What is your criteria for taking 3 yo to the doctor for a cough? (not croup)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not something I would go to the doctor for unless it’s not going away. But I would get a COVID test before family comes. Also tell family in advance that she has something so they can decide their risk. At this point having missed so much work from sicknesses I would hesitate to visit a sick family member even if just a cold.

I hear you. Everyone we'd host/visit this weekend is already aware and we've already done a COVID test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t sound concerned that she is very sick. It sounds like she has a cold. This is day 1. I would probably not even call the doctor.

Same. I don’t think I’ve ever brought a child to the dr for a cough.

[Anonymous]

Day 1 of a cold, no fever, no breathing problems, no lethargy? I'm not even calling the doctor for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for your answers.

For context, the nurse line we have access to pretty much always recommends urgent care. We don't want to go unnecessarily and either get a more vulnerable child severely ill, or catch something worse. In fact it's quite possible she caught this bug at urgent care this weekend (for an unrelated issue). Plus, my child has full on meltdowns when they do nose and throat swabs. Just wanted to get a sense of what other parents typically do when a child is coughing hard but otherwise breathing fine.

Nothing. They can’t do anything for her.

My rule on coughs is if it lasts for two weeks or causes breathing trouble. Otherwise it’s a wasted visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for your answers.

For context, the nurse line we have access to pretty much always recommends urgent care. We don't want to go unnecessarily and either get a more vulnerable child severely ill, or catch something worse. In fact it's quite possible she caught this bug at urgent care this weekend (for an unrelated issue). Plus, my child has full on meltdowns when they do nose and throat swabs. Just wanted to get a sense of what other parents typically do when a child is coughing hard but otherwise breathing fine.

They do that because they have to cover themselves from liability. They don’t have any other choice. If they tell you to go in, and you go and nothing happens, then nothing happens. You’ve wasted time and money but that’s not their problem. If they don’t tell you to go in, and it turns out that your child has a serious illness, they could be facing a lawsuit.

Often times, this is simply a judgment call and weighing the risks of not going in vs going in. And everyone has a different risk level as well as medical knowledge. I would suggest that if at any point you feel uncomfortable, and need the doctors to rule out things, just take your kid in. Better to waste time and money to find out it is nothing serious than to have regrets later. At least that’s what I would do.

[Anonymous]

Usually after fever we take kids to see doctor make sure it isn’t ear infection or strep throat (need antibiotics to cure but it happened before my DS had no fever but had strep throat), but we will also take kids to see doctor if it’s like a non stop cough or a really bad cold even without fever. Before DS was diagnosed with asthma he would cough non stop and out of breath and no doctor would prescribe anything ( pediatrician and walk-in, they aren’t specialists and don’t know cold triggers asthma), but after DS was diagnosed with Asthma with specialist the doctors always prescribe additional inhaler plus antibiotics. On the other hand, my another child has no asthma but also had bad cold got nothing and have to cough talk day long for another week and finally got antibiotics because her cold turned into a serious infection. I really don’t understand why.

[Anonymous]

We will go in for a cough if it lasts more than 7 days in a young kid or 10 days in an older child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will go in for a cough if it lasts more than 7 days in a young kid or 10 days in an older child.

This is roughly what we did. We got in the habit of ignoring lingering coughs when the kids were young and sick all the time and twice it turned into walking pneumonia. I felt really bad. Both times.