Review: Braun no touch forehead thermometer

If you’ve ever been up for days with a sick baby, you know how stressful everything is. And if it involves a fever, those hourly readings can be exhausting if you have to wash off a thermometer or do a rectal reading.  If you have the cash, this may be the gadget for you. While a lot more expensive at $60 (a lot less on Amazon) than a $5 Walgreen’s thermometer, the Braun no-touch thermometer is a perfectly designed device to do one thing: measure temperature over and over without any extra steps. The Braun no-touch thermometer won’t change your TV channel or guess your weight, but that’s what makes it so great in stressful situations like when your baby or child is sick.

The thermometer only has 2 buttons: on/off and a  “check temperature” icon.  There is no warm-up time which might surprise those of us used to mini-computers that need to boot up before they can work. In this case, push “on,” and press another button marked with the obvious temperature icon and you get a reading in two seconds.  All you have to do is make sure you’ve aimed at the middle of baby’s forehead from two inches or closer.

Proven to provide a clinically accurate temperature reading, the thermometer even glows green, yellow or red to help you quickly determine whether you’re dealing with a fever.

The thermometer also has a simple switch on the side to turn alert sounds on and off, which can be valuable if you’re treating a sleeping or restless child. Since it’s completely hygienic, you can test everyone in the house literally within 30 seconds.

The thermometer works with babies and children, as well as adults. The only drawback I find, other than the price, is the use of AA batteries and that’s not a huge disadvantage. It does mean that if you’re not using the thermometer on a regular basis, you should probably remove the batteries between uses to avoid battery leakage.

Pros:

• Simple, simple, simple to use
• Attractive design
• No washing or sterilization needed

Cons:

• 10x the price of a regular thermometer
• Does not stand up straight so lays flat in medicine chest
• Uses 2 AA batteries so if you aren’t using often, you need to store without them to avoid battery leakage

By Paul Banas

Paul Banas is the San Francisco-based publisher of Pregnancy Magazine, as well as editor of GreatDad.com, a parenting resource for fathers. He is married with two children, 12 and 16. He is passionate about promoting involved parenting, especially by fathers and also writes tech reviews.