Thermometer differences

[Anonymous]

Twice this week my child has been sent home at least partially due to apparent low-grade fevers. The thing is, I'm pretty certain he didn't have an elevated temperature either time. And I'm not sure how to handle this situation if it becomes a regular thing.

Everyone there is completely reasonable, as far as I can tell. I do that even particularly mind that they're sending him home- they think he's acting abnormally, and I trust what they're saying. There's absolutely no reason to question their motives here.

Part of my concern, though, is that they might think I'm trying to send in a sick kid. I checked his temperature with two ear thermometers before I dropped him off today and it was just over 97. I'm told their non-contact IR thermometer read 99.2 this morning. This afternoon, they apparently got a temp of 101. I got 98.3 and 98.1 with my thermometers. I asked them to repeat it with theirs just to see what it would be, and the non-contact thermometer climbed to 99.9 without ever beeping to indicate it was done. I've never seen a non-contact thermometer that didn't either register a temperature in a few seconds or report an error. So, I kind think user error might be involved.

Again, I don't mind them sending him home if they think he's acting sick. But I also don't want them to think I'm trying to sneak him in with a fever, or have them get unnecessarily paranoid about what are almost certainly false temperature readings.

What would you do in this situation?

[Anonymous]

Buy the same thermometer as the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy the same thermometer as the school?

Then what? I don't see how that would change anything.

I'm planning on packing a contact thermometer (probably ear) in his backpack for them to use on him, though that seems a little awkward to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy the same thermometer as the school?

Then what? I don't see how that would change anything.

I'm planning on packing a contact thermometer (probably ear) in his backpack for them to use on him, though that seems a little awkward to do.

Take his temperature in front of them at drop off too.

I work in daycare and none of the thermometers measure the same Temp ever. It’s very frustrating. One child, 5 thermometers will give me 5 different temps. That’s why using a consistent device on each child is helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy the same thermometer as the school?

Then what? I don't see how that would change anything.

I'm planning on packing a contact thermometer (probably ear) in his backpack for them to use on him, though that seems a little awkward to do.

Take his temperature in front of them at drop off too.

I work in daycare and none of the thermometers measure the same Temp ever. It’s very frustrating. One child, 5 thermometers will give me 5 different temps. That’s why using a consistent device on each child is helpful.

Part of the problem is non-contact thermometers are horribly inaccurate, but mostly understandably that seems to be what everyone is using outside of health care settings.

My other child's daycare has parents check temperatures themselves at drop-offs, keeping a child-specific thermometer in the backpack. I thought about doing that with my other child when this started happening, but I didn't want it to be interpreted as... passive aggressive. Nor do I want them to think they shouldn't feel free to call me if they're worried he's sick based on how he's acting. I just don't want them making that decision based on a faulty thermometer reading. But, it sounds like you don't think they'd find it crazy for me to supply a thermometer for my kid.

With how the drop-off procedure works at at this center, there's probably relatively little reason for me to take his temperature. The person that handles drop-offs is different than the person that takes temperatures, so they're going to re-do it no matter what. And I think they believe me that I take his temperature in the morning...

This might sound nutty, but should I send the thermometer sealed in its original packaging so they don't think I doctored it?

[Anonymous]

Maybe you have great ear thermometers, but i never felt like I could get a good reading with those. Recently I got a forehead thermoneter (Exergen’s Smartglow Temporal Scanner) and my impression is that the readings are more reliable, although I haven’t validated that, it’s just my general impression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you have great ear thermometers, but i never felt like I could get a good reading with those. Recently I got a forehead thermoneter (Exergen’s Smartglow Temporal Scanner) and my impression is that the readings are more reliable, although I haven’t validated that, it’s just my general impression.

Op here. I actually have that thermometer! I got it before the ear thermometers, expecting my kids to hate a sensor in their ears. I'm sure it must be user error, but we've never been able to get it to work. Even on myself, I can't get a reliable reading. And I basically can't get a reading at all on my kids because they won't stay still long enough for me to do it. It was a huge surprise when they cooperated with the ear ones. I think it helps that the probe effectively helps to hold their heads in place.

I'm pretty confident in the ear thermometers' accuracy. We have a handful of Braun Thermoscan 5 and 7 thermometers. They've always given consistent results with each other, and they've tracked pretty closely with rectal temps when we've double checked that way (not something I like making a habit of, obviously).