Very high temp - cheek vs forehead. What do I do?

[FU404]

Almost 3 yo DD has come down with a high temp this evening. She had calpol earlier, then I gave her ibuprofen about 40 minutes ago because her temp was 40c.

We have a thermometer gun and I've just checked again. The middle of her forehead is back down to 37 but her temple & cheek is still 40.

How would you interpret this? Would there be a reason why her cheek would be so much hotter, & should I consider this to still be a very high temp? She can't have any more medicine for a few hours yet but I'm really worried about the high reading on her cheek.

V worried FTM

Have you got it set to surface temp or body temp?

in all honesty I do not like the head thermometer, you could scan 3 times and have complete different numbers. Do you have an ear or under arm/tongue one?

cheeks can get hotter think teething, slap cheek etc so always go for forehead reading

Also, if she’s not managing to keep her temp down always get them checked. No one is going to mind seeing a healthy child but you’ll always regret not getting a sick one checked.

Unless she has other symptoms such as loss of consciousness, convulsions, excess vomiting, a rash etc (look up red flags) I would personally just keep her dosed up with alternate paracetamol and ibuprofen and see how she is tomorrow. Kids get fevers, it's ok. The fever helps the body fight the virus/infection.

The cheek she has been sleeping on will give a higher reading. The true reading is from the side of the face that hasn't been pressed into the pillow. I was told this by a nurse when DD was in hospital.

I don't know about your specific thermometer so can't answer that.

If fever doesn't come down quite a bit with Ibuprofen she needs checking over in the morning (I'd wait for GP surgery to open rather than hospital as you'll probably actually see a doctor sooner doing that than enduring a long wait at hospital).

If fever continues a day or two more with no obvious cause (ie no symptoms of virus like snot, sore throat etc) then get her checked over.

Thank you all. I checked on her again and her temples had cooled but her cheek was high, so I am wondering whether it was her teeth (although I thought they were all through).

I kept her dosed up and she's absolutely fine today! No sign of being ill at all.

My thermometer does stress me out in circumstances like that, so I think I might get an in ear one.

Thanks again for all your reassurance x