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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

We went to the ER at the advice of our pediatrician's nurses line for cold symptoms, so it seems like your rules aren't actually that clear.[/quote]

This is true.  Our ped always told us to go to the ER when DS was a baby, even though it seemed silly to us.  Plus, it costs a fortune.  But the one time I didn't go and took him to a clinic instead, the clinic insisted I go straight to the ER or call an ambulance (breathing issues), and I felt like the worst mom.  Of course, when we got to the ER they said he was fine.[/quote]

Look, I’m an md and I’m sure the pediatrician was correct. But they are almost never going to say to not go to the er because it’s the safest option. The absolute worst case is for a ped to miss something, send a kid home that requires an ambulance later. The risk tolerance for a sick kid is less than razor thin. It’s like if you called the gas company said you thought you might smell gas- should you stay in the house or should someone come to check it. If your child was 3 months or younger, then absolutely yes, you will be told to take them to the er if there is any suspicion at all for sepsis. [/quote]

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