Thursday, March 11, 2010

Exergen Temporal Scanner review and giveaway

after the joy of bringing baby lilianna into the world on march 2, it was time to remember all that goes along with caring for a newborn baby.  i thought it was nice of the hospital to offer us our own digital thermometer for keeping track of baby's temperature.  what i was not expecting was for them also to give us special guards to use with it to take her temperature rectally.  (i did notice that they themselves never once took her temperature rectally!).  they made it very clear that this was the most accurate way to take her temperature, and they expected me to do it regularly.

unbeknownst to them, i had a secret weapon at my disposal.  recently i received in the mail the exergen temporal scanner to review.  this is a digital thermometer that is used by rolling the scanner over the forehead of your baby or child.  in seconds, you have an accurate reading of your child's temperature before they even realize that you have done anything.  the literature i received said that this way of reading temperatures is even more accurate than a rectal reading.  that is good news for all of us, i say!

i have fought many long hard battles with my extremely strong children just to try to take their temperature under their arm.  i do not know why they hate this so much.  i cannot even imagine the pain and agony that would occur on all our parts if i insisted on taking their temperature rectally.  i have considered investing in an ear thermometer to save us all the drama.  unfortunately, when i had to take tate into the emergency room, i learned that the ear scanner does not work accurately with him.  the only accurate reading they were able to get of the fever i knew he had was when they used their temporal scanner. 

one thing to be aware of when using this scanner is that you will not get an accurate reading if you use it over and over again in a short space of time.  the girls enjoyed using the scanner so much, they wanted to do it again and again.  we started to get quite a bit of variance in their temperature readings.  because the scanner is so sensitive, it will notice any change in the skin's temperature, even the change from running the scanner over their forehead more than once.

i am glad to have the exergen temporal scanner available for those times when i want to take the kids' temperatures without waking them up at night, when they are feeling particularly ornery or when i need to be able to know their temperatures quickly (like those times when the nurse asks me and i'm unprepared) and with little fuss.  if you are interested in getting one of your own, you can use this coupon code for $5 off.

or, you can win one by leaving a comment on this post.  tell me about your greatest thermometer trial.  i will draw a winner from all the comments using random.org on april 1st.  canadian and united states residents only, please.

this is a mama buzz review.  i received a temporal scanner for free for the purose of this review by the exergen corporation.  i have in no other way been compensated for this review.  the opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

9 comments:

  1. I have tried every way of reading temperature there is, and I love the temporal thermometer. I would LOVE to own one. It is definitely about time that we don't need to risk perforating a baby's rectum for a temperature! When Marie was was little bitty I took her temperature. That was during those poo-really-shoots-out-like-a-hose days. Of course, I had her little feet in the air and was putting the thermometer in, and out shot the poo all over the place. For some reason we had several poo messes with newborn Marie.

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  2. yeaaaahhhh...i'm ashamed to admit i am still taking my son's temp rectally. don't turn me in or anything...i just haven't bought anything newer because i don't know what to get. i almost put one of these on my christmas list, but that seemed like a strange thing to do.

    i've never had an issue...isaiah never had a poo explosion like lili mentioned, but once when he was 8 months old, i took his temp and when it hit 105.1 (and was still rising) i threw the thermometer across the room, scooped him up and literally ran out the door straight to the urgent care clinic. biggest scare of my life as a mom thus far. it turned out that both he and i had the flu and were sent home with tamiflu. he recovered after just one dose. four days later i still felt like death. oh, the resiliency of children. :)

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  3. No specific thermometer trials here, but seriously, why do they hate under-the-arm so much? I can't manage to do that successfully, so I've never really thought about even trying it the "other" way.

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  4. We're currently using a 30+ year old forehead thing that is like a mood ring (the colours change according to how hot you are). It's not exactly the most accurate! We figure if it's hot enough to set that off we're going to the doctor. I'm honestly scared to do a rectal temp...
    This sounds way better!
    ebickell at hotmail dot com

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  5. greatest trial is inaccurate readings or keeping thermometer under their tongue
    msboatgal at aol.com

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  6. Greatest trial is trying to get them to stay still for underarm!! We had an ear thermometer, but with ear infections we didn't get accurate readings. Recently when Rebekah had a double ear infection, the urgent care had one of these. I'm determined to own one now, too!
    coolestmommy2000 at gmail dot com

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  7. When Asher was first born, we tried to take his temp rectally. We were worried the whole time, was it in far enough, too far? was he going to poop while we were taking his temp? I've never tried it since.
    This would be great to have!

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  8. I have had several different thermometers and right now we have an ear thermometer, which seems to work for my kids. But you can't use it on little babies, so I would love to have the temporal one. I don't really have any thermometer horror stories, as my girls kind of like having their temperature taken. Sydney will sometimes put up a fight if she is sick, but then I just know that she has a fever because she is resisting my checking it!

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  9. we are just beginning this parenting journey, but i don't look forward to taking any rectal temperatures!

    kebode(at)gmail(dot)com

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