I’m reminded of just a few times through the years when I have taken a rectal temperature for a REAL illness, either my two girls, now grown, or my husband when he was so sick that he told me he felt like dying. Husbands can be so dramatic!
Seriously, I’m sitting on the side of the bed, wiping off the Vaseline from the thermometer with a tissue and trying to read where that little ribbon of mercury landed. Was it in the normal range, a degree or so higher than oral, or higher? Most of the time it wasn’t much higher than a normal rectal, 100.5, 101, not a big deal, but an indicator there is fever. (Actually, some low-grade temps can be serious.)
There were times, blessedly not many, when that little ribbon landed in the 103 or 104+ ranges. Those were times, as a mom, I graduated through the years from utter panic to quietly knowing pretty much what to do when my oldest daughter had a serious respiratory infection. Step one: Get help!
Every family should have two thermometers, one for the mouth and one that can be used in the butt if needed – and there are times when even in the ER they'll take a rectal. However, as I have discovered through nearly 40 years of marriage and being a mom for most of that time, it’s what we do after learning what the temp is that‘s just as important as taking the temperature itself.