PARENTS PERCEPTIONS OF TAKING BABIES RECTAL TEMPERATURE

Objective-To explore the attitudes of parents to measuring their babie s' rectal temperature. Design-Qualitative study using unstructured int erviews of parents given ''Baby Check,'' a scoring system designed to assess severity of illness in babies that includes measurement of rect al temperature. Setting-One inner city general practice in Newcastle u pon Tyne. Subjects--42 parents of 34 babies under 6 months old. Result s-Parents were reluctant to measure rectal temperature in their babies ; 37 parents spontaneously raised concerns. Fifteen did not undertake measurement, 16 did so once only, and 11 did so more than once. Parent s' concerns included a fear of hurting their child, anxieties about se xual intimacy and abuse, difficulty in comforting their child, and con cern for their child's feelings. Most (33) substituted axillary measur ement. Conclusions--Parents' preference for the axillary method of mea suring temperature and resistance to using a rectal method in their ch ildren was based on several concerns. If parents are to be encouraged to use the rectal method of measuring temperature in sick babies any b enefits must be set against the generation of considerable parental an xiety and the resources that would be necessary to negotiate with pare nts and change their views.