Taking an Accurate Temperature

You cannot accurately judge your baby's temperature by placing your hand on her forehead or anywhere else. Skin temperature strips are no better. Furthermore, you cannot get an accurate reading using an oral thermometer in babies and small children because they can't cooperate in keeping the little bulb (whether mercury or electronic) under the tongue. Electronic ear thermometers will give you a ballpark number, but results may vary somewhat depending on your technique. Therefore, even in these days of slick and expensive electronic equipment, an old-fashioned, low-tech rectal mercury thermometer remains the standard when you need to know what's going on with a very young infant. (While mercury has been used in glass thermometers for decades, some now utilize a different silver-colored liquid that behaves the same way. We will use the term mercury to refer to the contents of all glass thermometers.)

You should get two or three of these at the drugstore, since they have a habit of breaking or disappearing just when you need one. A rectal thermometer has a short rounded mercury bulb at one end, while an oral thermometer has a longer straight bulb. If you're not experienced with a mercury thermometer, you may want to practice reading the temperature before the moment of truth arrives. Hold the end opposite the mercury bulb between thumb and index finger and slowly rotate the thermometer back and forth. You should be able to see the squared-off end of the mercury column next to the temperature markers. When you read the result, be sure not to confuse numbers such as 100.2 F (which lies just above 100) with 102 F, which is quite a bit higher.

Before taking the temperature, shake the thermometer until it reads below 98.6 F by grasping the end opposite the bulb and snapping your wrist a few times. Make sure your fingers aren't slippery, and stay away from tables and counters.

Your baby should be lying tummy-down on a bed or crib, or across your knees if he is very small. Keep one hand firmly in control of his lower back and don't try to take the temperature while he is actively squirming or resisting you. Lubricate the mercury tip of the thermometer with petroleum jelly and put a little around the baby's anus as well. Then gently insert the thermometer into the child's rectum about one inch. Do not force the thermometer into the rectum. Hold it for about three minutes, then remove it and read the temperature. Afterwards cleanse and rinse the bulb end, shake it down, and put it in its case — which should be labeled as a rectal, not oral, thermometer.

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