Effective and simple baby thermometers

At this time of year, illness seems to strike every family, one way or another.  As a parent, it can be particularly worrying when your child throws a fever.  The shivers and burning brow a dead give-away for a rocketing temperature. Here’s two of the most effective baby thermometers on the market right now.

You might not know what bug your child has succumbed to and they may be too young to tell you whether their throat, head or ears hurt.  But temperature is a key indicator of how the body is coping with an attack on the immune system.

If it’s above the norm of around 37 C (everyone’s slightly different so find out what your child’s healthy temperature is), then you can be pretty sure that the body is having to work extra hard at throwing off some viral or bacterial onslaught.  By assessing whether it‘s steady, going up or cooling down, you can get an indication of how your child is faring.  Or whether further action is needed, such as administering medicine or going to a doctor.

In such situations, you can’t rely on guess work.  You need a quick, foolproof way to get an accurate result.  I use Braun’s Thermoscan Digital Ear Thermometer, as doctors consider the ear the most reliable source of body temperature.  Switch it on with 1 button, pop it inside the ear of your child until it bleeps (about 3 seconds) and there you have it, an instant reading.

Brother Max make a similarly nifty device to take digital ear readings but their 3-in-1 Digital Thermometer can also be used to scan the forehead in children who won’t let you insert the thermometer into their ear.  Another feature is that you can use this same gadget to take the ambient temperature of a room.  This is particularly useful for babies, to ensure that they are kept warm enough at night and in the winter.

According to a recent survey conducted by Brother Max, half of the 1500 parents and grandparents they questioned failed to correctly identify the normal body temperature  range of babies and toddlers.  And two thirds didn’t know that critical body temperature varies between babies, toddlers and older children.

Brother Max have created a really useful temperature chart with all this information on.  It also thoughtfully includes a record for you to keep of your own family’s normal temperature.