Going back to rectal?

I've seen stories of people who were given a choice of oral or rectal or who were switched from oral back to rectal without consenting but I'm curious of this one. Anyone get switched to oral as a kid, then later ask to switch back to rectal on your own accord?

I distinctly remember being 9 years old and finally switching to the oral thermometer. I felt like such a little kid having to still get it taken in my butt up to that point and felt really embarrassed about the whole situation (though I didn't put up a fight about it much since I didn't want to have a sore butt either) so when I finally switched I felt relieved and like a bigger kid. Though soon after I found out that the way the oral thermometer poked under my tongue almost felt kinda like a needle and it didn't particularly taste pleasant either, but it wasn't until I was 11 or so that for reasons I wasn't aware of at the time (though I am now) that I started longing for the rectal thermometer again. I guess at the time I felt it wasn't as bad as I remembered and since I did get sick sorta often as a child that I'd rather have the route that's more comfortable. I was pretty embarrassed at the thought of asking for it that way again but at one point I built up enough courage to do so. One time at 11 when I was sick my mom came in with the oral thermometer and I nervously asked if we could take it rectally again. She gave me an odd look and asked why and I kinda gave her the reasons of the oral one tasting bad and hurting my mouth. She still gave me an odd look but asked if I was sure and I responded yes. She left for a moment and came back with the vaseline and rectal thermometer I once dreaded but now requested. It was over her lap and in my bottom the thermometer went from then on till I was 16 (I outgrew my sick phase by then and didn't really need any more temperature checks after that point sadly).

Anyone else have a similar story of requesting the rectal thermometer?

I had the exact feelings as well. I felt like a baby getting it taken in my "tushie", and I hated how the oral thermometer felt in my mouth, and I often had a difficult time using it. Sometimes it took three or four attempts to get a decent reading, even at 12 or 13 years old. Mom would get annoyed and yell at me,I assumed my mom would realize what was obvious to me- whether I wanted it or not, I just wasn't ready for oral temps yet. I didn't have the courage to ask to be switched back. I figured mom would just give up and switch back, but she didnt. When I became a parent, my son also had problems with the oral thermometer at that age, so I switched back to rectal untIl his early teens, with no argument from him.

I have not asked to resume RT taking. If it occurs, it's a requirement and that makes it all the more intense now.

When my then 15yo had a really bad cold and had to breath thru his mouth I was not going the rectal route since he hadnt it done that way for quite a few years.--Well, when I stated the obvious situation to him HE suggested I take it in his butt. So, I went to hand it to him with a glob of vasoline on the end and he just rolled over on his belly and said "you do it"---kind of surprised me with that comment as a 15 year old but then said "but dont tell anyone" to which I agreed until now.

I wouldn't say that I had an experience in which I was officially switched from rectal to oral and then switched back. It was more that, when I turned seven or eight, my mom would often start with an oral measurement. I didn't like it much, as I have a strong gag reflex and found it hard to breathe at times--but I also had very mixed feelings about the rectal thermometer. I know I was becoming intrigued by it--I have a memory of being at my pediatrician for a yearly check-up at around eight, finding literature about temperature-taking, and feeling strangely absorbed by the description of taking a temperature rectally. Unconsciously, I think I was starting to find the experience of being together with my mother, just the two of us, in my bedroom or hers, baring myself (or being bared) and having her cup my bottom with her hand for the five minutes or so that the thermometer was inside me, nestled between her fingers, pleasurable. But I also viewed the fact my temperature was still taken rectally at times as a stigma, as something that proved that I wasn't as grown up as I wanted to be. The idea that anyone outside the family would find out was anathema. Just in general at this point, I was developing a strong association between having to bare your bottom, whether to get your temperature taken or to get a shot at the doctor's (which happened to me when I was eight) or to get a spanking, and being infantilized. I remember specifically begging my mother when I got that penicillin shot not to tell anybody that it had been in my bottom (the word we used in my house was "tushie"). So, I had a lot of ambivalence. But, to get back to the point of this thread, up until I was 9, almost 10, my mother would take my temperature rectally if she wasn't satisfied with the oral reading. This happened to me for the last time when I was in fourth grade, and woke up feeling sick one morning. My mother took my temperature orally at the kitchen table, frowned when it came back close to normal, and then said, "D-, I don't know about this reading, but I really think we should check with the other thermometer." There were times I would protest when she said this, but I don't recall complaining on this occasion. I just went up to my bedroom and waited for my mom to see my sister off to school and come upstairs. That was the last time she took my temperature rectally. There was never an announcement to the effect of, it's over, you've now graduated to the oral thermometer, and I remember still wondering for a few years thereafter, whenever she would take my temperature, if she would shake her head as she sometimes used to at the reading and ask to take it the other way. One time, I remember, I was 12, and lying on my parents' bed, which had an electric blanket. My mother took my temperature, and started to frown and shake her head like she used to, and said, "D-, you're not going to like this, but--", and at that moment, I think a shiver went through my body, as I thought, oh my God, is she really going to tell me she wants to take it in my tush? Not at all--she just wanted to take my oral temperature again with me not sitting on the heated blanket, because she thought it was affecting the reading. I think that's when I realized once and for all that my rectal temp days were over.

The "don't tell anybody" aspect kinda stuck with me as well considering I had an older brother by 4 years. I remember one time (I was 15 and he was 19) where I guess he caught a cold and took his own temperature orally but left the thermometer casually sitting on the sink. I heard my mom knock on the door to his room and ask him if he left the thermometer out on the sink. For whatever reason he tried to lie and say that I did it, to which my mom responded "I know he didn't touch it I take his temperature rectally". Those words still sit in my mind and I remember my heart dropping into my stomach at that moment. Surprisingly it was never brought up by my brother to me and I don't even know if he remembers it or even thought much of it. Maybe he knew that I switched back and my mom told him not to tease me over it at some point because they were always taken privately in my room or her room.

Either way that memory of being extremely embarrassed and having my mom announce to someone else about "my rectal thermometer" gets me really excited now.

At the end of age 4 and the minute I learn arm pit; never went back to rectal. The minute I learned oral temperatures, I was in between arm pit and oral and never went back to rectal because that method is for babies and toddlers at 98% of the time.

The driving force to change from having a temperature taken orally with a glass oral thermometer to having a rectal temperature taken with a glass rectal thermometer may be due to a youngster demonstrating that he is marginally capable responsibly managing a glass oral thermometer in his mouth. For example, a youngster that fails to follow ordinary instructions may also not follow instructions to keep a glass oral thermometer properly placed in his mouth. Obviously having a glass rectal thermometer securely lodge in his rear end insures a successful conclusion.

The driving force to change from having a temperature taken orally with a glass oral thermometer to having a rectal temperature taken with a glass rectal thermometer may be due to a youngster demonstrating that he is marginally capable responsibly managing a glass oral thermometer in his mouth. For example, a youngster that fails to follow ordinary instructions may also not follow instructions to keep a glass oral thermometer properly placed in his mouth. Obviously having a glass rectal thermometer securely lodge in his rear end insures a successful conclusion.

I didn't have any problems with instructions or holding it in my mouth, I just realized it was less comfortable having it taken orally. I attribute it to liking anal stimulation however I didn't really understand that at the time I switched back.

I've never considered the option of switching back to rectal. To me, having oral temps. were kind of a rite of passage to becoming a responsible and capable person, who could comply with simple instructions. I resented having my temp. taken rectally as a child, and was switched to oral at around age 5 or 6. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but for me it was.

I went from oral back to rectal once when I was seven. Our pediatrician made an exception and switched me to oral when I was six (they usually switched you over at age seven), then our neighborhood doctor took it rectally a year later. It felt so good I often wondered why I never asked for an r/t at our pediatrician's after that. I'll never know if such a request would have been granted.

I remember asking mom around age 8 or 9 if she'd take my temperature in my butt one time when I was sick. She kind of looked at me funny and said no, you're too old. She had switched me to oral around 4 or 5 and had given me the option of "which one" when it came to temperature time. Silly me I didn't realize how much I liked rectal until I was a bit older. Today, that's all that I take....period. If a temperature check is warranted, it's taken rectally or I don't take it at all.