meds are working and also to watch fluid intake

The thing is, you all clearly do want to know temperatures, you're just happy with your hands as thermometers. No one here so far has said they don't check temperatures at all and that they just ignore fever as a sign of illness.

Rockmaiden, it's not right to say you've never taken your child's temperature - you have, you've just used your own hand as the thermometer instead of a separate gadget.

Some people like hands, some people like underarm thermometers, some people probably like rectal ones (not my idea of fun!), some people like ear thermometers. But nobody really ignores fever and doesn't bother to check at all if an ill dc is also feverish. Does it really matter who uses which thing to check for fever?

I have a digital thermometer for use in the arm pit and seems to be pretty reliable.

I have found it useful recently when my 9mth old temp hit 39 and was not feeling too well that it was time to give him a dose of Calpol.

I also know his normal temp as a point of reference.

Knowing this means I won't use Calpol unnecessarily (my dh tends to panic a bit if ds not well so this is information I can tell him)

The guide is 40 and not dropping medical help is needed.

It probably also has something to do with me being a vet nurse so reading temps and interpreting them are 2nd nature for me!

I'm not obsessive though, I go by feel first.

I have one, but only as I'm using it to try and monitor what my body is doing wrt ovulation.

My mum always had a thermometer, though I believe it was used more to prove to me and my brother that we weren't running a temperature when we were pushing our luck.

GenerationGap it's not really the point is it?!

If it makes my life easier and my childs treatment better for me to stick a thermometer in her ear, so that the doctor can go "oh, that is high, let me check on her" or "that's about normal for a cold, just chuck some calpol down her" then I will do it. Ditto my own treatment.

My doctors for the last few years have wanted to know. Who am I to deny them this easily obtainable information?

It's not like I am being asked to do anything illegal, immoral or fattening. It's a simple bloody test, not a complicated medical procedure.

And even if the result is not totally accurate, it is certainly not totally unreliable. Furthermore, I think everyone here would agree that if a thermometer was telling them something counter-intuitive, they would disregard the thermometer.

If it helps, it helps. If it doesn't help, it certainly won't hurt.

Stop being so down on something that you've made it clear you have no experience of.

I think I would get one- I'm naturally a very cold person and DH is really hot all the time so I wouldn't trust my cold hands to be able to tell the difference between normal and hot- everyone feels boiling to me!

[ perhaps half reptilian emoticons]

Lol, also a problem for us - I am reasonably convinced that I am at least part lizard - I need to be kept warm at all times, because my body just DOES NOT HEAT UP.

DP, on the other hand... Sigh. He likes to go walking in the snow and to keep the windows open all year round for "that freeze breezey feeling".

Poor DP was always going "crap, she's cold! should she be this cold?! She's still breathing" and I would RUN only to say "she feels baking to me", which would then prompt a whispered argument over whether to cover her up more or pull he blanket off a bit.

It was a fun first few months

Lol, also a problem for us - I am reasonably convinced that I am at least part lizard - I need to be kept warm at all times, because my body just DOES NOT HEAT UP.

DP, on the other hand... Sigh. He likes to go walking in the snow and to keep the windows open all year round for "that freezey breezey feeling".

Poor DP was always going "crap, she's cold! should she be this cold?! She's still breathing" and I would RUN only to say "she feels baking to me", which would then prompt a whispered argument over whether to cover her up more or pull he blanket off a bit.

It was a fun first few months

Oh yes Scotland!
Holidays too- I looove hot weather, whereas dp breaks into a sweat at 26 degrees and is miserable..
British weather- permanently cold and have a comprehensive selection of dressing gowns/hoodies/pj's/slippers because I'm always freezing. Can't win!!!

I would say YABU, but only after DS had a raging temperature and I couldn't take it because both of mine had run out of battery. Ringing the Aussie equivalent of NHS direct - they want to know the temp because it affects their recommendation of how urgent you need to get to a doc.

Taking it when the child doesn't have a temp can be useful to know as well - my mother, for e.g. had a slightly lower than average temp (97.4 deg F instead of 98.4) This meant that when her temp hit 99.5 after a C section, they didn't think anything of it because it was only a 1 deg rise; well not for her it wasn't, it was 2 deg and indicated infection in the wound which wasn't treated as quickly as it should have been.

Yes you can tell that you child has a temp without one; but imo it can be important to know how much of a temp to know how fast you need to move or whether you can sit it out.

I don't have one, have done in the past. I don't think the actual temperature is that important really, it's fairly obvious if they are unwell/have a fever.

My ds has had a temp of 40, and been fine in himself, not too unwell. Conversely his temp has been borderline fever and he was miserable. I go by how the child is feeling/acting in judging calpol/dr's etc. I don't understand the reticence of some people in using paracetamol/ibuprofen, if they are whingy and miserable they get the full regular doses.

I would probably use one if I had one to hand, but never get round to buying another one.

how urgentLY, obviously. (bloody Aussie grammar rubbing off on me)

Oh yes Lady. I am here in my hot-pink flannelette, pyjamas with cows and daisies on. I own more nightclothes than I own day clothes.

DP complains that when we first met, I used to wear nothing to bed... That was because I lived in a house with Central Heating!!!

Also, I lived on my beautiful, wonderful own, so was highly unlikely to trip over someone else's discarded crap and break my neck. If necks are to be broken, I want to be dressed, thank you very much. And that time I had a lego (DP's not childs) imprint on my arse for about a week taught me an important lesson about wandering the house naked.

Mardymare - good point I do use my hand to check temp's if they seem un-well etc. just don't see the point of knowing the exact temperature.

FYI when my son had a viral infection and the GP took his temperature, it was the exact same thermometer I use at home.

So, guess it can't be all that useless, can it? Or does having it at home make it useless although it works fine in the GP's surgery?

And I use a thermometer because while my hand can tell me, 'oh he's hot' it cannot tell me 'with a fever of 40.5'.

My mother was a fantastic mother - but I can remember a thermometer being shoved in my mouth at any opportunity. A child is ill or a child is not. A doctor who I greatly respect once told me that parents are too obsessed with the thermometer. Also that the body raises its temperature to fight infection.

So where can we buy these anti-thermometer badges?

We have an ear thermometer, it's the same one that they use at our doctors surgery so I'm happy that it's accurate enough. When the DC's were both ill over Christmas (DS quite scarliy so and almost required hospitalisation) the doctor asked me to track his temperature so that we could see whether the medicine was helping to bring it down effectivly or not. It was at times over 40 degrees so we really needed it to come down. To me he just felt 'hot' I couldn't have told you how hot. So I was asked for and went back with a chart of hourly readings which was really helpful for the doctor to see how he was responding.

So home thermometers can be useful. YABU

I have and use a thermometer, its an in ear variant that when my eldest had a febrile fit, the paramedics had the same variety.

I know that DS1's normal temperature taken with the in ear one at home is 35.6 I start on calpol when it goes above 37.7 simply because he is still at risk of febrile fits and I never want to experience that again if I can help it

It reassures me and makes me feel more in control to know exact temperatures and I have always written down symptoms temperature and medication given so that I know exactly how the illness has developed and so that if it ever gets to the stage where medical help is required I can simply show them the record I have taken

But its horses for courses what suits me (and my slightly OCD ways) may not suit anyone else

I rarely use ours. Only when I had flu and my temperature was 105 for three days running.

And even then the GP wasn't very worried by this information.

I've never had one either.

DS was ill with a chest infection at Christmas. We've got an ear thermometer similar to the GP and the readings correlated. By monitoring his temperature I could spot that he was deteriorating again much quicker than if I was checking using my hands which I found unreliable. The emergency doctor wanted to know his temperature and was a lot more bothered by it's 40.7 and not responding to Calpol but does to Neurofen then it's 39. I was asked several times by doctors over the two weeks what his temperature was and would have felt saying I don't know but he is hot would be not giving them the info they needed. The questions generally asked were what is his temp, how is it responding to meds, what is his fluid intake and is he going to the toilet. To me they are a important for them to make a clinical assessment and not having temperature details would have hindered that.

I think they're very useful First of all I'm completely useless with feeling whether my children have a fever.

It can also make a difference as to how you deal with the fever. You don't need to run to the doctor for a cold for instance. However medical advice is that you don't try to bring the fever down (with medicine or baths) until it reaches 38.5, because it's doing it's job and fighting the infection. Over that, it could rise rapidly and prove dangerous for the child.

Also you should be able to tell whether paracetamol is actually bringing the fever down or not, for how long and at what levels. When they were babies a thermometre was always in my first aid kit, even on a holiday. I find it a very useful assessment tool which would free up some doctors' appointments if more people not only owned one but knew how to use it and what to do. And I think GP's and hospitals should make a point of teaching this to people

mine are 10,5 and 3
you can just tell with a hand on the forehead and by the actions of your child if they have a raised temp

I can tell if paracetemol is doing anyhting and I dont bring down every temp

of course a temp is a sign that your body is fighting and doesn't need to be stopped form doing that

rest and fluids will aid it
obviously you can tell when the body needs help though

I have one, but only after dd was born and dp and his family made me buy one as they were horrified I didn't have one, Nor did I know where to put it, or what "normal" was.

Here they are obsessed with "fever" and I know women who will take their children's temperature every single morning. Their children will be immediately placed on antibiotics if their temp goes one tenth of a degree over