There is a gesture that we do almost automatically, especially when it comes to children: we take the thermometer, stick it under our armpit and wait for the beep. A simple, daily, reassuring action. Yet, according to a video that has gone viral in recent hours, we may have been wrong all along. This is not just any influencer saying this, but Doctor Filomeni, a pharmacist who works every day in contact with families, parents and the elderly, explaining why measuring fever, if done incorrectly, can return values that are distorted by up to several tenths.
The video comes from the San Matteo Pharmacy, and in just a few seconds it calls into question one of the most deeply rooted habits in our domestic routine.
The way we use the thermometer hides common errors
The central point is one: it is not enough to place the thermometer under the armpit. According to what the pharmacist explained, the correct position is vertical, with the tip completely inserted into the axillary cavity and the arm adhering well to the side. The reason is simpler than it seems. If the arm remains raised, even slightly, air enters, cools the area and alters the measurement. If the thermometer moves, if it does not remain stable, the sensor is not reading a reliable temperature.
The risk, therefore, is not only that of “making a slight mistake”, but of believing that the fever is not there when in fact it is present, or vice versa. A detail that becomes even more delicate when talking about children, in whom even a few tenths can make the difference between calmly monitoring the situation or becoming needlessly alarmed.
Why is the axillary measurement so sensitive?
The temperature detected in the armpit, as doctors have also remembered for years, is an indirect temperature. It does not measure the “heart” of the body, but a peripheral area, influenced by the environment, sweat and posture. Precisely for this reason it requires more attention, not less.
The pharmacist explains it clearly: the thermometer must remain still, protected from external air, pressed delicately but firmly by the arm. Only in this way does the tip remain in constant contact with the skin and the measurement makes sense. Everything else, even if done in good faith, risks producing unreliable numbers.
Ultimately, this is the point: you don’t need to change habits, but do them better. Measuring a fever is not a gesture to be performed automatically nor a test of laboratory precision, it is a moment of silent attention, the kind that goes almost unnoticed but which makes the difference. Because sometimes it’s not that we get everything wrong: simply, no one ever told us that it was enough to stop for a moment longer.
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