Recommended age for rectal temperature changing through history

Nowadays, if you do some research on the internet, you can find many-many article about rectal temperature taking but all of them says it is used only on kids under 3 or 5 years. Also, the 5 years old limit seems a bit extreme, they say. I saw all the other posts here, in this forum where a lot of people claimed that his/her temperature still was taken at high school age by mother/doctor rectally. But as I said, nowadays rectal temperature taking on kids count as taboo, they suggest axillary/oral as soon as possible.

1.Anyone knows, when the recommended age was changed?

2. But in the past, what were the standard? How this method was explained to mothers by doctors?

3. Finally, anyone has some old medical book, or memories about old medical book at home with rectal temperature taking guide, where was explained it has to used later as teen as well, not just infants?

Thanks everyone in advance!

If my rectal temperatures stopped at 5. I serious doubt I would have a medical fetish. I was at least 10 and maybe 11 before My physician switched me to oral. Home switched earlier than that.

Just like I said under other topics. My rectal temperature days were during the ages infant until the middle of age 4 which is toddler. I did see on line one time and do not know where that rectal temperatures were recommended from infant to ages 5. When I was 4, I looked like a 5 or a six year old. I had already learned under arm before age 5.

My mother used the rectal method until I was about 8 or 9. I never questioned it or wondered whether there was any kind of rule about it.

My mom took my temperature rectally until I was age 10 it just was the way it was taken growing up I never questioned it.

"Anyone knows, when the recommended age was changed?"

I believe it evolved downward slowly beginning in the 1970s. Prior to the '70s, it was common for children up to the teen years to receive rts at home. Interestingly, almost all public advertising that showed thermometers in use on kids used the oral method, even back to the 1930s.

"Finally, anyone has some old medical book, or memories about old medical book at home with rectal temperature taking guide, where was explained it has to used later as teen as well, not just infants?"

The official advise even as early as the '40s recommended using orals temps around age 6. However, I have seen several nursing / childcare books published as late as the '80s that recommended RTs until age 12.

I turned 13 in 1971 and my doctor's nurse did RT to age 13. She asked if you wanted oral after that. I grew up in Rapid City South Dakota in the USA.

Mom only Had rectal thermometers for my brother and I, she did get an oral one for my brother when he was about age 14. I never minded rectal and had them from mom or when I took my own until I went into the us navy at age 18.

What was acceptable decades ago, doesn't hold true today. Technology and social attitudes are much different than they were when I was young. We might share a fetish, but do you honestly think that kids and teens want to have their temperature taken rectally ?

Growing up in the 80s, there were different standards at different places. My parents didn’t use rectal much beyond 6 or 7 that I recall, but mom rarely took my temp at all, she would usually take me to the doctor at the slightest sniffle. The doctor’s office took my temp rectally up to age 12. Hospitals tended to always take rectal temps in the pediatric wards that were common back then. I stayed in one at 6 and everyone had their temp taken rectally regardless of age. The school nurses always used oral on me but had the same dual jars of red and blue thermometers that I saw at the doctor’s. I once asked the nurse what the other thermometers were for (I remember being surprised to have my temp taken orally) and she said they were for little kids in kindergarten.

BOOK: I had a gift set given to me as a child, with 9 classics (Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, etc) and then the 10th book was a book on infant and child care. I specifically remember the book saying oral temps were only suitable for 8 years and older but recommending rectal temps for children of ALL AGES. I read this with both fascination and trepidation at the time, being 12 and hoping my rectal temp days were over. It said that older children and teens might be embarrassed, but that they should be reassured that there was nothing to be embarrassed about. It praised rectal temps as the safest and most accurate method for taking a child’s temperature. I remember it telling parents to “part the child’s buttocks with your thumb and forefinger, and insert the thermometer to one third to one half it’s length,” and then saying to “hold the thermometer like a cigarette, with your hand resting on the child’s bottom”. I read this several times, with both dread and fascination.

I switched when I stopped seeing the pediatrician around age 13. Got it rectally at home still till 14-15 when I had a high oral temperature.

What I see on the internet, recommended age kids can switch to oral is around 4 or 5. I don’t remember ever having a rectal temp, bu do remember orals.

My mom took my temperature rectally until I was age 10 it just was the way it was taken growing up I never questioned it.

My mother took my temperature rectally all through my childhood, teens and 20's until I moved away from home in my late 20's to start my first job in another city.

My mother took my temperature rectally all through my childhood, teens and 20's until I moved away from home in my late 20's to start my first job in another city.

Your mother clearly derived sexual pleasure from taking your rectal temperature, especially when you were an adult and maybe you did too.

YOU clearly could do it yourself if a rectal temp was desired.

Your mother clearly derived sexual pleasure from taking your rectal temperature.

That's possible but depending on when and where she was raised it might just be the way things were. Some people swear the only accurate temp is one that was done rectally. Who knows.

That's possible but depending on when and where she was raised it might just be the way things were. Some people swear the only accurate temp is one that was done rectally. Who knows.

Do you think there are places where people in their late twenty's have their temperature taken rectally by their mom? I know in some places, rectal was used even by adults, but from what I understand, at some age, usually early teens, the kid starts taking it themself.

As a child, and with a couple of exceptions later on, I submitted to rectal temps regularly at our clinic until the age of six. It’s how my doctor wanted it done, he told my mother so.

If a high temp is occurring while a dangerous infection is suspected, a rectal temp will be taken at (any age). Mine was taken every four hours in Mayo Clinic ICU for a month and a half. I was in my early forties. Yes I was in the ICU for that long. Just a couple years ago my temp was taken rectally in the ER with a sleeved probe because sepsis was suspected. I was in my early fifties at the time.

Do you think there are places where people in their late twenty's have their temperature taken rectally by their mom? I know in some places, rectal was used even by adults, but from what I understand, at some age, usually early teens, the kid starts taking it themself.

If you only have a rectal thermometer that is how you probably take the temps. Doesn't always have to be seen as "perverse" or "sexual".

The main factor in trending down the age of rectal temps and the switch to oral temps at a much younger age is the advent of digital thermometers. Without the worry of younger kids biting a glass thermometer it was safer to let younger kids try oral. Than a shift occurred that just makes sense. Rectal is seem as more invasive and unneccesarry on people that can cooperate with the oral method. Now it's even less likely given all the other methods. I was a kid in the 70s and that was probably the last decade of true glass thermometer usage without any other choice.

In the U.S., as opposed to Europe, sticking something in your anus is considered taboo, by many, especially today with people living in fear of censorship, and ostracism. In Europe, bearing your ass for a suppository or rectal temperature is probably, or at least was, as common as brushing your teeth. If American healthcare workers still take rectal temperatures, I'm certainly not aware of it. The recommended age for rectal temperatures, was typically restricted to around age 5, and under, provided that the child could reliably keep a thermometer under their tongue. Don't forget, we're talking about mercury-filled glass, which was unforgiving if bitten. There were still families, and cultures that followed the practice of rectal temperature at all ages, based on the accuracy factor. In other countries, rectal temperatures had no age restrictions. At least, that was then.

I am in my mid 70's and I still take my temperature rectally. I find it to be the most accurate way to take it. I still enjoy the feeling of it going into my anus, rectum and bowels.

Mom took my temp rectally until I was 12 or so I loved it because I knew an enema would soon follow!

As far as I know, my parents always took their own temperature rectally. One day when I was 12 or 13, my parents gave me a brand new mercury glass thermometer ( this took place in the 1960's) and told me that I was old enough to take my temperature myself.

There had been a small incident that day. I had been having some kind of cold and my mother had been monitoring my temperature for a few days. She eventually called the doctor. When she informed the doctor of my temperature mesurements, I realized that she had given me different figures, minimizing my fever. I was shocked and, after the doctor left, I started yelling at my mother, complaining that she lied to me. We had an argument which ended in both of us crying.

I don’t know that there is a recommended age. Perhaps other factors play into it such as cultural norms, medical conditions, individual preferences or if options were given as one was growing up.

@OverRainbow I totally agree with you. I think all these factors play a huge role in it as well as just the fact it is most accurate. My mom, a RN will never get away from rectal temps for my sisters and I, or I imagine herself either. It's just the way it is. Really, no big deal for me, or my sisters and temperature is just taken rectally. End of story.

I agree that for some rectal temps are just the way it is. I think rule of thumb before all the digital temps out now was the ability to keep it under your tongue. Around age 5

Our pediatrician in Indiana would switch patients to oral at age seven.

Back when I was growing up, in France, it was commonplace for adults to take their own temperature rectally, and in fact this was the method used in hospitals. Now the question is when children were switched from parent / nurse inserting to themselves inserting. I'm unsure about the age it happened for me, and I don't know what family care books used to advise.

I once came across an article regarding a clinical trial involving some 2000+ Female patients/ volunteers. They were subjected to rectal temperature measurements during the study.

This was in the 70’s 80’s Mom switched from rectal thermometer to oral glass thermometer . when we were around 6 unless we were sick coughing or vomiting. Little later at the pediatrician office. She would ask mom if she took a temperature and how rectal or oral. A lot of the time she still got the red cap thermometer out and In the butt it would go. If the Doctor wrote a prescription for nausea vomiting you could count on it being suppositories nothing more embarrassing as you got older having one pushed up your butt