The cost of being sick.

I remember when Tyler was a baby, ear thermometers first come out.  The cost was right around one hundred dollars.  I did not care, I had to have one.  Taking your baby's temperature with a rectal thermometer was horrible.  I realize that our mothers did this to us well into grade school, but still, yuck.  I was already cleaning that area four times a day, do I really need to go there again?  I asked my parents for the ear thermometer for my birthday.  Seriously.  It's all I wanted.  What a miracle.  In addition to the no butt thing, you get their temperature in thirty seconds or less.  No more holding down a child to see if they are sick, you just stick it in their ear and beeeeep, temperature.  Awesome.  So worth it.  Luckily now, the cost is twenty to thirty dollars, much more affordable.  They also have thermometers that you just touch their foreheads with.  Amazing.  What will they come up with next?

So I shared with you that Grant is sick with a high temperature.  I got out my handy dandy ear thermometer.  It said his temperature was 95.4.  His forehead is burning up, but it is reading 95.4.  Okay, maybe it needs new batteries.  So off I go to Wally world (that would be Wal-mart) to get the new batteries.  The thermometer batteries are the flat kind that go in watches and stuff.  Put in the new batteries, take Grant's temperature..... 95.4.  Okay, time for a new thermometer.  That's exciting.  I get to go look at all the gadgets and doodads that have just come out in the way of taking a child's temperature.  Awesome.  I really want the one they use at the doctor's office.  The one where they put the little plastic sleeve on it and stick it under your tongue for less than a minute and get a really accurate temperature.  My kids are older, I can stick stuff under their tongues and it will stay there for a minute.  

I could revert back to the old fashioned oral thermometers.  Shake down the mercury, stick it under their tongues, wait five minutes.  Keep telling the child that they have to keep it under their tongues and quit talking or it won't work.  Get out my glasses, attempt to get an accurate reading on the silver line of hope.  Maybe not.  I am sorry to say, that in this instant world, I want my kid's temperature, and I want it now.  I do need instant results when my kids are sick, period.  That is nothing I am ashamed of.

What is your favorite gadget for your kiddos?  Let me know.

God bless you and yours.