Doctor's office or at home

I don't have any memory of it being done at home. I just remember it at the doctor's office.

I had mine taken by the nanny as well as in the doctors office.

I only remember receiving them at home.

I preferred having my rectal temperatures taken at home. It never hurt when mom took mine, and it spared me the embarrassment of a young nurse staring at my spread apart backside with my legs raised. I developed a dread for doctor office visits. They had this young nurse that I hated taking my temperature because she always stuck it too far. That hurts when you're only 4 or 5, and the thermometer's in your butt over half way. Three minutes feels like an eternity.

I too have no recollection of having my temp taken rectally. Not to say it never happened, just I have no memory.

No kid wants to have their temp taken, so asking if they preferred it one place or another is asking for a choice between two undesirable choices. For most kids the answer it none of the above.

I preferred it getting at home. But sometimes got them in the doctors office as well.

At the doctor i would have lay down on my back a nurse would take my legs up and insert a thermometer.

Rectal temps were always standard practice both at home and the doctors office. Both places the procedure was nearly the same. At home mom was the primary temp taker. However, she taught my older sisters the procedure. She said it was good practice for them when they had children. The nurses at the doctors office also took my rectal temperature-it was already the doctor's preferred method. (I found out later that mom had written in my records that she took rectal temperatures at home, plus she had asked the nurses to continue the process with me--at that time, the nurses did not seem to mind, since it was the doctor's preferred method for checking temperatures). Each time I was told to undress to my underwear, and to lay facedown on my tummy and place my arms at my side. The nurse helped me up on the examination table using the steps at the end of the table. At home I was on my bed, or a sheet on the livingroom floor. At the doctors I was on the examination table's laying on the white crinkled paper. Each time my underwear was lowered to below my knees. I would be able to see (mom, sisters, or nurses) as they prepped the thermometer. I watched as it was shaken down, then dipped into the Vaseline or the ointment spread onto the silver pearshaped bulb. I watched all of them approach me with the thermometer between their fingers. I knew in a few seconds the thermometer would be penetrating my bottomhole, and held for 5 minutes. As each approached me laying on my tummy, I feel a hand on my bottomcheeks, fingers touching, enter and spreading them apart. Cool air rushes, the silence, as the thermometer lightly touches my bottomhole, I twitch, and always hear "lay still for me, this will not hurt". Then I feel the tip of the thermometer enter my bottomhole. Slowly mom, my sisters, or the nurse twirls the glass rod as it is guided deep within me to its destination. I continue to lay still, my arms at my side, at home on my bed I look at the toys in my closet, on the livingroom floor the images on the television, or looking at the backyard through the glass patiodoors, or at the doctor's office the cartoon characters painted on the wall. When mom,my sisters, or the nurses are satisfied with the thermometers insertion, I feel the fingers move from my bottomcheeks as each closes around the thermometer. Then a hand is placed at my mid to lower back, as the thermometer is twirled, slightly withdrawn, then reinserted into my bottomhole. I continue to lay still. At home I see my moms or my sisters blouses close to my face. I see the designs on her outfit. I have looked up to see her face, as she is looking back and down at my bottom watching the thermometer as it registers. Sometimes she looks and sees me, smiles, and says "I am being a good boy, and to lay still for a few more minutes for your temperature check". I turn my head the opposite way, and look at the posters hanging on my wall in my room, or when on the livingroom floor, I see the appliances standing in the kitchen, sometimes I watch the hands on the clock. At the doctor's office, the nurses also have their white, or multicolored uniform close to my face. They are also looking back and down at my bottom watching the thermometer as it registers. They have also said " I was being a good boy, and for me to turn my head the other way, look at the cartoon characters on the wall, and lay still for the temperature check". I would turn my head as they instructed, looking at the cartoon characters painted on the wall, and also seeing the medical items in the glass cabinet against the wall and wondering if the nurse was going to use any of those items on me after the temperature check. As the temperature check continued, again I would feel the thermometer being twirled, slightly with drawn, then reinserted. At home my mom and sisters would also do this. Everyone always said "it was to get an accurate temperature reading". The procedure always took 5 minutes and was announced as "let's check your temperature reading". I would then feel fingers once again spread apart my bottomcheeks as the thermometer was then twirled, then slowly withdrawn from my bottomhole. Once removed I could see it held by mom, my sisters, or the nurse, as they would reach for a tissue, wipe the thermometer for the reading, then announce it. Seems it was always high. I then would watch as a tissue was retrieved to clean me. Mom, my sisters, and the nurse always had tissues nearby for this. I watched as several tissues were taken, then I felt my bottomcheeks respread. The tissues were brushed, slightly against my bottomhole as the Vaseline was cleaned away. Once done, the fingers were removed from my bottom, and I was told I could pull up my underwear. At the doctor's office, the nurse wrote the numbers on a clipboard, then help me pull up my underwear, and off of the examination table using the steps at the end. At home mom, and my sisters kept a notebook they wrote the numbers on for a tracking method. At home mom and my sisters would help me pull up my underwear, and up and off the bed or up from the livingroom floor. At the doctor's office, I always given a shot in my bottom when I had a fever from the rectal temp. This procedure also had my laying on my tummy, with my underwear lowered again below my knees. At home mom, my sisters would recheck my rectal temp again in a couple hours. If I had another high rectal temp, then I was taken to the doctor's office. Mom and my sisters would tell the nurses that they took my rectal temps at home when I had the fever, and the readings were high during both checks. They also brought the notebook to show the nurses the regular temperature checks schedule they were keeping at home. The nurses and the doctor said "it was a great tracking plan, and requested that they bring it each time I was scheduled for an appointment". When the nurses called me back for the examination, it was for the bp, height, weight, standard procedural rectal temp check, and always a shot given in my bottom. Growing up it seemed to always be the same procedure each time I went to the doctor's office. Several of the nurses also gave mom and my sisters some new rectal thermometers. They said "they could be used as backups when a second rectal temp recheck was needed". For me growing up, rectal temps were always standard practice both at home and the doctors office

@ room visitor--Your experiences & process nicely explained !

Mainly at home

Definitely more at home.

I hated it everywhere, but I definitely preferred it at home instead of lying on the exam table.

I can remember my Mom taking my temperature rectally but I have no memories of that happening at the Doctor’s office but I’m sure it did.

Certainly, there was less pressure and stress having my rectal temperature taken at home, as it was in the safe surroundings of my mother's bedroom. There was also just my mother present for the most part, as compared to the pediatrician's office, where there would be an ongoing conversation between the nurse and my mother as I was undressed and given the rectal thermometer.

I preferred it at home, for sure.

It definitely felt different at the doctors office. It stopped at the doctors when I was young but the one thing that I do remember was that there were windows in the room where my temp was taken. I was always afraid someone on the street could see me lying there with the thermometer sticking out of my rectum.

My pediatrician never took rectal temps. Apparently this wasn't common practice, based on the posts here. I definitely would not have been happy to be subjected to that, especially as a teen.

As a child's pediatrician it happened. At home with my grandmother almost always.

I guess on balance I'd have to say at home by a narrow margin. Not so much for the actual temperature taking, but for the associations. In either situation, I really did not mind the rectal temperature taking, be it the doctor's nurse or my mother doing it.

At the pediatrician's office getting my temperature taken was the first step in determining if a shot was warranted, and I hated getting a penicillin shot. His nurse took care of the procedure while my mother watched. I cooperated and enjoyed the attention. I was never embarrassed by it, either.

At home getting my temperature taken by my mother was the first thing she did when I wasn't feeling well. I'd be in bed, in PJs. I'd turn onto my stomach and lower my bottoms to my knees. Mom stuck the tip into the Vaseline jar, parted my cheeks and inserted the thermometer. Usually she left while the mercury registered. Sometimes she got involved with something and I would have to sing out to remind her I was waiting. Other times she left my side to prepare an enema for me, so those rectal temperatures were a bit traumatic.

Home

I don't have any specific memory of having my temp taken at the doctor's office, though I presume it was done. For sure, at the time, I would have preferred to have it had home, in a more private and intimate setting.

Today, I like to fantasise about both settings, depending on the mood. Sometimes I even combine fantasies, such as when the nurse at the doctor's office knows that my temperature had been taken rectally at home and wants to get a consistent reading....

This is a good question. I would say I would rather have had it taken at home, because at the pediatrician's office I was always scared, mainly because I would always be thinking of a penicillin shot I would invariably get. Also, my pediatrician's office took rectal temperatures all through high school, and as I got older I would feel very self conscious about having this done by nurses. At home, I didn't mind as much, because my parents had seen me naked hundreds of times. The one thing I don't remember is regularly having my cheeks spread apart for the insertion. I can recall it once. I was about 16, and the nurse was actually a last year nursing student, who was helping out at the office in a busy time. She spread my cheeks and I was very embarrassed, because not only was that an embarrassing thing, but also because of her age. It was almost like having a girl in my high school class taking my temperature.

I was impacted by office rectal temperatures much more than home temps. Home rectal temperatures stopped years before office temperatures did. At home it was embarrassing if someone else was present when it was checked on the living room sofa.

In the office there was a nurse and my mom. She always asked me to lift up so she could pull down my underwear and I typically got an erection in the office while it was in. She also would have a hand resting on my lower back and/or bottom while the thermometer was in place. It was not uncommon for the door to pop open with someone asking a question with little regard for my exposed bottom.

Finally you didn’t know if this was a shot visit or not and you may be baring your bottom again...kind of like foreshadowing

I am sure that I preferred having my temperature taken at home. At least I could watch Captain Kangaroo, the Electric Company, or cartoons in the family room while waiting that long five minutes for the thermometer to register. At the doctor's office all I could do was lie there while my mother chatted with the nurse.

Was more comfy at home doing rectal temperture. I could watch some TV or color or read a book. You could have a sheet over your naked bum when waiting the five minutes. At the doctors you laid there naked and cold while mom chatted with the nurse.

My mom was the only person at home who took my rectal temperature and it was always in the living room and over my mom's lap with my pants and under to my ankles and at the doctor's office, my mom was always sitting in a chair and my pants would be down to my ankles and I would be over my mom's lap.

I preferred having my temperature taken rectally at home.

It wasn't a preference but a requirement for my physical exam or sick visits. At times, mom would take it at home but not often as I got older. It wasn't a choice when seeing the doctor. The process called for me to be undressed to my underpants and have them either lowered below my cheeks to mid thigh or removed, as in the case of a full exam, which always had me nervous and shriveled. If getting a shot, the process was similar; jeans yanked down and briefs at my knees lying on belly while it registered and trying to not count the seconds until it was removed and the needle given. Regardless of the circumstances, lying there seemed to take forever and as I matured, I found myself being very reticent to speak. The embarrassment was intense. I don't think it is much different now but clearly the associations I have formed are more stimulating.

It did not matter. The majority of time was at the doctors examination room with the nurse.

Not that my preference wouldn’t have mattered, but we didn’t even have a thermometer at home. That’s what the doctor’s office was for. It was always taken by a nurse, never by the doctor. Each one had a slightly different approach, but I still always ended up backside-up on an exam table with a thermometer protruding from my little jellied bottom.

I don’t think I would have willingly allowed it to happen at home. That’s possibly why it didn’t.

At home for me