Prior to COVID19 hitting South Africa, I had always been a big supporter of knowing your child and newborns status. I mean more specifically, temperature status. Temperature control and monitoring is an important measurement tool in giving us signs as parents about how newborns and young children are doing within their bodies. Let’s face it, the one hard thing about parenting is that young infants and children can’t talk and if they can, often they don’t always know what to say.
It is for this reason that I like the old fashioned mercury thermometers. They are accurate, don’t lie and let us all know how the person being tested for temperature control is doing. At 18 years old, when I started nursing at hospitals, one of my first duties as a student nurse was to go around the ward with my trolley. On my trolley, I had a metal container and lid with a chlorhexidine solution inside. I always loved the pink colour of the chlorhexidine solution. Once I took a person’s temperature, I would place the used thermometer inside the sterilizing solution.
For me – it’s important to share with parents and everyone that using a glass mercury thermometer under the armpit for infants and under the tongue for bigger children and adults is such a great tool for accurate temperature taking. I also want to share that mercury thermometers are very accurate and cost around R20. Currently, during COVID, every family should be encouraged to buy a mercury glass thermometer.
These old-fashioned thermometers can be purchased from most pharmacies and big supermarkets.
So I am often asked. What is normal body temperature, and what is high temperature? Generally, we want babies, children and adults to have a temperature between 36.5 degrees Celsius and 37.4 degrees Celsius.
A temperature above 37.4 degrees Celsius can indicate the start of an infection or flu etc. The best way to keep yourself safe and healthy is to keep your family informed and use your mercury thermometer to know your body.
Hopefully, I have shared some helpful information about temperature checks. I have been amused during COVID as so often I have been scanned for my temperature, and In theory, I should be dead.
A temperature of a dead person usually is anything below 35 degrees Celsius. Usually, the body temperature will then further drop lower to indicate a deceased time of death. This means if you go to a shop and your temperature is 34.5 degrees Celsius, the device that is used is probably not accurate.
The benefit of purchasing a glass old-fashioned mercury thermometer means a family can perhaps buy two and always feel confident and empowered reading the results.
Giving my families and communities practical and accurate information is important to me.
If you would like to purchase a mercury thermometer or need more support pls don’t hesitate to contact me
Kind Regards
Judy K