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Baby's Temperature

You cannot accurately judge your baby's temperature byplacing your hand on her forehead or anywhere else. Skintemperature strips are no better. Furthermore, you cannotget an accurate reading using an oral thermometer inbabies and small children because they can't cooperate inkeeping the little bulb (whether mercury or electronic)under the tongue. Electronic ear thermometers will giveyou a ballpark number, but results may vary somewhatdepending on your technique. Therefore, even in thesedays of slick and expensive electronic equipment, an old-fashioned, low-tech rectal mercury thermometer remainsthe standard when you need to know what's going on witha very young infant (While mercury has beer. used in glassthermometers for decades, some now utilize a differentsilver-colored liquid that behaves the same way. We willuse the term mercury to refer to the contents of all glassthermometers.)

You should get two or three of these at the drugstore,since they have a habit of breaking or disappearing justwhen you need one. A rectal thermometer has a shortrounded mercury bulb at one end, while an oral ther- mometer has a longer straight bulb. if you're not experienced with a mercury thermome-ter, you may want to practice reading the temperature before the moment of truth arrives. Hold the end oppositethe mercury bulb between thumb and index finger andslowly rotate the thermometer back and forth. You shouldbe abie to see the squared-off end of the mercury columnnext to the temperature markers. When you read the result,be sure not to confuse numbers such as 100.2° (which liesjust above 100°) with 102°, which is quite a bit higher.

Before taking the temperature, shake the thermometeruntil it reads below 98.6° by grasping the end opposite thebulb and snapping your wrist a few times. Make sure your fingers aren't slippery, and stay away from tables andcounters.

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

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