To evaluate reliability of mother's subjective assessment of fever, we measured actual body temperature of 301 children and correlated these with assessment of fever (presence or absence) by the mother. Mothers could identify 88.9% (104/117) of febrile children and 88.6% (163/184) afebrile children correctly (positive and negative predictive values 83.2 and 87.6%, respectively). Palpation of more than one anatomical site for subjective assessment had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 92.2%. The accuracy of the assessment was maximum in infants, and was not influenced by sex of the child, mother's educational status and the use of thermometer at home. In the situation where accurate measurement of temperature by thermometer is not available, mother's assessment about presence or absence of fever in her child can be relied upon by health-workers and physicians.