We all understand how worrying it can be when a baby has a temperature. Well, one proactive mum thought she was doing the right thing when she got an infrared thermometer so she could monitor her child’s temperature at home but found herself instead in a stressful position when her baby’s reading on the thermometer was around 38C. The concerned parent, named Marina Reznikov, monitored the situation for 24 hours before finally deciding to seek medical attention.
A nurse sent paramedics to her house and her daughter Aria was eventually taken to hospital as a precaution – where Marina learned an important lesson about thermometers after the baby’s reading came back perfectly normal, much to her surprise.
In a post on Facebook, she revealed that a doctor had explained why you can’t always trust infrared thermometers.
“Last night we made a totally unnecessary trip to the hospital thanks to a pretty expensive/crappy infrared thermometer. Ours was reading 38.1 and only going as low as 37.4 for 24 hours.
We checked with the paramedics and they were getting normal readings. They took us in anyway just in case.”
Marina added:
“The doctor said they have this happen at least once a week and it’s always the ‘special baby infrared thermometers’.
What have I learned? What I already knew and forgot about: Clever marketing and large price tags usually means it’s a s*** product. Just because it costs more, doesn’t make it better.”
Marina now hopes to raise awareness about the thermometers, so that parents can avoid wasting doctors’ time. She told Kidspot:
“I found it alarming that he [the doctor] said he sees this once a week. That’s just one hospital! How many resources are being wasted across the board?”
She added that doctors also advised her the best way to measure a baby’s temperature is to use an underarm thermometer, as they are the most accurate.
