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We're going to teach you how to take a
temperature properly in an infant today.
I have Stella here to join us. The
best way to take a temperature in an
infant is going to be with a rectal
thermometer. You can use a generic
multi-use thermometer. This is my
favorite one. It's made by safety first
and it's just a basic $8.99 thermometer
you can get at Walgreens or CVS. What
you're going to do with the thermometer
when you're taking a rectal temperature…
First of all, I would recommend that you
have a thermometer for rectal and for
oral. Try not to use the same one. You
certainly can use an alcohol wipe to
clean it which I'm going to do with you
today, but it's better if you keep one
labeled specifically for oral and one
labeled for rectal. This thermometer,
the safety first thermometer, actually
has a marking on it right here. You can
see that's going to be about a half-inch, a
little more than a half inch. That's how
much you should be inserting this into
your child's bum when you are taking a
rectal temperature. This is a nice
choice for that. You can use just a
tiny bit of Vaseline if you want. These
thermometers are also made of silicone
at the end there so they're very soft.
You don't have to use any lubricant
if you don't want to, but we're going to put
just a little bit of this on here for
Stella on the bottom. Okay. Then what
you're going to do, is lift up
Stella's bum into the air. Perfect.
You are going to put the thermometer in
just a little ways basically a half inch
to an inch is how far you are inserting
it. If you look at the thermometer,
like I said for Stella this thermometer
has a marking on it and that's how far
you're inserting it. It works very very
quickly and it will beep when it's done.
Another alternative for taking a
temperature in a baby is the axillary
temperature. Now again I want you to use
a rectal temperature from birth until
age three. Axillary temperatures can
be a nice screening temperature if
you're a little nervous about the
rectal or you just prefer to try an
axillary first. For your axillary
temperature, what you're going to do is
take your thermometer and you're going to
lift up baby's arm. We're going to take
Stella's arm out of her little onesie
here.
You're going to put your thermometer
right underneath and wait until it
beeps. We got a 99.3 on Stella which
is a perfect match for her rectal
temperature. Another way that you can
take a temperature for her because Stella
is two months old is you could do what
we call a temporal artery temperature. The
temporal artery thermometers, the ones
that we use in the office, are pretty
decent. They are looking now to
be approved all the way down to birth,
but right now we can use them all the
way down to three months for a good
scanning temperature, screening
temperature rather on a baby. For the
temporal artery temperature we're
measuring the temperature of the
temporal artery which is a good
measurement of her core temperature.
What we're going to do with this is put
this right on her forehead. We wait for
the three lines to appear and we hit the
button. It's very very quick. We got a
ninety eight point four immediately so
for four and up, you can use an oral
temperature. The way you want to do
this is you want to take the temperature
probe. You want to put this temperature
probe underneath the tongue, kind of as
far back into the mouth as you can.
Then, you're going to tell the child to hold
their mouth closed. It's very important
to hold the mouth closed. If your
child cannot hold this in her mouth with
the mouth closed, you want to use either
an axillary or a rectal temperature. Now
the ear thermometer measures the
temperature of the tympanic membrane
which is the eardrum. What's important
about the ear thermometer is that you
have to be able to have this ear
thermometer see the tympanic membrane or
the eardrum. You don't recommend this
in infants really under the age of about
a year. You have to be careful over a
year because you can still have some
irregular measurements if this
thermometer can't actually see the eardrum.
Remember if your child is under
the age of a year, the recommended
thermometer is going to be your rectal
thermometer. You could also use the
axillary thermometer as a screening test,
but then check it with a rectal. Finally,
you can use the temporal artery
thermometer on the forehead as a
screening under a year as well.
If your child is under three years again
you're looking at the same kinds of
thermometers, but additionally you can
add in
your ear thermometer if they're one to
three years. Once your child is able to
hold the thermometer in the mouth, you
can use the oral thermometer and that's
going to be generally three to four
years and up. Thank You Stella!
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