Fear of thermometer breaking

@davocea ,

Though the glass mercury rectal thermometers held high ground for accuracy, their Achilles’ heel is/ was their being very fragile. It doesn’t take much for that instrument to break or snap. And like the images I posted earlier, when dropped, pretty much done!

I don’t so much remember being warned because my mom‘s technique for taking my rectal temperature didn’t require it. She just put me on my back, crossed my ankles, and raised my legs so I couldn’t move. Then up my tuckus the thermometer went. I don’t remember the thermometer feeling nice at all, it never does rectally when you’re little. But it worked and kept the process of taking a butt temperature safe. I used the diaper position taking my son’s rectal temperature until he was 3 years old, past that squirmy stage.

I also find that inserting the thermometer up the rectum a little farther, 1-½ to 2 inches is actually safer to prevent the stem of the thermometer from breaking. The further a thermometer is up the patient’s rectum, the less that is left exposed outside the buttocks where breakage typically occurs during movement. Two inches up the rectum isn’t excessively uncomfortable, even for a child if careful placement and lubrication is used.

Yes when I was younger my mom did worry about that . However it never happened. Once she inserted the thermometer she always held it in place between her fingers.