Determining the best thermometer for an infant can be a tricky task for new parents. There are dozens of different styles of thermometer available on the market, all of them widely and compelling advertised as the most effective, most efficient, easiest to use and so on. Because a fever is usually the first sign of major illness in an infant, and because illnesses can be so dangerous to very young children, it is doubly important to invest in a sturdy, easy-to-use and most of all highly accurate thermometer for your child. The best thermometer for an infant will measure temperature to within a tenth of degree, and this is crucial - a tenth of a degree in an infant can possibly be the difference between a trip to the doctor or a trip to the emergency room.
best thermometer for an infant
There are many different styles of thermometers for babies, and what this refers to is the manner in which they measure temperature. These styles include:
Oral
Rectal
Tympanic
Temporal
There are pros and cons to each of these types of thermometers. In order to explain which thermometer is best overall for your child and to quantify that explanation, I'll briefly touch on the ups and downs of each of these thermometers.
Tympanic thermometers are designed for use in the outer year. These digital thermometers are easy to use, include a convenient disposable cover for the tip of the probe, are fast-acting and provide an easy to read digital readout of the temperature. In addition, like most digital thermometer's it will beep once the reading has been completed. This sounds like the way to go, right? Guess again. An ear thermometer might be good for older children and is indeed one of the more popular models nowadays, however to truly be accurate it must be precisely aligned with the ear canal, and doing so can be tricky. Multiple readings tend to be inconsistent with each other, and since accuracy is so important with small children this is definitely not the best thermometer for an infant.
In my opinion temporal thermometers aren't even in the contest for best thermometer for an infant, but I've included it here for the sake of completeness. Temporal thermometers measure temperature of the artery in the forehead by pressing a button and rolling the probe across the baby's forehead. It is every bit as imprecise as it sounds, and I don't know of a single pediatrician who recommends this style for children of any age.
Oral thermometers are probably the most traditional, and as far as accuracy goes they are superior to the other two types previously mentioned. Most oral thermometers can also double as an axillary thermometer, which reads temperature under the arm, but these too are subject to variation.
The best thermometer for an infant for infants and children less than 3 years of age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP,) is the rectal thermometer. Temperatures taken rectally consistently prove to be the most consistent and accurate, and we've already established that accuracy is an imperative to ensure the health, safety and welfare of very young children.
Author Resource:
Wunna is a knowledgable provider of informative facts and an adept ghostwriter, and at this time writes on ideas to include basal body temperature thermometer and best baby thermometer .
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")