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I have one of those ear thermometers like they have at the doctors office! Best shower gift ever!! It's digital and everything

Forehead with the temporal artery thermometer.

Ear. My ped does forehead. One if my best friends still does rectalky with her 17 month old.

Forehead.

Ear...I had one that I could take the temp across the forehead but it wasn't as accurate

Rectal usually. Ear if I need it quicker. Anything not taken rectallu can usually vary by a degree or two.

Ear.

Under the arm. We did rectally when DD was really little, but switched to under the arm probably around 6 months or so.

Rectally. We have a special one that only goes in so far. The peds office won't 'believe' any temp we take that's not rectally.

I only know how to do rectal. I became such an expert that when he got hand, foot and mouth disease while overseas, we kept measuring his temperature every few hours when we were on the road in the middle of nowhere!

When I was still pregnant and going around to find a pediatrician, our ped said it is the most accurate to get rectum temperature. So I've stuck with it since. In a way it is an ease of mind, because when I got 104.1, I know it is very serious. Whereas if I measured on forehead and other areas, I may get a lower temperature and I may brush it off as something that is OK? I don't know.

LO turned 2 though so I do want to stop using the rectum thermometer....

Underarm. We have a forehead one too, but I use it just to double-check. She's waaay too wiggly for the forehead, I can't imagine trying rectally! Our pediatrician's office has only done forehead and ear - LO has never had a rectal temp taken!

Ear, it only takes 2 seconds. I'm petrified of rectal too and she squirmed way too much for me when I used to do under the arm

@lawbee11: Same as sslm!

Rectally, but my husband is a pediatrician so he usually does it. It freaks me out too.

I took it rectally under a year at my ped's request. They said under the arm was inaccurate, so I only used it to get an idea of whether to go for the rectal thermometer. It's really not scary!

@MrsRoo: LOL ditto!!

If I'm mildly concerned and am just taking it to ease my mind, I do the ear one, but our ear thermometer sucks. It came in a first aid kit and I thought it was great, but I get a different reading every time. I even tested it on my full size ears and still was getting temps that would vary by a full degree!

So, if I'm really worried, I do rectal. Like others said, it's specially designed to not be able to go to far, and it actually was a LOT easier than I expected. Use a tiny bit of aquaphor or vaseline. I had to laugh at @MrsRoo: 's comment because she totally does clam up, which effectively holds the thermometer there I hold her legs up as if I'm changing her diaper and she's OK with it, for now.

But I'm sure a good ear one would be quicker and easier if you are just being paranoid, then you could confirm with the rectal if you were really concerned.

Forehead. Never had any desire to stick it in their butts.

@lawbee11: We did rectal temps until about a month ago. We had this thermometer that looks kind of like a bulb, so I knew we couldn't do it "wrong" and mess something up. It's without a doubt more accurate (our doctor's office would basically ignore their temporal reading if we said the rectal reading was different). It's actually really easy and quick to use, but we just bought an ear one because sometimes we want to take their temps when we're not doing a diaper change.