Time required to document temperature by electronic skin thermometer in a healthy neonate.

We studied the actual time taken to document temperature in a stable neonate by an electronic digital skin thermometer with automatic time beeper. We studied 100 neonates after initial stabilization. The mean time required for documenting the temperature by a electronic thermometer in axilla was 56.34+/-1.54 secs for term neonates (>2500g) and 54.87+/-1.23 secs for low birth weight (<2500g). The skin temperature measured simultaneously by the ordinary mercury thermometer kept for traditional 3 minutes supported the electronic measurement (P < 0.01).