"normal temperature" same for everyone?

Is normal temperature the same at 98.4 deg F for everyone? I thought
each person has his/her own "normal" body temperature and the average
is 98.4 F. Isn't this correct? My kids tend to be a bit warmer than
98.4 even when they feel perfectly alright.

dragonlady...

98.6 is sort of the average of normal temperatures -- but, indeed, there
is a range of "normal". This created some interesting problems for me
with my oldest, who tends to run at or slightly over 99 most of the
time; her grade school had a policy of sending kids home if their temp
hit 99, so whenever she didn't feel like being at school, she'd ask to
go to the school nurse, who would take her temp and send her home! It
took me a while to convince them to stop doing that -- they finally
agreed to take her temp daily for a while, to confirm that, indeed, for
her 99 was NOT running a mild temperature.

Jeff...

99 is a temperature. But not even a mild fever. Fevers were considered to
start at 38 C which is 100.4 F or 101 F, depending on the doctor.

Jeff

tedneeley...

OP here. Actually this is what prompted me to ask this question. My
dd's day care teacher informed me that she's "really sick". She took
her temp and it showed 99.4 The thing is her normal is above 99.

dragonlady...

For some kids, that *would* be "really sick" -- for others, it is
nothing at all.

I don't have to fight this particular battle any more (she's 23 now) but
it was a struggle on more than one occassion. Good luck with this.

Jeff...

A temperature doesn't tell you if someone is sick. One can have a
temperature of over 100 and just need some liquids and shade. If your
daughter was running around and feeling fine, then her temperature was
irrelevant.

Ericka Kammerer...

I think it's actually 98.6F, and yes, there is
some slight variation from person to person (and from
hour to hour within individuals).

Jeff...

Actually, it was 36.8 C, which was rounded to 37 C and converted to 98.6 F.
So the normal temp is really 98.2 F. But it does vary from hour to hour and
person to person.

Jeff

Best wishes,
Ericka