What did your childhood rectal thermometer case look like?

Do you guys remember what the case to your childhood rectal thermometer looked like? Did the cap pop off or screw off? What color was it? Was part of it clear? Was it a tube style, or a little stand? In our house, we had two matching white plastic tube style cases with a screw top. I also have a faint memory of our original one when I was very young, that was also a screw top, but one section was pink, and other was baby blue. I think we got a new one when I was around 5 though. We did have the original massive oval shaped glass jar of Vaseline that lasted from as early as I could remember until after I left for college, which always was kept on the shelf in the medicine chest directly under the thermometers.

Stainless steel push off top still have it with thermometer glass mercury

No case it was in a flat paper box.

May have been a box. I seem to rmember the thrmometer being left loose in my mom's medicine cabinet after a while. Maybe she lost the box.

Creamy colored plastic tube, looked like a fountain pen. It had a metal pocket clip just like a pen and inside two slots for thermometers.

Moms was a gray tube with a clear top. I remember her leaving it and a small jar of Vaseline on my bed side table when I was sick or she thought I was sick. I have said it on here before I can still hear her say as she walked in to my room "Panties down bum up". Just something that sticks out in my mind.

It was a tan/cream colored plastic case with a clear plastic cap on it. It was a Faichney brand thermometer, no triangle on the end of it, with a "modern" style bulb. Scale went from 94 to 106... nope... I didn't look at it much, not at all... :-)

Always on top of my dresser drawer wrapped in a paper tissue next to the vaseline jar. Never saw a box or container for it. It was there and used alot.

Black case oral thermometer, white case rectal. Both plastic with screw tops. Sometimes I got bad colds when my asthma was kicking up. Mom was always cautious when it came to treating my colds so they didn't turn into infections. I had one really bad when I was 14 and ran a high fever. Let's just say that mom didn't put the Vaseline away for several days!

If I remember, the black or white, holders, with the screw tops, and pen clips, were from the 50's through at least the early 60's. The 70's and later had the gray or white vial, with a clear top, or if it was B.D., they had a snap-in case. The pear-shaped bulbs disappeared in the 70's, and were reduced to the point where they were barely noticeable.

My mom stopped using the rectal thermometer when I was about 7 and began using the oral thermometer. I really don't remember much about the rectal thermometer or the container it was in.

I just dug the one my mom used out of the drawer to reply. I don't use this thermometer, but do have it from my mother's house. It was kept in the medicine cabinet in the original dark blue box with gold and dark blue lid, the words B-D Medical Center Fever Thermometer are printed in gold on the box top. Box is about 1/2" high, 2 inches wide and maybe 4.5 inches wide.

The thermometer is in a black plastic two-piece case, shaped like a pen, and it screws and unscrews. It goes from 94 to 108 degrees. I thought it was the original thermometer, but maybe it isn't because I see that Faichney USA is printed on it, not BD.

It has the snubnose mercury bulb, the degrees are printed in black, but It actually doesn't even say rectal on it. That may be why my mother saw fit to write the words "rectal thermometer" in big capital letters on a slip of paper and affix it to the black plastic case with scotch tape.

My mom kept it on my nightstand with the jar of Vaseline whenever I was sick or had a cold, and she used it 3 or 4 times a day it seemed if I was home from school, which I was too much, until I had my tonsils out---way too late at age 11 or 12. I didn't like it at all and found it humiliating, especially when all of my siblings, most of whom are more than 10 years older than me, would come visit me in my room if I was sick.

I'm sure they saw it, but I don't really recall them making fun of me, even though my mother usually took my temp or gave me medicine, an enema etc with the door wide open. I actually got the feeling my sibs felt compassionate or sorry for me and that made it a million times worse. And bc they were so much older, it seemed like my mom thought it fine to discuss my medical issues with them (and my aunt). I'd cringe hearing her discuss me in the kitchen down the hall, which is sometimes how I found out what was in store next. Oh, the woes of a change of life accident baby with depression era parents!

When they came in to see me I could never make eye contact if any medical evidence (disgusting green Fleet enema box or laxative on the dresser, Vaseline jar open, etc.) was around, which it always was. I'm sure this is why I play the way I do now mostly, as a compassionate but stern, I know what's best for you, poor little girl, way. I sort of hate my mother at times, which is why I also identify as a caring, kind daddy figure rather than a mother type, usually.

Red pen looking case with pop off top or blue plastic case depends on the thermometer both were rectal. doctors office had the little holders they were blue with labels

Ours was stored in a plastic tube/pen shaped container. The upper third unscrewed. No clip, it was off-white, not quite beige, in color. Couldn't be confused with a fountain pen, but that was what I thought of when I saw it.

When sick in bed, it was kept on the night stand, though the Vaseline jar remained in the bathroom and was brought in when time for a temperature check. Other times it was kept in the medicine cabinet.

I think we had two of them, first a mercury one then another one was added, I think when mercury was said to be dangerous to handle (I remember being told to be very cautious with the mercury one.. perhaps that was at the time she made the transition between inserting it herself and letting me do it myself). Both stored in some kind of individual sheaths. I don't remember the markings.

If I was sick, mom would show up with the thermometer, hand it to me for me to insert rectally, and come back 3 minutes afterwards for picking it up and reading it. She would then clean it with a cotton swab and medical alcohol. For younger siblings she inserted it herself, with vaseline. So not only did she keep 2 thermometers, only used rectally, she also had vaseline, cotton and alcohol in the medical case in the bathroom.

I think that sometimes she also left the cleaned thermometer on my night stand, ready for use at the scheduled instant. It's a long time ago but I think that when I was sick I had to take it in the morning and in the evening, and perhaps also while napping after lunch.

Kind of an off white screwtop case no clip. the thermometer was a 1950's BD.

It was a blue case, thats all I can remember. It was also a BD glass thermometer

It was in a clear glass tube with a little spring on the bottom and a metal cap that screwed on. The case could be filled with liquid -- my mom used a little rubbing alcohol. The thermometer was dropped in and when the cap was screwed on the thermometer was held securely between the cap and the spring on the bottom. I don't recall the brand but I spent a lot of time as a child with that thermometer in my bottom.

It was the glass thermometer with the red tip.

At our house it was a black screw top case.

We had two. One was a BD Red Flash, and the other a BD baby thermometer. There was a large jar of Vaseline next to them, with the original screw on top.

The one mom used on me was in a square tube of red plastic with a white B-D logo on it. The top cap was clear octagonal plastic, and was made to slide straight off. The thermometer itself had a red triangle at the stem, and it had a stubby rounded bulb. There was a blue arrow at the 98.6 mark, and a red arrow at 99.6. Mom kept it in the second drawer on the left in the bathroom, right beside of a small box with foil packets of Vaseline.

Sunny76: In my case I felt such embarrassment when receiving suppositories (not the laxative kind, but the ones containing medicine). My mom would store them in the fridge so that they were firm and not half-melted before use, so anybody opening the fridge knew somebody was getting them. Plus, she was not discreet, e.g. telling me before other family "please go to the bathroom to do number two, then I'll give you your suppository".

Mom had several rectal thermometers she and my older sisters used to take my rectal temp with. Some had the screw on tops, and others had slide off tops. The screw on types colors were solid black, black/white combo, dark navy blue, and dark green. The ones with the slide off tops were clear. These were given to mom by the several nurses at the clinic doctor. She said they received an overstock on a delivery, so she was giving them out to patients when they came in for physicals or sick visits. All of the rectal thermometers had been used in my bottom by mom and my older sisters for the temp check. Vaseline was the primary method for lubing the pearshaped bulbs on each rectal thermometer. There was a large jar on the top of the bathroom medicine cabinet. Mom had put a label on the front of the jar reading "used for Timmy's rectal temps only". There was also another jar of Vaseline in the bathroom medicine cabinet. This jar was placed on the lower shelf. There was no label on the front of this jar. Mom also had placed a smaller jar of Vaseline in my room. It was up on the topshelf of the wooden display cabinet next to my bed. I remember seeing it siting there one time when I was looking out the window. The reflection of the sunlight made the jar shine on the glass jar. On this discovery, I climbed up on a chair to get a closer look. I remember also seeing a label on the front of this jar reading "used for Timmy's rectal temps only-Timmy's room". From past memories, I don't remember mom or my older sisters reaching up there in their preparations to take my rectal temp. Each always entered my room with a tray holding the larger labeled jar of vaseline, several rectal thermometers still in their cases, and a box of Kleenex tissues. By this time, I was already laying tummy down on my bed, or undressing to my underwear for the rectal temp procedure.

Yes - I remember everything too well, I think... My thermometer was stored in a clear plastic case with a green cap. The green cap indicated it was for rectal use and the thermometer was always stored in our medical cabinet until the age of 11 then I had to learn taking my rectal temperature by my self. After that I had to store my thermometer in a box in my bedside table - always ready to be used...

Mom had a metal tube case with a slide-off cap. It contained a european-style mercury thermometer. Pretty quickly she switched to an electronic one though, much to my disappointment.

The one in our house was kept in a green sheath, rather than an actual closing case. I'm not sure there's a better word for it than that. It had a sort of checkered pattern, and the thermometer fit inside perfectly.

I can remember a pink case with a screw on top and some heavy string attached to the end. It had a silver bulb on one end and was made by the Taylor company. Those are getting hard to find.

AG

At our house it was a black screw top case.

Red pen looking case with pop off top or blue plastic case depends on the thermometer both were rectal. doctors office had the little holders they were blue with labels