At What Age Did Rectal Temps Stop For You

Seven or eight for me.

I can't remember, but it must have been very early when mom taught me to hold a thermometer under my tongue, properly. At age 12 the pediatrician came to the house because I was having constant pain in my lower, right quadrant and he suspected appendicitis. He wanted my temp. and apologized that all he had with him was a rectal thermometer, so he used it and I didn't care, the pain was so intense. Then he put me on the dining room floor and did a DRE and rebound exam. He told mom he was sure it was an appendicitis, to give me an enema and take me to Cincy Children's E.R., where he had a surgeon waiting to meet me. He was right in his diagnosis.

An enema for suspected appendicitis? Yikes good way to rupture it. Glad you survived Jimmy!

Until I was around 10 I think. taken in the same simms position as was used when getting an enema.

I don't ever recall having my temp taken rectally. At home or at a clinic.

No doubt that as an infant in the early 1950s mine was probably taken rectally at the doctor's office, but I have no recollection.

My mother was blind, so she couldn't have read a thermometer. She relied on her hand on my forehead to tell her if I had a fever.

I got my rectal temperature taken by my parents until I was 16 yo. From the age of 11-12 I was always laying on my tummy trying to hide my erection as I secretly had a love/hate-relation to the thermometer and everything that had to do with it.

7

5, but they continue now

My temperature was taken rectally at home until I was 6 and started school. At the pediatric clinic the rule was until 9.

I never wanted to be found sick and miss school, which I liked, and other activities. I kept the oral thermometer from showing much of a fever at home. However, I usually had to go to the clinic anyway because of a cough or other symptoms that prompted checking my temperature.

I convinced my mom to stay in the reception area when I started school - not hard because it was more pleasant than a hard chair in one of the small exam rooms. I did not think about it at the time, but between 6 and 9 the nurses at the clinic probably noted that the appointment notes said something like cough but no fever, but the rectal temperature that they took indicated the truth.The nurses must not have discussed any suspicions with my mom because I would have certainly received a memorable spanking when my dad found out.

When I was 9, I took the bus to the clinic by myself (it was a more innocent time, and my dad drove our only car to work). A nurse asked accusingly if I kept the thermometer under my tongue. I was not a good liar, there were the discrepancies between oral at home and rectal at the clinic between 6 and 9, and the nurses were probably used to such cheating. They took my temperature again in my butt and that revealed the truth. They must have made a note in my file because after that it was always rectal at the clinic until 15.

I can remember going to a doc when I was in 6th grade and Mom telling the nurse that I can do a mouth temp. reading but the nurse was having nothing to do about that and she still had me on my stomach with my underpants down and my butt as her target.--That was about 1958.

For me rectal temps at the Dr. office stopped when I was 10 but at home it was continued on up till the time I left for college. I had many a fight with my Mother over this, couldn't understand why she was still so old fashioned. But she said that rectal temps were the true temp of the body because it was from core of the body.

I don't have any memory of them happening at the doctor's office, so I must have been very young. At home, they officially stopped around 8 or 9 years old, but when the oral thermometer was being flighty for whatever reason, I'd get a rectal temp. I wasn't sick often so it didn't come up much.

Though I definitely used it myself for less medically minded reasons!

12 or 13...

It seems that they never stopped! my mom was a pediatric nurse, who believed in taking temperatures' "The hospital way", as she used to call them. Yes, they were embarassing, especially in high school and college, yet I found them comforting. i would love to talk to others who feel the same way. -Ruth-Ann

Pretty sure that hasn't happened to me since I was too little to remember. 🙄

I do not remember the exact age, but I was old enough. still I had not exceeded 17 years.

Under 5 for me.

Until i was 6

Never had my temp taken by a doctor or a nurse. Up until first grade my mum did rectal readings, while I was lying on my stomache. After that it always was done orally or under the arm. Never liked RTs until I inserted the thermometer myself, when I was about 12 and got aroused right away.

At home my mom switched to oral when I 6 and started first grade. The pediatric clinic rule was rectal until 9. When I started school I also showed my developing independence by getting my mom to stay in the reception area at the clinic. That was not hard because it was more pleasant than a corner of one of the 10 small exam rooms.

At home I also cheated on the oral temps and tried to keep them from showing a fever in hopes of not missing school, which I liked, and being grounded. It rarely worked and I went to the clinic anyway. What I naively did not think about at the time was that between 6 and 9 the nurses saw appointment notes that said something like cough but no fever, and the rectal temperature they took indicated otherwise. When I was 9 and they finally switched to oral, they accusingly asked if I kept the thermometer under my tongue. I was apparently not a convincing liar. They took it again in my bottom, and soon there must have been a note in my file, because I got rectal temperatures at the clinic until 15.

Honestly, 15. I know many will question this or find it untrue, but it is real. I had a terrible cough, so keeping an oral thermometer in place was "not an option" as she said. Also, it's not like I was a hunking, large kid. I was always the smallest or close to that in my grade. Often at the Dr's office, they didn't even ask, just had me lay on my tummy and that was that.

I can surely relate to "Passivetemp" statement below. I was also the "runt" so to speak as the smallest and shortest of my classmates. I remember only weighing 115# when I went in the Army as a 20yo. I always looked a LOT younger that I was and even use to get carded for ID to buy a beer even at 30-35yo. People even say today that I look at least 10-15 years younger than I am. (is that a good thing now?)

I must have been four or five the last time my mother took my temperature rectally. She'd have me lie down on the living room sofa over her lap face down.

For me it never stopped. I'm 52 and have always taken or had it taken rectally.

I had it that way from my Mother longer then I care to say!

I always got mine taken rectally because my Mom said that it was the only way to get a true temperature even when my friends were having theirs taken orally I was still having mine taken rectally, I would still give Mom a lot of lip about. 😃

For me it was around age 5 at home, and the doctor as well, although I knew teens who had their temps taken rectally. I had a gf who was a nurse, during my 20's. She re-introduced me to rectal temps. when I was staying with her, and got sick. From then on, the fetish hit hard. Rt's are my form of "heroin." Every time that I see an attractive female, I fantasize about giving or receiving a rectal temp.

I got mine taken quite often from my mother. I would most likely be on my tummy. Mom took them until I was 18, then I took over and took them myself.

I had mine taken rectally until around 11, and then for the most part was switched over to oral. I have some memories as a younger kid of it getting taken in the diaper position, but by 5 or 6 it was taken with me lying facedown on a bed or a couch.

My mom stopped taking my temperature rectally when I was almost 5 years old. Then I learned armpit and mouth.