Braun No Touch + Forehead Thermometer Review

When you have children, illnesses become another part of life that you have to deal with, a little more regularly than you’d prefer. When there are more than one or two children in the household barely a week goes by sometimes without someone being poorly with a fever, especially through the winter months. Illnesses have a nasty habit of making their way through every family member, before you start all over again with another bug.

A good thermometer should be right at the top of your First Aid essentials list. Over the last fourteen years I have probably tried them all, from the old fashioned glass mercury ones, yeah that one didn’t last long in this house, to strips that went across the forehead, to the digital ones that go under the armpit and everything in between. Yes they all took temperatures but how accurate most of them were is debatable. I remember LV being really poorly with chicken pox when he was two (he ended up being hospitalised with necrotising fasciitis-yes it was as bad as it sounds!) we had three different thermometers in the medicine drawer and every one of them gave a different reading. Not very helpful when you’re exhausted, worried and not thinking straight!

Thermometers have come a long way in the last few years though and the Braun No touch + forehead thermometer is the perfect example of just how far they have come, it literally takes two seconds to give a reading and this can be done in two ways, either by touching against the forehead or holding it 5cm away. For the last month I have been trying out the Braun NTF3000 and between my five kids you can guarantee it has really been put through its paces! We have had illnesses galore so plenty of opportunities to put it to the test.

PROS

One thing I really like about the Braun No Touch + Forehead Thermometer is, well it says it right in the name! The fact that you can check a sleeping child’s fever without actually having to touch them at all.

It’s fun for children to ‘help’. O hates having his temperature taken, the screaming and fighting to keep an axillery thermometer in place often means that either his temperature is higher from all the screaming or it has dislodged from under his armpit and didn’t take an accurate reading anyway. He happily lets me take his temperature with this by helping me hold it and even pressing the button, he likes the beeping even better when it beeps lots because he has an elevated or high fever!

It is very hygienic. The last thing you want to be doing is passing germs from one child to another, the fact that this only touches the forehead, or doesn’t even touch at all, means that each child gets to keep their own germs without sharing.

It is very fast, whereas it used to take a minute or more to take a single temperature with a simpler digital thermometer the Braun allowed me to take all five kids’ temperatures in less than a minute without having to disturb them at all.

The light code, green for normal, amber for elevated and red for high, is easy to read even in a sleep deprived state when you can’t focus your eyes to read the actual numbers.

CONS

I sometimes like to take temperatures more than once, just in case. The Braun coped well with this when I was just reading one child’s temperature but after two or three foreheads it sometimes got a little overwhelmed and needed a break for a few minutes. This was probably more me pushing it to it’s limits than an issue with the unit itself though.

The cost is more than I would usually pay for an item like this.

To be honest the following aren’t really cons, more observations, things to keep in mind:

Because the thermometer is reading skin temperature you have to keep in mind that there can be external factors that affect this. Obviously you can’t expect it to give a precise reading if you have had a cool pack against the skin or if you have been snuggling and the forehead has been pressed to your own skin which can give a higher temp. According to Braun the NTF3000 is accurate to within 0.1 degrees.

If you are taking the temperature using the no touch method, the reading will probably be a little lower than taking the reading pressed against the skin. If you are concerned or need really precise readings maybe touching the skin would be a better method.

CONCLUSION

Over all I have very little bad to say about the Braun No Touch + Forehead Thermometer. Even with the high price tag I really do think it is worth what you pay, and after all you can’t put a price on peace of mind.