Poll: how old are your kids and how many times have they been to the ER in their life?

[Anonymous]

zero times until #3 was born...and then all within a year

ds1 (5) - ran into a fence pole and major gash under eye
ds2 (3) - slipped and hit the corner of a wall busting forehead open. i tried to take him to ped and got the "well if this was MY kid i'd want real stitches to prevent a scar instead of butterfly stitches. spent 9 hours in the ER and still had a scar
ds3 (1) - crawled onto outdoor metal plate near our front door and got 2nd degree burns on both hands. DH was watching him (not that it couldn't have happened to me) and i still feel so so awful about it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:zero times until #3 was born...and then all within a year

ds1 (5) - ran into a fence pole and major gash under eye
ds2 (3) - slipped and hit the corner of a wall busting forehead open. i tried to take him to ped and got the "well if this was MY kid i'd want real stitches to prevent a scar instead of butterfly stitches. spent 9 hours in the ER and still had a scar
ds3 (1) - crawled onto outdoor metal plate near our front door and got 2nd degree burns on both hands. DH was watching him (not that it couldn't have happened to me) and i still feel so so awful about it

Ugh to the scar story / hours in the ER. My younger DD got burnt on her face when she was 1. I called the pediatrician who said, due to infection risk, I had to take her to the ER. I said “couldn’t urgent care check her?” And they said to take her to the ER, so I did. She fell asleep in her car seat on the way there and then was awake and calm when the doctor walked in. He said “she’ll be fine, it won’t even scar. Just keep it out of the sun.” I booked her with a pediatric dermatologist too, who said the same thing. It was surprising - the burn ran from her chin across her lip and her cheek - but no scar! Now and then I can see one little red mark in certain lighting, but only because I know it’s there. So I was annoyed to go to the ER, but if anything had happened (like an infection) I would have been upset I didn’t follow their advice.

[Anonymous]

19YO: technically 0, went 1x but the ER was too busy to see him so we ended up going to a specialist the next day instead

16YO: "if I had a nickle" for every time... we lost count by age 4 or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5:0
7:1

My observation is that some people go to the emergency room for everything. We have some friends whose kids (ages 5 and 3) have each been to the emergency room at least 8 times. These kids don't have chronic health issues or underlying conditions. They just think that a fever that lasts more than a day or two or a cough that persists more than a week deserves an emergency room visit. To me, that's a "call the nurse hotline, or worst case go to urgent care" situation. Usually we contact the nurse hotline through our pediatrician and get some good advice for treatment plus reassurance about what actually requires an ER visit, and it's fine.

My feeling is that the ER should be for: unexplained lethargy, trouble breathing (always), sudden injury (anything that makes you worry about a concussion or broken bone), or the weird kid incidents like an item lodged in an ear or nose, assuming you can't get into a pediatrician which these days you can't.

We don't go to the ER for cold symptoms, even bad ones, and we don't even go for flu/RSV type illness unless something escalates (like breathing issues). Most of the time, I think kids are best served by staying home, resting, and being cared for by a family member, not sitting in a hospital all night.

Same. My mom's group is notorious for this. "Oh no- I think my 4 year old might have RSV- time to head to ER!" It is such a waste of ER resources. I just don't get what people think the ER is going to do for their child *unless the child has breathing problems or it's life threatening*. I wish the ER could triage people like this to an urgent care instead.

PP here and thank you for validating. I was actually feeling really judgmental about my comment because I am judging my friends for how often they go. But yes, this is why it bothers me -- they are using up resources that really should be reserved for actual life threatening emergencies just because they are overzealous about health issues with their kids. To me it feels entitled, like "Well of course MY child should be seen immediately and receive ER care for whatever we want." I feel like some of this when you are a first time parent and are unsure where the line is makes some sense, but when experienced parents with multiple kids are heading to the ER "just in case" I get annoyed. ERs are constantly overcrowded and this is why. It's time to learn some basics about what symptoms require emergency care, and also to do some research on alternative options like urgent care or nurse hotlines.

I took my 3 yo to the ER in the middle of the night this summer because he spiked a high fever (103+) and was complaining that his neck hurt. I talked to the on call doctor at our pediatrician’s office who advised he be seen in the ER and not wait until morning when doctor office opened. We got to children’s ER (closest to home for us) around 1am and were advised it would be a 10 hour wait. We chose not to wait, instead went home, got some more sleep, not greet sleep, but sleep, and saw the pediatrician in the morning when the office opened - all within the 10 hour wait time for the ER. I will say that I sort of thought the ER wasn’t necessary, I wasn’t alarmed by DS’s behavior, which I told the on call doctor. But I also am not comfortable disregarding dr advice to go to the ER.

That said, that same child had an episode of respiratory distress that precipitated and asthma diagnosis in the middle of the night on the weekend this fall, we did not call the doctor or go to the ER, but waited for urgent care to open. I remember thinking that if I called the doctor they’d send us to ER and we wouldn’t be seen any faster there than waiting for urgent care to open.

In our experience, as soon at the triage nurse hears a wheezing baby enter the building they jump right on us. We don't even fill out the paperwork -- straight to the back.

[Anonymous]

During the first three years of our child’s life my ex took him to the emergency room over half a dozen times. It might have been 10 or more I lost count. He had no issues beyond mild asthma that eventually went away. Every fever, every nighttime cough…it contributed to our divorce

[Anonymous]

16: twice - chicken pox (didn’t know what it was) & strep throat

12: lots - bronchiolitis, stitches, broken hand, broken leg (4 visits just for that), the list goes on. Most were airway related. All before age six. I would guess maybe 30 times.

[Anonymous]

6 years old
Once
She put a bead up her nose. Luckily it ended up coming out on its own, right before the doctor was about to extract it.

[Anonymous]

7YO: 3 times, all before he turned 5. Once for croup, twice for accidents/injuries

5YO: 1 time, anaphylaxis (complete with an ambulance ride)

3YO: none yet!