Dr Spock Baby and Child Care and Rectal Temps

I mentioned this once in a previous post but I just came across Dr. Spock's book at a yard sale and it reignited my interest in the topic. For me, this was a huge part of my rectal temp exploration growing up. My mom had a copy of the good Dr's book and it was the bible of child care. I read and re read the pages on taking the temperature rectally and used it as the guide when I started taking my own. It was the most erotic literature of my teens. Can anyone else relate?

Mom had a hardback copy, it was almost 2 inches thick, and gray in color on the outside. I recall the thermometer drawing was like no thermometer I had ever seen and the drawing of the baby looked so odd with the thermometer in it's bottom. This book had instructions on temp taking and also enemas and a lot of other childcare stuff.

I think I have mentioned this before but I have a thermometer just like it in my collection. It is very strange to be sure, it has a metal screw top that is affixed to the top of the glass thermometer. It fits into the container and the top screws shut. To be honest it is not one of my favorite thermometers, the top makes it kind of uncomfortable. But it is unique.

What was the age he recommended rectal temps for kids? Birth til ?

I remember the Dr. Spock book. It stimulated my interest in rectal temperature taking.

Dr Spock I'm sure was responsible for a lot of people eventually joining zity. He'd be run out of town on a rail these days. How things change!

@Moppys_jalopy: I think that there was a definite rationale for rectal temperatures on kids (and possibly adults) in Dr Spock's days. Glass thermometers took 1-3 minutes to register, and to get an accurate oral reading one had to keep it under the tongue and not open the mouth. That certainly is hard for small children.

If one fell to the ground, it could break, and if it contained mercury, then clean-up was really difficult. It was safer to stick a thermometer in the rectum of a child laying in bed over his stomach than in the mouth of a seated child.

@Moppys_jalopy: I think that there was a definite rationale for rectal temperatures on kids (and possibly adults) in Dr Spock's days. Glass thermometers took 1-3 minutes to register, and to get an accurate oral reading one had to keep it under the tongue and not open the mouth. That certainly is hard for small children.

If one fell to the ground, it could break, and if it contained mercury, then clean-up was really difficult. It was safer to stick a thermometer in the rectum of a child laying in bed over his stomach than in the mouth of a seated child.

Oh I'm sure there was a reason. It still had the effect of making a lot of those kids anally inclined.

@Moppys_jalopy: Indeed. My mother probably read the French equivalent of Dr Spock.

One must take into consideration that when that book came out Electronic/Digital thermometers were down the road. The shake down oral/rectal thermometer was it. Once the electronic version appeared and improved..then the social consciousness mindset got into it and like bag enemas--rectal temp taking even for infants became problematic and a negative concept as it involved the child's buttocks. At best a parent could take a child's rectal temp but grudgingly only with a child 6 years or younger. Common sense parental options on home medical procedures such as rectal temp taking and giving a constipated child a bag enema became socially incorrect in a cloud of potential abuse. In 2021 parents can still choose to use a rectal thermometer or give their constipated child a bag enema but the thin line between real abuse and parental common sense must be carefully walked….

If I had known that my grandparents' vintage glass thermometer would become a collectors' item, I would have salavaged it out of their medicine cabinet.

As a child of the 50s and 60s, I was no stranger to the rectal thermometer. I was also prone to bronchitis and pneumonia as a toddler, so any sign of fever and a thermometer would have been slipped into my rectum.

Also, my dad was a Navy corpsman, and well versed in rectal temp taking. There were always several rectal thermometers in my parent’s house, even as late as the 80s and 90s. Doubt if they were used, but they were there.

As some have said, there is no doubt that having my temp taken that way brought about my interest in, and participation in rectal temps and Anal play as a teen and adult. And yes, I perused a copy of Dr. Spock’s book. My parents had a copy…..

My Mother had a copy of the Dr Spock Baby and Child Care book

My mom had the Dr Spock book but she also had one that was much “better”

The Better Homes and Gardens, Baby Book.

While Dr Spock's book just had drawings of rectal temperature being taken, the BH&G book had photographs. The look in the eyes in the one rectal temperature picture is amazing. The book also had a very good description of how to give a child an enema.

This was my favorite book as I was a teenager with my enema fetish growing.

Years later, with the help of eBay, I found out that only about 5 years of the publishing of the BH&G Baby book had the real photos like the one I grew up with.

I also discovered the ONE particular year they also had a real photo of a mother giving a baby an enema with s bulb. I always liked the suggestion by that photo to wrap the baby's arms and chest with a towel to prevent squirming and arms swinging. I think the year for that book was 57 or 58. I'll look if someone really wants to know for sure

@Moppys_jalopy: I think that there was a definite rationale for rectal temperatures on kids (and possibly adults) in Dr Spock's days. Glass thermometers took 1-3 minutes to register, and to get an accurate oral reading one had to keep it under the tongue and not open the mouth. That certainly is hard for small children.

Oh I remember hating that, even with the electronics, as I am (and was) more often congested than not and it was hard to not open your mouth, which cooled things down and for an electronic made it take longer (seemed like forever). My parents had a forehead LCD thing similar to what you see on fish tanks that was what I liked being used, not likely to be accurate but it was accurate enough. Nowadays I just don't usually take my temperature - most of the time it doesn't really matter anyway, if you feel sick then you're probably sick.