If I remember correctly the Hypercolor shirts from the 80's only worked a couple of wearings and then stopped changing. I'm skeptical...

Isn't it more effort to dress the baby in one of these things than to just use a thermometer? Unless you enjoy having a living version of a mood ring.

A better indicator of your kid being sick is they scream bloody murder.

@H3ion: Not saying I agree with this product, but unless you're keeping the thermometer in the baby all the time, the baby outfit serves a different purpose. It'll constantly monitor the baby's temperature and start glowing immediately when it detects something is wrong.

@henrygates: Or projectile vomit.

Actually the best sign that my daughter has a fever is when she lays there quietly for an extended period.

Babyglow would be a great name for a band.

When our kids were really small, a digital thermometer in the armpit worked fine. From about age one on we used the Star Trek sounding "Temporal Scanner" thermometer which is a bit of an investment, but has worked for over 6 years now, and I don't think we've to do so much as change the battery in it. You don't have to stick it in potentially earachy ears, you don't have stick where the sun don't shine, and you don't have to make the kid keep it under their tongues. Just a couple of test swipes to calibrate it (I usually use my own forehead for this) then a swipe across the kids forehead.

Some advice from a 3X parent:

1. Babies run temperatures. Amazingly high temps. Call a doctor when it gets over 102 F.

2. Kids run a temperature when they teeth.

3. Kids run a temperature when they run.

4. Kids run a temperature when they sleep.

About the only time we haven't seen an elevated temperature is eating.

My point is that most health sites, doctors, and even schools pay too much attention to temperature, something that varies wildly until a kid is about 5.

@ugadawg: Dude, I STILL have a hypercolor shirt I had in junior high (about 1992) that STILL works.

I read a long time ago that women can feel changes in temperature of as little as 1/10,000th of a degree with their lips, so that kissing the baby on the head or kissing the grade schooler goodnight is one of the surest ways for moms to notice their child has a fever ... long before it starts to register on the thermometer.

Same article said men could detect like 1/100th of a degree with their lips.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):

But we can detect even slight differences in barometric pressure with our penis.

You mean my old trick of leaving a kernel of unpopped corn in baby's mouth and waiting for it to go off isn't an ideal fever spotter?
Damn.
Wait, so those many pats of butter I've put on baby's tongue were completely wasted?
Double-damn.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Well, honestly, evolutionarily men only need to know, Hot or Not. We'd blow a fuse if asked 0.0095 Hot or Not.

@Trai_Dep: Another trick: take baby on a 7-hour air flight. If it begins howling incessantly before the wheels are up: yup, fever!

Surgeon's Warning: BabyGlow not recommended as fever-detecting device for parents prone to acid flashbacks or frequent raves more than once a month due to false alarms.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):

This thing must be a lot of fun if you put it in a dryer and turn off the lights.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): It may sound old fashioned, but the very first thing I do when I suspect a fever is kiss the forehead. I have four kids and this has never failed. I can't tell specific temps that way (that would be soooo cool) but I can definitely tell when a fever comes and goes.

@CyGuy: I second this. Those temporal scanners are great! Only around $30 or something at Walmart, babies r us, etc.

What a horrible idea. Anyone who depends on this for indicating a fever has no business being a parent. There is no way this is accurate enough to be useful - and worse, it's dangerous because you'll definitely miss a fever.

@Trai_Dep: Hey, 1/100th of a degree is still enough for early fever detection!

@changed my name: I picked out when my baby felt over-warm in the hospital with kisses, and, indeed, he was running about half a degree hot. I'm a believer! (And I've always been able to tell when my husband has a fever that way.)

@zarex42: So you want to hold your baby constantly, checking its temperature constantly? Don't know about you, but no thanks for me. It's one thing to be a super parent, it's another to have to chain yourself to the crib. Sitting next to it is one thing, sitting next to it with your arm hanging inside to keep a thermometer in the baby is unbearable - for the parent and the baby.

@ugadawg: I clicked on the comments link thinking "hypercolor". I was really surprised to see it mentioned in the first comment.

+1 sir.

I had every garment they made. Oh man, that was stylish at one time. I think I wore my shirt with my hammer pants.

FWIW - mine never stopped working until they had been turned into grease rags and you couldn't see the color anymore.

Anyone remember the "stick on the forehead thermometers?" I don't think they were terribly accurate either. If it works anything like hypercolor, you'll put the thing on them and it will turn white in ten minutes and stay that way. Or turn white in embarrassing places. But the original colors are pastel, so are you really going to notice when it turns white? Babies are hot little creatures, and the material is supposed to turn white at 98.6 F, wouldn't it be more useful if it worked at a higher temp? Actually, since it turns at 98.6, I think it's the same exact thing as hypercolor.

That is all.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Yup, I've got two...both mine and my brother's that were Christmas gifts.

I don't wear 'em much, though...it was fun in Canada but in both Vegas and Austin, they change as soon as you put them on and then they stay that way like any other shirt. Plus I wondered if Vegas sun would cook in the colour as much as putting them in the dryer...

@zarex42: It's aimed at the insecure, first-time parents -- which is an almost redundant phrase. Those with more than six months experience won't need it.