Always take your child's temperature in the same way and in the same location: oral, rectal, armpit, ear, forehead, etc.Find out what your child's 'baseline' temperature is when they're healthy.How to take your child's temperature more accurately Dos: Our testing has found that they're generally accurate to within 0.2☌. We found that good digital probe thermometers can meet their claimed accuracy to within 0.1☌.Įar and forehead thermometers are less accurate, but they don't generally claim to be as accurate as digital probe thermometers. Knowing whether your child has a fever can be even trickier if the thermometer you're using is inaccurate. "Parents buying a thermometer off the shelf expect to know what type of temperature the thermometer is displaying, but many of the manuals don't make it clear," says Kim. When we tested baby thermometers, it was sometimes difficult to find out what kind of temperature reading the thermometer was giving: was it giving the core temperature, the oral temperature, the oral equivalent temperature, or the temporal artery temperature?Įven the instruction manuals often weren't clear, and in some instances we had to contact the manufacturers directly to clarify which temperature their thermometers display. Read personal thermometers review Which temperature is which? The equivalent oral temperature could be anywhere from 37.6☌ to 37.9☌ – warm, but maybe not a fever.īUT is the temperature readout the actual ear temperature, or the oral equivalent temperature? If the thermometer is displaying the oral equivalent temperature, then your child does have a fever. Imagine that you've taken your child's temperature using an ear thermometer, and it comes back with a reading of 38.2☌ – they have a fever, right? Well, maybe not. To calculate the oral temperature from an ear reading, you'll need to subtract 0.3☌ to 0.6☌. To figure out the equivalent oral temperature when you're taking a forehead reading, you'll need to add 0.3☌ to 0.6☌. Forehead: 0.3☌ to 0.6☌ lower than oral. Here are the differences in temperature you're likely to find if you take a temperature from a different part of the body: Let's take oral temperature as a baseline. That's because different parts of the body are slightly different temperatures. If you use a digital probe thermometer to take an oral temperature, you'll get a different reading than if you take an axillary (armpit) temperature. Where are you taking the temperature from? "Also, some thermometers convert the reading to what might be either a core temperature or an oral equivalent, adding to the confusion, and they don't always make this clear in the instructions." It does depend on things like age, what part of the body you're measuring, and the environment," says CHOICE's baby and kids expert Kim Gilmour. "We found that it can be confusing to know what temperature constitutes an actual fever. Some thermometers convert the reading to what might be either a core temperature or an oral equivalent, adding to the confusion CHOICE baby and kids expert Kim Gilmour Unfortunately our testing has found that finding out your child's temperature is more tricky than you'd expect, due to a number of factors. Taking a child's temperature is pretty straightforward, right? You put the thermometer in their mouth, or ear, or on their forehead, keep it there for as long as needed, then read what it says.
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