Since they removed the mercury thermometers, which were the most reliable but unsafe, because they carry toxic mercury, parents are navigating between thermometers trying to find the most reliable and fast, with the intention of knowing as soon as possible the temperature of our babies, who do not carry very well that of maintaining a fixed position thermometer in the armpit, but with the confidence of knowing that the measurement is correct.
There are several digital thermometers that promise this, reliability and speed, being the best known, and I would say the most gifted to first-time parents, ear and forehead thermometers, which give the baby's temperature in a few seconds. Now, are they reliable? Are they a revolution or are they really a failure?
How do ear and forehead thermometers work?
Ear and forehead thermometers (some only measure the ear and others measure both) work by infrared. As I have been able to read, it seems that the thermometer is a lens system that captures the infrared energy emitted by our body, makes a reading and offers us a result.
In the case of the ear, it is captured the energy emitted by the eardrum and surrounding tissue. If we talk about the forehead, the energy emitted by the skin through that area is captured.
They are dangerous?
If we talk about looking at the forehead, it is clear that the thermometer is not dangerous because, either it is placed at a distance from the forehead and without touching the baby the measurement is made, or the thermometer has a lid with the appropriate shape to rest the thermometer on the forehead and then press the button that puts it into operation.
If we talk about the ear, the thermometer carries a wide cannula or tube that must enter through the ear of the baby or child, but wide enough to prevent too much from entering and may damage the eardrum or ear canal.
Are they reliable?
Ok, we know how they work, we know they are not dangerous and now we just need know if they are reliable, or what is the same, if they serve something. For this I ask you for help, because although I have tried several, it is possible that you have an experience different from mine with a brand or model and you can then give me the replica.
Once we were parents, we were given one. "What a good gift", we thought right away, because it seemed like a great invention, fast and comfortable for us and for the baby. However, the first day we needed, because the eldest had a fever, we get a great disappointment.
The child was hot, but when used in "front" mode sometimes he told us that the child was perfect, and sometimes he said yes, that he had a few tenths. Then, if you tried the ear mode, it turned out that in one ear it gave us one thing and in the other another. This, according to the manufacturers, can be normal, since the presence of wax or dirt in some ear can cause variations in temperature. Okay, okay, but then, How do I know which is the ear that gives me the most reliable information?
We opted to repeat the operation in the ears and each time it gave us something different. "It will be a matter of pressure," I thought. Then I chose to try it myself, knowing that I had no fever, and I observed that if I squeezed too much it gave me more temperature, and that if I left it too loose I would miss it. Thus I managed to find a more or less stable pressure position in which the temperature I was looking for gave me (36.7ºC in my case).
The problem is that I knew my temperature, and based on the pressure I was looking for the right position, but in the baby it was the other way around, what I wanted to know was the temperature, so the correct position and pressure was harder to find. And of course, once you realize that it is something so variable, it no longer seemed reliable.
As a nurse I have been visited by several commercial brands that make these thermometers and although they have always "sold" us as a revolution, because they are fast and not very annoying, most importantly, that they are reliable, they have never been able to prove it to me.
Once I took one, which I had to hold a few centimeters from my forehead, and in a few seconds, very fast, surprisingly fast, he told me that it was at 38 ° C. Obviously I immediately went to my boss and said "I'm leaving, I have a fever you don't see."
Then I told the commercial, who told me he had 38ºC and told me that it was a distance problem. I tried several different distances. Sometimes I had a fever, sometimes a fever and sometimes I was perfectly well. He told me that the thermometer was picking up the room temperature and that is why it was not reliable (?).
From that moment I have been able to try some more model always with the same result: what in my town is defined as "fails more than a fair shotgun".
So, considering the money they cost (between € 20 and € 40 on average) and how bad they are, my sentence is that ear and front thermometers remain in promise, or in fiasco, or in failure. Come on, I have not managed to find the brand and model that works well, so personally I do not recommend them to my worst enemy.
Now, if as I say you have found one that works well, please let me know, if I have a chance I will try it.
And so?
Well, then we go to the pharmacy, we ask for a armpit digital thermometer good, beautiful and cheap and we do what we can to entertain the baby or child while we patiently endure it. For now, there is no more.
