Profile of people using rectal thermometers

I was always curious to know back when rectal thermometers were still somewhat in use with preteens what was the emotional characteristics of the mother and child. When you knew or suspected a childhood friend of having their temperature taken at a later age, did they seem shy or awkward around their mother? Did your friend's mother seem too strict, unreasonably paranoid about illness, or perhaps a little bit of a control freak or a pervert?

Where I lived as a kid there was only one pediatrician he had his nurse do RT to age 13 then they asked you how you wanted it taken. All the kids I knew used the same doctor, and their parents did RT on them as well. I noticed nothing odd about how any of the kids acted. I was born in 1958 and lived in South Dakota near Rapid City on a ranch. All the parents I knew seemed to be very caring and not strict, or over bearing. RT was just how it was taken and it was so normal to us that we even when playing doctor did pretend or real RT's if we could sneak a thermometer.

I'm not of Kenw's generation but I also never attached any sort of power dynamic to the practice when it was being done by a parent or caregiver. That sort of thinking only comes into play when it's recreational in nature.

MIne has always been rectal Like whats the big deal?

I think power dynamics begin when a parent takes on purpose a rectal temperature on a child who could withstand an oral temperature or insert the thermometer rectally without help. My mother did this once when I was approximately 10 to punish me for trying to cheat on a fever. It definitely reminded me who was boss.

I just found this post and it got me thinking. I don't believe that the fascination about a RT comes from one specific thing or necessarily only one experience. I assume that it can be just about anything from in a family situation between a parent and child and then the exam scenario. Later it is likely to involve some degree of play with a partner or friend.

For me, the most powerful influences were medical experiences dating back to childhood, adolescence and beyond. The gradual progression from having a temp taken to that of a rectal exam and DRE constitute the stepping stones for Medfet as far as it applies to me. I would also add that the more recent introduction to enema processes has added a whole different dimension! All of these experiences lend to arousal and thinking of what happens when my anus becomes engaged!

In closing I have no idea about my “profile” other than to note my anus and rectum remain highly sensitive to any suggestion of intrusion! It keeps me up at night and in other ways as well!

I'm undecided on this subject as it's very complex .

I can only speak for my own mom who was a big proponent of the rectal thermometer during my youth. Growing up, I honestly don’t recall ever seeing an oral thermometer in our medicine cabinet. I have one very strange memory from the late 1970’s which I still can’t make much sense of. I was around 10 or 11 and my mom had taken me to the doctor’s office for something, maybe a check-up. The nurse put a thermometer in my butt and left the room while it registered. During that several minutes when we were alone my mom pulled the thermometer out of me, then very slowly put it right back in for some strange reason. I remember being very confused by this and asked her what she was doing and why. I don’t remember her answer but I’ve always wondered if she had a bit of an RT fetish since I can’t really think of any good reason for doing such a thing. Did she think the nurse hadn’t inserted it correctly or something? As I got older I always wanted to ask her about it but I figured it would be way too embarrassing for both of us.

All throughout elementary school if I was sick my mom would frequently take my temperature rectally throughout the day, even once waking me during the night for it. Toward the end of middle school she’d pretty much ceased taking my temperature as I became more self-aware and less willing to cooperate. But even then if I was sick in bed she would occasionally still try. I remember being kind of suspicious of her and wondered why there were no oral thermometers in the house. I loved my mom but I have to admit this was definitely a little weird. I remember one morning, junior year in high school (mid 1980’s) I had vomited in a classroom trash bin and she came to pick me up from the nurse’s office. When we got home I got right into bed when soon after she came in holding a thermometer in one hand and a jar of Vaseline in the other. Once again I remember thinking that something was amiss but I was so miserably nauseous that I just let her do it. The next day I stayed home from school but I was feeling much better by then. I recall laying in bed watching television when yet again mom came in with the thermometer, this time already smeared with Vaseline. Since I was feeling better I told her it wasn’t necessary and didn’t want her to do it but she insisted on taking it “just one more time”. Agreeing it would be the final time I relented and let her take it but I remember laying there feeling kind of weirdly indecent. I knew that I was way too old for my mom to be doing this to me and it just felt a bit obscene. Once I was in college and did some research on rectal temperatures and learned there was never any good reason or necessity for my mom to have done them especially as I got older. One other final thing I’ll mention is that despite begging my mom to switch doctors she insisted on taking me to a pediatrician until I got into high school. I hated going there because they literally never stopped taking my temperature rectally until high school and I wonder if my mom kind of like that.

I remember quite vividly having my temperature taken rectally as far back as age 5, and it was a turn on for me.

I guess I liked the attention and the sensation was incredible! It lasted til I was about ten and then it stopped (much to my dismay).

I was wired for this, and also for Enemas which were a regular thing for me at this same time. I became fascinated by all of the Enema bags,

hoses, metal clamps, bulb syringes, and black nozzles my Grandmother kept in a large drawer in her bathroom. I used to sneak in there just to look at it.

To this day just the sight of a rectal thermometer (and of course Enema equipment) makes my knees week.

My rectal temperature experience was limited to around age 5, both at home and the doctor’s office. Unless it came up in a conversation, or a thermometer was sitting out in plain view, there was no way to know, how someone’s temperature was taken. I believe that most children had their temps. taken orally, upon demonstrating that they could do so safely. I was personally aware of teens and preteens that received rectal temps.

Once I was in college and did some research on rectal temperatures and learned there was never any good reason or necessity for my mom to have done them especially as I got older. One other final thing I’ll mention is that despite begging my mom to switch doctors she insisted on taking me to a pediatrician until I got into high school. I hated going there because they literally never stopped taking my temperature rectally until high school and I wonder if my mom kind of like that.

You could also turn this statement around, as a child care book in my house did, and say that there was no reason NOT to take a rectal temperature, especially in the age of glass thermometers. I can remember the child care book we had saying that there was no reason to take an oral temperature at home, as rectal was the safest and most accurate method for children of all ages, and that that should be explained to children. It went on to describe the method, which involved placing the child over your knee and holding the thermometer “like you would hold a cigarette”. Obviously these words both fascinated me and filled me with dread of my parents continuing rectal throughout my teens and twenties. They didn’t, though.

And most pediatric clinics used rectal to older ages when glass thermometers were in fashion, as it was far less likely to be dropped and broken being held in a tight bottom hole rather than relying on a child to hold it carefully under their tongue.

That just to say… don’t think of your mom or the pediatrician as being odd, although it’s possible, it was also the standard at the time. And a lot of moms enjoyed their sons bottoms as being cute and boyish, rather than any kind of sexual thrill.

I think in my case my mother was a bit “fever phobic.” Maybe it is part of that generation. I don’t think there was ever a control issue. As far as rectal temps go, she used this method until she felt I was safe to hold the thermometer under my tongue. I remember being told I wasn’t ready yet for the oral thermometer. Like others here, she followed the tried and true method of over the knee temperature taking which was a bit embarrassing. I think she felt it gave her the most control of the thermometer while it was registering in my rectum.

My mother had read somewhere that rectal temperatures were more reliable. She used rectal on herself and enforced using rectal on us. When we were old enough we inserted the thermometer ourselves.