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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Multiple times but it is free, the fastest way to a specialist, no easy urgent care options vs er and sometimes hard to get doctor apts.

[Anonymous]

8 year old: 2x (croup and bad flu/dehydration)
6 year old: at least 9x (mostly asthma attacks and anaphylaxis)

[Anonymous]

13 yr old - 2 - dehydration from norovirus as a baby, and allergic reaction at age 3
11 yr old - 2 - rsv at 8 weeks and concussion from falling down stairs at age 3

[Anonymous]

13: 2 (once for fever when urgent care was closed, once for eating a poisonous mushroom)

10: too many times to count, he had asthma

[Anonymous]

DD 10: once, for a sprained ankle while playing soccer (she was screaming in pain and we thought it might be broken)
DD 8: twice. once for broken arm and once for dislocated elbow.

[Anonymous]

6: Once at two months for a fever that wouldn't go down, but turned out to be morning serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4:0
2:2
3 month old:0

I have a kid who had asthma (has since outgrown it)

Probably 12 times, almost all for asthma. Once for a broken arm and once for a potential bone infection.

Nobody outgrows asthma.

[Anonymous]

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.

It depends on your insurance. Our insurance says they will reimburse for urgent care but don't. We have a virtual option that is good but the system often doesn't connect and then you have to private pay and then try to get reimbursed. Our doctors say after hours go to the ER. ER says come there over urgent care. But, our health care is military and in the same hospital so it's easier for everyone to access the medical records, get x-rays, and be hospitalized if necessary. The ER is free, for urgent care, I've paid hundreds out of pocket as they never reimbursed. We try our best to get doctor's appointments and ped's is usually good about getting you in but for primary care it can be weeks or months to be seen and if you are really sick, what other option do you have (I usually use the virtual option but they cannot check for some things or tell you to go ot the ER for things like breathing, which is a huge issue for me - but of course ER sends you back to the useless primary care and specialists who do nothing, which is why you end up at the ER). You have good health care. Not all of us do.

[Anonymous]

DS1 once. He was hit in the cheekbone with a baseball. We needed to see if there was an orbital fracture.

Turns out, they ended up not doing the X-ray because his nose had been broken the year before (that was an urgent care visit), so we had to monitor him to make sure his eye didn’t stop moving (it was fine).

He’s been urgent care many times.

My youngest has never been to the ER (he’s 11).

[Anonymous]

11yo: 5 times. All but one were sent by pediatrician. Twice for croup-related breathing issues late at night, twice for head injuries, once for shoving something up nose at inopportune time (no urgent cares open at 6am Sunday morning) and screaming in pain.

[Anonymous]

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.

NP - I agree that EDs are often overcrowded, but not that it’s mostly because of overanxious parents. It’s because the healthcare system in this country effing SUCKS and many people don’t have primary care providers. Urgent care helps, but I’m not down with blaming parents for what are systemic failures in our country’s ability to care for its citizens.

[Anonymous]

Boy age 14 - once for an allergic reaction, age 10

Boy age 10 - three times
Once for laceration to scalp requiring a couple of staples, age 2.
Once for mild stomach ache but I couldn’t find a button battery from a toy and panic ensued, age 3. It wasn’t the button battery.
Once after a fall skiing during ski lesson, and ski patrol sledded him down and straight into an ambulance. He wasn’t injured at all (I would have told him just to get up), but ski instructor was being very cautious with a 5 year old, which I appreciated.

We have been to urgent care clinic for other concerns, sprained ankles, etc. I’m an md and I avoid the ER if at all possible. It’s busy, there are people there who use it for primary care, the likelihood of sitting for hours is high. We were living in Manhattan and I drove my kid to a an ER in NJ for the scalp issue to avoid nyc ER on a Friday night.

[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.

NP - I agree that EDs are often overcrowded, but not that it’s mostly because of overanxious parents. It’s because the healthcare system in this country effing SUCKS and many people don’t have primary care providers. Urgent care helps, but I’m not down with blaming parents for what are systemic failures in our country’s ability to care for its citizens.

+1

There is also a huge doctor shortage in this country. And it was only relatively recently that preventative care was guaranteed to be covered. It used to be more financially feasible to go to the ER as a first resort.

[Anonymous]

4.5 year old: 1 time he had a bad case of croup at midnight and scared me. I asked the dr if we made the right choice bringing him in and he said he would have brought his kids in.

3 year old: 3 times. First time was because urgent care sent us to er. Tested postive for RSV. Second time we thought she broke her toe, but it was fine. Third time, she fell off our bed and had a massive massive knot on her head. As soon as we pulled up I knew she was fine becuase she was having a conversation with me. The dr told us the new fall protocol.