Medical Breakthroughs Initially Ridiculed, Rejected or Persecuted. Yes, the doctor who suggested that other doctors wash their hands actually lost his life! There are many others: handwashing, incubators, angioplasty, cancer, ulcers, brain injury…
Deadly and debilitating, both are dangerous maladies plaguing every family with an involved child before the advent of Penicillin, pretty much the first antibiotic. Meningitis was almost uniformly fatal and “strep” throat debilitatingly producing scarlet fever and heart disease. These too, all parents should know about if only to provided historical context and understanding about why we think and do like we do.
Taking the temperature of an older child may be made more confusing by all the gadgetry available these days. When a child is five they are usually skilled enough to hold something in their mouth without biting on it so the oral method can be added to the rectal and axillary methods used on infants. Rectal is still the most accurate, oral is next best if they haven’t eaten or drunk anything in a half-hour and axillary is the worst of all. Here’s a video about it.
