How did your parents react if you had a rectal temperature taken at doctors?

If your parent or parents brought you to a doctor or medical facility as a teen and you got your rectal temperature taken; did they react, and how?

When I grew up (late 40’s, into the 50’s) I think it was pretty standard to take kids temperature rectally. I certainly learned to expect that anytime there was a visit to the doctor’s office. Along about 8 or 9, I found it a bit arousing and embarrassing as the nurse had a good look at my privates as I was asked to pull my shorts down and lay face down on the exam table. And with that particular doctor, my pants stayed pulled down, as he always seemed to recommend an injection of some kind in my butt. Most often my mother was present, and I doubt it ever occurred to her as being anything unusual. It’s simply the way it was done back then. I don’t recall a thermometer in my mouth until my late teens, and by then I had a special appreciation for the white nurses uniform as often their garter belts holding up white nylons were evident-fueling my early nurse fantasies.

60’s 70’s kid rt was normal so nothing much too it. Parents took it that way too, at home.🌡️🧴🧻

There was no reaction. At the office I went to it was standard procedure for everyone 18 and under. My parents did it the same way, as the doctor instructed.

My parents kept talking to the doctor while the temperature was checked.

The rare times it happened when I was older and a parent or parents were nearby, there was no reaction from them except one time telling me to settle down because I reacted and didn't want it to be done.

It was routine at all doctors visits when I was growing up! When we entered the exam room it was always, the nurse would go to the counter to prepare the thermometer while I and my sister (one at a time) were laid across one of our parents lap or laid on the exam table! My sister and I both were not fans of the rectal temperature and would sometimes put up a bit of a fight….our parents were gentle whether at home or the doctor and just assured us that it would be over soon and just relax!

When I was old enough to realize how embarrassing having my rectal temp taken, I also became aware of my parents reaction, typically mom, who would smile when the nurse mentioned what was in store. At times, she would comment, "Oh he doesn't like it that way, or hear the nurse comment, "They all hate this part." Later on, I was seen alone, as the nurse would remark, "He's older now and it's embarrassing when I take his temp mom." By then, it was common to feel my penis reacting.

@Anne20 ...and while they were chatting, it must have seemed like an eternity for you lying there with a thermometer in your bottom!

Yes, an eternity. Apart from the embarrassment of the situation.

My mother kept up a chat with me, usually with commands like "stay still", "keep your butt up straight", and things like that.

Whenever I, or my sister, had our temperatures taken at the Pediatrician, mom would usually be chatting with the nurse while the thermometer was in my, or my sister's, butt. There was no "Reaction " to it at all. I'm assuming that my sister had the same procedure done to her because we never were seen by the Doctor at the same time.

As several have mentioned, it was not too big a lift to know temperatures were often taken rectally in those days. My mom and my pediatric nurse(s) were friendly, so as they chatted sometimes she would ask my mom if she had a preference for me? If so, my mom would share that at home my temperature was taken rectally. That would soon be followed with my nurse telling me to turn onto my tummy for her. At that point she would go to the cabinet and get the vaseline and rinse the glass thermometer from the holder on the counter.

My mom never reacted to the nurse taking my temp rectally. Because that was way my mom took my temperature

at home

It happened when I was thirteen being admitted to the hospital. My mother and father were sitting in chairs in the exam room the nurse pulled the curtain around the exam table I was sitting on. The nurse came over to the exam table side of the curtain holding a thermometer lubricated with a glob of Vaseline. She said I need to take your temperature it’s more accurate this way. I can hear my father ask my mother what is the nurse doing my mother answered she is taking his temperature rectally.

I don't remember a doctor ever taking my temperature rectally. Even a nurse as far as that goes. I can tell you that I took many rectal temperatures when I worked at a hospital which was a level one trauma center. It was situated next to a college. It seems that if someone was drunk and their friends brought them to the hospital or if they were out running and passed out from the heat we would take a rectal temperature. This was before they had tympanic thermometers and other thermometers/scanners. There were a few who would be passed out and come to with a thermometer in their butt and their first reaction is to reach back, grab it and pull it out and toss it. I only saw this happen one time. Then I was told it happens more than what people think. There was one doctor at that hospital that if they brought in someone who had passed out He would order a cath.

I never had my parents of anyone else do it as a child. It was always oral. Now during scening at times I enjoy it

Given that at that time in France rectal was pretty much standard even for adults I doubt they would have spoken against it. The only thing that could have happened, I think, is that if the nurse had attempted doing it herself/himself at an age when I was supposed to insert the thermometer into myself, mom would perhaps have said "oh, he knows how to do it". But maybe not, because mom in general respected the actions of medical personnel.

I don’t remember mom having a reaction. That was pretty much standard back then oral or rectal thermometer. The last time I had a rectal thermometer in my butt in a medical situation. I was 15 at the emergency room. I was embarrassed about it at the time. After we left the hospital mom didn’t say anything about it neither did I. The Doctor wrote a prescription for phenergan suppositories mom gave me one later that night.

When I had to go to the doctor as a boy, there was no protesting. We did what the doctor and nurse said. Saying 'no, I don't want to do that' was unthinkable and would have resulted in immediate reprimand from both mom and dad. Rectal temperatures were a part of life at home and at the doctor. As a young boy, I thought nothing of it. I didn't start to feel awkward/embarassed until I was like 10 or 11. I don't recall my parents ever reacting in any way when the doctor or nurse checked my temperature rectally.