One early morning “temperature” doesn’t mean we need to self isolate?

[Lobsterroll]

DS 18 months is always rosy in the mornings, he wraps himself up in his cellular blanket and only kicks it off just before we come into him

Normally I get him up and DH does his breakfast but yesterday morning I had a lie in. He looked rosy and felt warm (always does first thing) so DH took his temperature. It was 37.7 in one ear and 37.8 in the other.

He took it again 45 minutes later as he felt a lot cooler and he was 37.3 and 37.4

DH thinks we have to self isolate and get tests now. I think it’s just normal for DS to be warmer in the morning as he’s been in a warm room (we have a hot house) covered in his blanket.

I did it this morning as soon as I took him out of his cot just to check and similar happened - 37.7 and 37.6 first thing that came straight down once he was out of blankets. He’s a warm kid anyway so runs warm and has no other symptoms.

Yesterday DH took his temperature frequently throughout the day even though he didn’t feel hot to touch and at once stage it got to 38 very briefly after he had been running around in the heat outside. I think if you take a temperature that often you’re going to see fluctuations, especially after activity. As soon as he sat down and had a drink inside it went back to normal.

When we had covid my daughters temperature was up and down like a yo-yo I’d get a test

@NigellaSeed

She can’t do an LFT on him because he’s got symptoms. He needs a PCR test.

Jesus Christ, why don’t people understand this?!

A fever doesn’t come and go unless you have given paracetamol to control it. It doesn’t get worse when someone has been running around on a hot day, your DS was obviously hot because it’s hot outside. I think your DH needs to apply common sense.

I guess I just thought that had DH not been taking his temperature every hour we would never have known he was 38 for that brief time because he didn’t look feverish, wasn’t boiling hot to touch or anything. I know the NHS guidance now says if back or chest feels hot, but his back and chest always feel warm in warm weather and they were no different. But now we do now that it was that high, I will get him tested.

Incidentally my niece got repeated temps of 38.2 every afternoon for a period of three or four weeks prior to Covid and the doctor could not have been less interested!

@NigellaSeed they don’t work if you have a symptom and in this case he would then have one symptom so would need to be PCR which I have just booked for later today

In this weather, maybe leave the blankets out of his cots? You could give him a sheet if he likes to have something over him.

I think more than 1 reading I'd get a test. It probably isn't covid but best to follow proper procedures just in case

Yes you’re right. I’m just frustrated with DH wielding the thermometer so much I think.
He’s already taken his temp four times this morning

I’ve booked a test now.

Your 18 month old will let you repeatedly test temp with an ear thermometer? Lucky! (Misses the point of the thread...)

I didn’t mean to come across as slapdash. I just think taking a kids temperature every hour is OTT and figured there would be natural fluctuation especially as he runs hot
But appreciate that 38 is probably not a natural fluctuation

Trying to get DH to put the thermometer down now, I think this way madness lies

When you take the temp with ear thermometer are you following instructions properly? (Sorry if that sounds patronising)

You have to pull the ear lobe down and hold it in ear.

If you shove it right in the canal without opening the ear canal it'll read higher than is accurate.

Also ear wax etc can affect the temp reading.

A head scan one is better to use for young children. Tends to be more accurate.

Your DH is being ridiculous. Does he have anxiety? I'd bin the bloody thermometer if my dp was being such a melt.

@itsgettingwierd I think so, I’ve not been doing it! Apart from once it says to pull it back and up which I have been doing. I did think you couldn’t get a false high reading though as it has to register the heat from somewhere? I now feel like the most slapdash mother ever 🙈

He doesn’t normally have anxiety. I suspect coronavirus is getting to him a bit now though he reads about it a LOT

Does he go to nursery? If he does you owe it to them to get a test. The amount of children I have had to turn away when the parents arrive saying 'oh they were a bit hot this morning but it's got down a bit now'.

I've seen you've booked a test. Fingers crossed it's nothing to worry about

Hopefully when the test comes back negative you can use this fact to get him to calm down OP

Get him to put the thermometer down.

We have to have our temperature taken at work and it drives us all nuts - no evidence for it at all in people who feel well. And not as if it's going to change between the morning and the afternoon, or if you have nipped to the shop to buy lunch.

What we have found is that thermometers are massively random, walking in from a hot day all of us read >38 just from walking across the car park and on a cold day some of us will be legally dead.

So a brief 38 in a wrapped up baby in the heat - take him somewhere cooler and try again.

@tapdancingmum no he doesn’t go to nursery and we both work from home. We also haven’t seen anyone all week as he’s been teething like mad and a nightmare to distract from the pain, so hopefully even if it did come out positive we haven’t unwittingly spread.

@AnnaMagnani I’ve hidden it for the moment, If he starts feeling hot I will do it.

Your husband sounds like hard work

He’s not usually! But in this instance yes. It’s like he’s become obsessed with the numbers, he’s really panicking because DS hasn’t been under 37.4 today but that’s normal for him! I don’t think I’ve ever got a reading of 36. Something on him apart from in the middle of the night (and that was after he had been unwell with fever so I was checking him throughout that night)

[quote Lobsterroll]@itsgettingwierd I think so, I’ve not been doing it! Apart from once it says to pull it back and up which I have been doing. I did think you couldn’t get a false high reading though as it has to register the heat from somewhere? I now feel like the most slapdash mother ever 🙈

He doesn’t normally have anxiety. I suspect coronavirus is getting to him a bit now though he reads about it a LOT[/quote]
I actually didn't know how to do it properly until I had covid last year!

Forehead said 38.9 and ear said 39.7. Neither great but I actually read instructions properly to find out why! And yes up and back.

Okay I’ve hidden the ear one so he’s got the old underarm one out wtf

He’s now freaking out and googling because that one is lower than the ear one. Send help. We are getting a test but he wants to call 111

DS is merrily eating baby biscuits and lobbing them lovingly at me while cackling. He seems fine

Your husband seriously needs to calm down.

I know :( I’ve been trying to say even if he is a bit poorly he’s okay in himself and it just means he’s come into contact with a germ or virus of something. It’s going to happen a lot now as he’s been in lockdown most of his life and hasn’t mingled as much as he would do!
He saw his cousins a week and a bit ago and one of them hadn’t been well previously so it’s more likely he’s picked up a bug from them or the park than Covid.

It’s making me feel quite anxious and stressed now because he’s behaving in such an anxious manner it’s making me feel like I should be more worried!

I’m the hottest person I know, I am always boiling, sweating, just always hot. I never have a temperature even when I feel like I’m going to combust.