Most memorable rectal temps as a kid

Two stand out:

First is when I was in first or second grade and got sick at school. At this point we had a high school student staying with us to take care of me before and after school. She and her friend brought me home and got instructions to take my temperature. They were a bit surprised about how I still got it done that way. My nanny did the deed, but her friend helped her through it. I don’t remember if they pulled out a medical reference book, or if she just went off instructions from my parents over the phone. They also ended up taking me to the doctor where I got a shot in the butt and of course my temperature would continue to be checked at home. It stands out since it was kind of embarrassing for me and also a little awkward for them. This was late 70s.

The other case was when I was a senior in high school and had to monitor my temperature textually for accuracy as part of a medical test. I mentioned it to a friend and he offered to help me. While I was no stranger to taking my own temp, I couldn’t turn down his offer to help. It was a little embarrassing but also a very nice bonding moment for us given the mutual trust involved.

My last rectal temperature was when i was 13, my pediatrician used that technique since i was a baby

It was probably the last time I had my temperature taken rectally in a real doctor's office.

I was a senior in high school and I hadn't been feeling too well for over a week. I still went to my pediatrician at this time and the practice participated in an after hours clinic that was staffed by pediatricians from several practices.

When my mother came home from work and saw that I was still feeling pretty bad she called and made an appointment for that evening for me.

I had my drivers license and car so I drove myself. The after hours clinic was a little less formal than you might expect today. There was a waiting room and an exam room at the facility. The doctor's brought their own doctor bags and supplies with them.

When I arrived at the office there were no other patients and the door to the exam room was open. The doctor in duty was a male pediatrician who sometimes covered for my regular pediatrician when she was on vacation.

He brought me back to the exam room and closed the door. I sat on the exam table and he asked what was going on. After I told him, he asked a few more questions and told me to undress to my underwear and sit back on the exam table. He stayed in the room while I undressed - all pretty typical for a visit with him from what I remember.

Once I was seated he checked blood pressure and pulse. When he went into his bag for a thermometer he pulled out a rectal thermometer. Next thing I knew my underwear was down around my ankles and the thermometer was in my butt.

My appointment ended with me getting a painful antibiotic injection in my butt.

Well I have casually mentioned this moment in other posts but here seems the best place to post this memory. When I was 12 I had my tonsils and adenoids out. I remember getting back to my room and the nurse coming in to get my vital signs she took my blood pressure and listened to my heart and then told me she needed to take my temperature. She asked if I could hold it in my mouth and I said no way. My mouth hurt so bad she said ok sweetheart I’ll do it the other way I didn’t even fuss when I got told to roll over in the bed I just remember feeling her rub the cool jelly and the feeling of her spreading my cheeks and the thermometer going in. It was really quick and then she told me the Doctor wanted me to have some medicine and did I think I could swallow a pill or did I want it the other way. Well to me the other way was liquid so imagine my surprise when I got told to stay rolled over and she changed gloves and I got my first suppository. That’s my most memorable rectal temperature growing up.

I think I was about five. Not feeling well, and in bed. My mom came in to see how I was doing and noticed that I was sweating. She went to the bathroom and came back with a thermometer and a jar of Vaseline. She told me to roll over, and I felt her finger lubricate my hole. After a few minutes, she took it out and said that my temp was a little high and that she thought I was constipated.

She disappeared into the bathroom again, and I heard the water running. Soon she was back with a red bag and hose with a small nozzle. She explained what was going to happen, then told me to lay on my left side. She said it would feel funny, but if it hurt, to tell her. My very first enema went quite well and mom only had to stop it twice. There wasn't much water in it, but it sure filled me up. She asked me to hold it as long as I could, then I got up and went to the bathroom. I had my temp taken for two more days, and the last one included another enema.

I remember this rectal temp sooo well because it was my first ever enema, too. I didn't mind either the thermometer or the enema, and as I got older and into my teens, I enjoyed them and played with GF's from about 16 on.

Thanks mom.

My most memorable rectal temp was at 12 years old. I had strep throat and had to go to the doctor. I had just been in a couple of weeks earlier for a shot (in the bottom, as all of them were) and was not too happy about being back so soon. Doctors visits always included rectal thermometers and shots, although after this visit I turned 13 and was switched to oral.

I was taken back and told to strip to my undies, which was standard back then. Mom helped me with my clothes as I was coughing and quite miserable. The nurse came in a moment later and took my blood pressure and pulse. Then, the dreaded “Alright sweetie, slide your undies down and lay on your tummy so we can check your temperature.” It was horribly embarrassing at 12 to submit to this, but there was no choice. I complied and lay there bare bottom watching the nurse prepare the thermometer. She took a tube of lube and put it on the tip like toothpaste. Then she came over, spread my bottom and slid the cold, slimy thermometer in.

Thus began the most embarrassing temp experience I ever had. I started coughing and felt the thermometer sliding in and out and felt like it would come shooting out. I looked back to see and saw the nurse holding it in place like an ink pen and mom approvingly looking on. She told me to turn back around and relax. To make things worse, the thermometer sliding around was causing me to get an almost full erection.

But as I was laying there taking all of this in, the door flung open and in walked the doctor. This was not the first time this had happened, but it was the worst because I was 12 years old with a nurse holding a thermometer in my bare butt. I wanted to disappear, and buried my head in my crossed arms. The doctor, of course, was not at all concerned the door was wide open and anyone walking by could see, and went over and whispered something to the nurse. The episode lasted maybe 30 seconds but they were long seconds! He finally excused himself and left, leaving the door cracked as he casually flung it shut.

I wanted to scream I was so angry that no one cared about my privacy. I quickly plotted my revenge, the best a 12 year old could do. I would ask to go wipe myself, since it also ticked me off my butt was going to be slimy until I got home, and take forever in the bathroom making the doctor wait for me.

The nurse slid the now warm and gooey thermometer out, and told me I could pull my undies up. This was a bit of a struggle to not show my erection, and my white briefs barely concealed it once I got them up. But I was undeterred in my revenge plans, despite this indignity. I asked if I could go to the bathroom and wipe up, to which the nurse replied “here just use these” holding a box of kleenex up. I froze from this unexpected twist, but thankfully (sarcasm here) mom came to the rescue grabbing the box and my arm, and before I even knew what was going on I was over the knee getting my butt wiped by my mom with the nurse right there. She did me the favor of not looking directly at me and closing the door behind her, but I was totally humiliated.

Then, of course, the icing on the cake was when the doctor rang the doorbell for the nurse and said I needed a shot of penicillin. Down came my undies and back on my tummy for the shot. And most shots didn’t hurt any more, but penicillin stung, and of course I yelped like a little kid.

I actually repressed this memory on purpose and successfully rehearsed an entirely different visit where I got my temp taken orally and didn’t get a penicillin shot. I was scared to death the girl I had a crush on would find out and laugh me to scorn so I wanted to make sure it didn’t slip in conversation (she knew I was going to the doctor and was visiting later). I was shocked when I started to remember details again how I could possibly have forgotten this episode.

My most memorable rectal temp happened when I was about 6. It was a Sunday morning and my sisters and I were getting dressed for church in our parents bedroom. I do not recall exactly what transpired, but my mother told me she wanted to take my temperature. It was during this period where I was beginning to have my temp taken orally, so it was not a big deal to me until mom undid my pants and told me to take off my underwear. I started to fuss, and the next thing I knew I was naked from the waist down, on my back with my legs up and mom holding a thermometer in my bottom. It was humiliating with everyone there, but that was just the way it was.

Here is another temperature episode that sticks out, pun intended. I was in the third grade and I think it was a rainy Friday afternoon. I had begun to feel really unwell as the day went on and when my mom picked me up from school I told her. Well she looked over her shoulder at me and said "we'll check you out when we get home"which was her odd turn of a phrase for taking your temperature. She had been switching me back and forth from rectal to oral and back again, but I should have known it would be rectal when she said that she almost always ment rectal.

It was rainy and cold when we got home and I was already feeling bad but the weather was making it worse. As soon as we got inside and our coats hung up she ushered me into her bedroom and told me to lie down. She than left and went into the bathroom. I heard her opening and closing the medicine cabinet, running the water and finally the linen closet was opened and closed. She returned carrying a big yellowish green jar of Vaseline, the yellowed cased B-D rectal thermometer and some tissues. As I have mentioned before I always noticed that big jar of Vaseline first and instantly knew she was going to take my rectal temp.

She told me to "roll over and pull down my pants" which I did while she got the thermometer ready. Now if she took my temperature in my bedroom she would sit on the edge of the bed and I could feel her shake down the thermometer. But if she took it in her bedroom she would stand next to bed while shaking down the thermometer and dip it into the jar of lube, getting a large dollop of Vaseline on the round build. While I was laying down, my face burried in a pillow I would feel her easily and swiftly insert the thermometer deep into my rectum. I would than lay there letting the pleasurable sensations build up into an intense throb. This day she had to leave and get dinner ready so she told me to lie still and not move and she would be back in five minutes to take it out. This was I really a great thing since she would almost inevitably take longer than five minutes sometimes much longer. So I was laying there enjoying the rectal temp dispute being fairly ill. And this could have just been another pleasurable rectal temperature memory. But it all went south when one of my older brothers came into the room and asked me if I felt sick. Which I always thought was kind of obvious what with the thermometer protruding from my buttocks. He ended up sitting there chatting with me for the rest of the time, totally distracting me. Not to mention how embarrassing the situation was to me. Well I had a fever and unfortunately ended up being sick all weekend. That surely was one of the more memorable rectal temperatures.

Wickerman, your brother was probably often in the same situation and thus did not see anything wrong with discussing with you while you had the thermometer...

I think mine was the first time I was brave enough to go get the thermometer and Vaseline and bring them to my room and take it myself. After all the embarrassing times of having mom or nurses take mine, this brought on a new level of excitement for me.

I had posted this year ago before temporarily deleting my account, but this still is my most memorable RT experience:

My most memorable rectal temperature happened when I was seven or eight. I was in hospital to have my polyps removed and when it was "temperature time", all the kids in the room usually had their temperatures taken rectally with a cold glass thermometer by the nurse while lying on their stomachs.

But one day my mom was present at "temperature time", and she insisted that instead of the nurse she would take mine while I was on my back in "diaper position" -- in front of the other kids. To make things worse, she explained to everyone in the room that this was the way I got it taken at home and that therefore this way would be more comfortable for me because I was used to that position.

I have rarely felt more humiliated. Today, in my late thirties, the "diaper position" with a female nurse or doctor taking my rectal temperature in front of others is one of my favorite phantasies...

At around age four I threw up in our local clinic’s waiting room. I’m sure I was sweating or shivering with fever, and the exam rooms must have been full.

The receptionist was very concerned with my wellbeing, so my mother handed me over to her for cleanup as she tidied up the mess I made in the waiting room. The receptionist took me to the employee bathroom to clean the puke off the front of my shirt, when she then said “let’s get a temp while we’re at it.” I’m guessing she was a nurse doubling as the receptionist for the day. I thought it was going to happen right there in the bathroom, but was I mistaken! She grabbed a thermometer, a small container of Vaseline and we headed back to the receptionist’s station! There, while on the phone, and while checking patients in, she pulled down my pajama bottom and took my temp over her knee right then and there at her desk! I mean she may as well have taken it on the front steps of the clinic!

Needless to say, that is one of my most weird and traumatic childhood rectal temp memories.

Reading the posts here I have not much to add. Mine and my sister's temperature were always taken rectally till age 7 or 8. Then switched to underarm or mom let me do it rectally by myself. The proceedings were always in total privacy so I never seen my sister when her temperature was taken or received enema. (just once during a hospital visit) Mom was very keen on privacy, so I have not much humiliating memories in this field. (suppositories or enemas are different story as I hated them from early ages and I always ended up fighting with everybody who was doing the procedure).

I fully understand the feelings of most of you. I observed how badly some clinics and hospitals dealing with privacy. I remember when I took my kids to the doctor or the hospital how many times I saw wide open doors on exam rooms exposing the patient. Once I was visiting my friend's daughter who was in the children's hospital for some reason because I wanted to drop her some books to read. There were only four girls in the room. All between age 6 and 10. There weren't any divider curtains in the room at all. One other lady was already in the room with her daughter when I arrived.

I was talking with my friend's kid when all of a sudden the door opened and two nurses rushed in with a roll cabinet. One of them just kicked the door to shut. Watching what they prepared I realized what was gonna happen. They turned to a girl named Viktoria on the opposite bed and without any explanation told her she has to get her daily routine.

Then they removed her blanket, rolled her to the left side, raised her gown, pulled down her panties and one of them pushed the thermometer in. Viktoria started to cry silently. I jumped up and asked the nurses why you are doing this here even with a presence of a male visitor? We are full, no free exam room available, but you can go out if you feel uncomfortable. With red face I left the room and closed the door. Standing in front of the door I clearly heard the struggles, cries and fight of what happened. I went down to the reception and wrote a report in the complaint book.

When I was heading back I saw the nurses leaving the room. I went in to check my friend's daughter. The lady was sitting beside Viktoria's bed trying to calm her down as she was still crying loudly. All the girls in the room were silent. I asked the lady what happened? She explained briefly that after the temperature measurement they had to give her a penicillin shot which she got in her bum, but they had to hold her down very strongly. As she become hysteric and started to kick around they rolled her to the back and fixed her legs to her chest to administer the suppositories what she had to take.

Yes...... I think for Viktoria this was one of the most memorable rectal temperature. Oh... and this was her daily routine!!!

Hello ChrisRT !

Are you male or female ? What about the children who watched you ? How old were they ? Were they boys, girls or both ?

At the age of 7 when me and my cousin was playing Doctor. She was the doctor and she did put a fake thermometer in my bum to take my temperature rectally.

That was the most beautiful memory I've ever had until now and I can remember every bit of it.

I was 10 or 11, home from school sick, when I had my last for-real rectal temperature. Mom couldn’t find (or maybe had broken) the glass oral thermometer, so decided she needed to get a rectal reading before calling the doctor. I protested, of course, but was secretly thrilled, since I had wanted to have it the “baby way” ever since being switched involuntarily to oral several years before.

Mom came into my bedroom holding the thermometer, which already had a thick glob of Vaseline on the tip. My heart was pounding. She had me roll over onto my tummy and pulled my pyjamas and shorts down, before quickly inserting the thermometer into my rectum. She then pulled up the sheets to give me privacy and left the room.

To my embarrassment, after leaving me, Mom mentioned the situation to my little sister, who came into the room smirking and stayed with me while my temperature registered. She couldn’t see anything but knew very well what was happening.

Unfortunately, Mom bought a new oral thermometer later that day, so my RT adventure came to a quick end. But the incident has remained happily etched in my memory.

I don't remember getting my temperature taken rectally as a child, only oral, but I am sure it was that way earlier. I do remember a time when I was about six, I saw one of my younger cousins get hers taken rectally that made something click. Later when I had the chance, I "took my temperature" using a crayon that I had peeled off the paper. It felt interesting. I did it a couple of times and sort of lost interest in it.

Then years later when I had my own baby I had taken her temperature before putting her down for her nap because she was acting fussy. No fever, but it gave me an idea. A few minutes after she was down for her nap I was laying on my bed with that thermometer in me. It is interesting that something as small as a thermometer can feel so good. That glass thermometer is long gone having been replaced by a digital with a flexible tip. These days I often check my temperature before using the same thermometer to check the temperature of my enema.

The full realization and appreciation of having my briefs lowered and the thermometer inserted occurred by age 9. By then my sense of modesty had started to influence how I felt seeing the doctor. By 11 - 12, the procedure was down right embarrassing and associated with some degree of involuntary arousal from lying on my belly. The exam had also morphed into considerable attention paid to my developing genitals with each testicle being felt and squeezed for a hernia check. The obligatory spreading and puckering of my anus was equally embarrassing as now the exam was conducted with me naked either at the start or certainly mid way. In short, the process was now one of considerable anxiety and confusion as to how I felt and reacted. Of course, no conversations were held to better prepare you for adolescence. Throughout all of this, the RT was a central component of an exam and one that to this day is very arousing - just to think about let alone experience. I would guess this experience is not unique for those of us reading a message such as this one.

Nick

I would have to say it would be the one when I was in the hospital for 3 days and a drop dead beautiful red headed nurse woke me up one morning and gently said, "temperature". I rolled over and she took the rectal temp. several memorable things happened with rectal temps while I was there. One nurse held my cheeks spread for so long I looked back at her before she instantly put it in me. One other nurse left the thermometer in me for a VERY long time like an hour and a half! she had an impish smile on her face when she came to my bedside to remove it.

I was sick at home, but mom invited our neigbors to come over for a chat. A mid age couple and the husband older sister. They were in the living room while I was in the bed in my room when all of a sudden mom came in with the thermometer in her hand but she had left the door wide open accidentally with a good view from the living area. All guests were able to watch me exposed, and on the top of it I got a suppository as I had a fever. 😢

Definitely those given by pediatric nurse while totally naked up on exam table.

I really had to think about this because it hit a few triggers and I thank one wonderful woman on Zity for helping me begin to face it and let it come to the surface.

I think my most memorable would be between ages 8 and 12 by my babysitters. Mostly female, but a male as well. (At 14 I became the babysitter!) There was just something different about it. It was almost LESS embarrassing to me at that age having it done by a “near peer”, perhaps in several cases just a few years older than me or maybe I sensed sympathy or empathy. They were always kind, gentle, sensitively done, and in a way, “casual”.

I'm not sure, but, now these memories really serve as fuel to the fire, so to speak. Probably didn't hurt either that I had a mad boyish crush on two the girls who sat me! Again, who knows what programs minds, memories, and triggers … yeah … experiences.

For me there were too many to list all, but one that sticks out (yes, pun intended) was in my junior year of college. My roommate was studying with 2 friends, and I was in bed with a headache, runny nose, coughs, etc. I had gotten into pajamas. One of my roomie’s friends thought I was in pretty bad shape and suggested that he takes my temperature. Neither of us had a thermometer, so he went in the dorm hall knocking on doors. He was gone between 20 minutes to half an hour, and finally returned. He announced that he had good and bad news. The good news was that someone finally could loan him a thermometer, but the bad news was that the only one he had was a rectal thermometer.

He told me to turn over on my bed. I complained, but was feeling pretty weak by now. The kid he got it from also gave him a jar of Vaseline. He seemed to know what he was doing, and after getting the thermometer ready he pulled down my pajama bottoms and stuck the thermometer in my rectum. I was on full display for all to see.

@ruthiney ,

I’m surprised that after your appendectomy that you would be made to either lay on your abdomen or on your left side for your temperature. Seems a bit precarious after being stitched up.

My cousin had appendicitis. She got her temperature rectally before going into surgery, not after.

I looked at rectal temps. as a form of draconian torture, from the few memories that I have. I had to be held down in most cases, and my butt was sore for hours afterward. Even with my ADHD, I was still determined to learn how to keep the thermometer under my tongue, at around age 5, when I was switched to oral. Thankfully, my pediatrician didn't encourage rectal temps. if not needed.

@OverRainbow, I was on my left side, mostly for my temps!

@ruthiney ,

I’m surprised that after your appendectomy that you would be made to either lay on your abdomen or on your left side for your temperature. Seems a bit precarious after being stitched up.

My cousin had appendicitis. She got her temperature rectally before going into surgery, not after.

I had my appendix out at 14 (1978 ) and had the same experience as Ruthiney. I actually refused and the nurse threatened to have me held down while she took it. I’ve no doubt at all she was serious. I submitted and it was taken that way twice daily for my stay.

@OverRainbow My appendix was removed when I was… 9? The nurses would come twice a day and ask me to insert the thermometer rectally (in France, this was a common method for older kids and adults; on younger kids, parents or the nurse would insert it). I rolled on the side for this.

The first time, as I believed (from cartoons, comics, movies…) that people in hospital got their temperature taken in their mouth (as opposed to in their behind, as I was used to at home), I nearly put the thermometer in my mouth, but the nurse told me that this was not the way in the hospital. I immediately understood and did as she expected. I wonder what would have happened if I had not been used to the rectal method, would she have showed me how to do it, or even done it herself? What I'm sure is that, as for @Nurse_Phillips, she would not have accepted an oral reading.

ChrisRT When I was child on second part of 90' was very often that nobody take care about childrens intimacy. I've been two weeks during pneumonia on the hospital and was normal situation that was on one room 2-3 childrens (from 1nd-3rd grade primary school) and was taken rectal temp in front of others in diaper position. I also remember that on the end of hall was doctor and treatment offices. Doors was partly open (so I had been seen many times enemas from genital area parts) and, everyone was scared to go there to not being taken by nurses for this treatment… especially they talk with parents about concerns and I've got few times big, few suppositories

One more time! When I was 14, i had my appendix out. I worn a hospital gown with nothing under it. When it was temperature time, I had to lie on my left side. My gown would be untied and raised and the rectal thermometer inserted. After a few minutes, the thermometer would be removed and my gown was retied. The same procedure for my 17 yr old room mate. She also had her appendix removed, but by a different surgeon. Any more questions???