Taking your Child’s Temperature

Kids get sick.  It is what they do. Children are fantastic at sharing germs when they cannot seem to share anything else.  There are few things as stressful to a new parent as their baby’s first cold or fever.  My pediatrician has been victim to several phone calls at all hours from me trying to make sure my children were ok.

While a fever in a newborn three months or younger warrants an urgent visit to a doctor, most of the time fevers in babies are just passing illnesses that do more harm to the parents with stress and worry.  Never the less, you as a parent will need to know how to accurately take your infant’s temperature so you will be able to report to your pediatrician.

Seeing as telling your newborn to hold the thermometer on his or her tongue will most likely not be very useful you will need to use other strategies for getting a reading.  Rectal temperatures are usually the most accurate way of getting a number, but they are not exactly pleasant for anyone involved and a parent needs to be careful not to insert the thermometer too far.  Other ways of taking a babies temperature include axillary (under the arm), an ear scan, or a forehead scan.  There are thermometers available that have interchangeable probes so you can use it more than one way.  Remember though, that once a probe is used for a rectal temperature, it should never be used as an oral thermometer again.

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