I rarely get excited about the latest app. Every time you turn around (and by turn around, I mean get on Facebook), you see a new app for this or that. All your favorite stores have an app … because of course they do. There are apps that help you plan meals, edit photos, find a restaurant … even apps to keep your kids from destroying everything and whining entertained while you’re at the grocery store. Those are all good things, of course; but for me, apps are generally not are as squee-worthy.
Except this one — this one I’m excited about this one. And I’m talking EXCITED excited.
Meet TempTraq, a high-tech sticker that goes under your child’s arm and is synced to an app on your phone. The sticker sends data about your child’s fever straight to the app, so you can check it remotely. In other words, no waking them to take their temperature. No wondering if you’re using the right technique. No tossing and turning and checking your kid’s forehead eleven zillion times a night because you’re worried that he’s getting dangerously hot.
Okay, maybe the tossing and turning is still gonna happen because sick kids and sleep really just don’t go together, but the TempTraq will definitely offer you some peace of mind if you’re worrying about fever spikes while you’re trying to get what little bit of shut-eye that you can.
And that’s not even the coolest thing about it.
The app can also track how a fever behaves over time and how your child responds to medication — and not just for one kid, but for MULTIPLE kids at a time! If you do end up needing to take your sick kiddo to the doctor, the app provides a history that will allow you to speak intelligently to your medical provider and give him or her a clear picture of what’s been going on. There’s even a feature in the app that will let you send data right to your doctor.
How cool is that!?
See, I told you I was excited. What can I say, it’s been kind of a rough cold and flu season at our house and I. Want. This.
Because I’ll be honest: I have three kids and I am terrible when they’re sick. I always feel like I do everything wrong, and high fevers especially scare me.
While we’ve come a long way from sticking a thermometer up a baby’s behind to get an accurate fever reading, I still always wonder if I’m taking my kids’ temperature the right way. I never make notes on how my kid’s fever has progressed, and by the time we get to the point where a doctor is involved, I sound like a complete idiot.
It usually goes a little something like this:
Doctor: “How long has your child had a fever, Mrs. Robbins?”
Me: …
Doctor: “Is the fever responsive to medication, Mrs. Robbins?”
Me: ” … I got 38 minutes of sleep last night and I cried because we were out of Diet Coke.”
I’m glued to my phone most of the time anyway … and let’s be real mamas, you probably are, too. How easy would it be to swipe your screen and be able to intelligently discuss your child’s condition with your medical provider? Or better yet, to just thrust your phone at the doctor or nurse and say, “Here, just look at this,” when you’re especially sleep-deprived and barely coherent.
The TempTraq is available in drug stores, and I gotta say, it’s quite reasonably priced. You can download the app for both Apple and Android devices for free. Buy one for yourself, for your mom BFF, and for any mom-to-be in your life. As far as I know, there is no app that will completely take away the pain-in-the-butt factor that is having a sick kid … but this definitely makes things suck a little bit less.
Which is definitely squee-worthy, if you ask me.