If you have a kid like mine that never stops moving and is always pushing boundaries, you will inevitably have at least one trip to the emergency room during their childhood. But when should you rush to the ER and when can you just schedule a doctor’s visit? It’s a tough line to find and one you can only discover with experience. Let’s be real about a kid injury, how are we supposed to know? Really, how hurt are they?
Disclaimer: I feel like this is the part where I pretend I am the voicemail at the doctor’s office. “If this is an emergency please stop reading and go see a real doctor.” I am by no stretch of the imagination a doctor or someone who should be giving medical advice to anyone.
However, I now have a few hospital visits under my belt and have learned a few things about where to take a sick or injured kid.
The ER
When is an ER visit justified? It’s probably safe to say that ER visits are for the times when you really considered calling an ambulance, but didn’t. The younger the child, the quicker parents are to panic but it’s important to remember not everything is an emergency. It’s especially hard to establish the level of urgency just from a baby’s reaction. Now, I am generally a guy who says to tell your kids to suck it up. However, an injury to your baby affects each person differently. I will tell you that taking a moment to breathe could save you all kinds of money in medical bills. So, if you are panicked by your child’s reaction to an injury, by all means, go see your friends at the local emergency room. Just don’t always depend on it as your first option. The boy who cried wolf carries a lot of weight in the medical world.
Urgent Care
The next step down from the emergency room is urgent care. Urgent care is for those times when it’s not quite an emergency but it’s also not your common cold. Urgent care is a good resource as your kids get a little bit older and can explain what hurts. And, possibly why they were jumping off of the garage in the first place. On the other side, Urgent care is not necessarily the best option for infants as they do not tend to see as many of them and their diagnosis may not be the most accurate. However, if we’re talking a broken arm or leg, they are probably a pretty good resource if you’re not looking to go to the ER.
The Doc
What about your standard doctor’s appointment? There will be so many doctors appointments in the first handful of years you will get sick of seeing your doctor pretty quickly. Not necessarily because you see them all the time but because every time you see them your child is getting a shot and it is not the most pleasant experience you can have in a day. At the same time, your scheduled doctor’s appointments are not the only time you’re allowed to go to the doctor. Your doctor is great for those “non-emergency, still probably should get it looked at, not sure if it’s all that bad, please don’t call CPS I swear they did it to themselves,” moments. If they can get you in fairly quickly, go there.
Trust Your Gut
The biggest thing to remember is that WebMD and Google can only get you so far. You have to establish your own threshold for what level of urgency each injury entails. Hospitals and medical locations are not always the healthiest places so limiting you and your child’s exposure to all of the actual sick people who are there is probably your best course of action unless what you are going there for outweighs the sickness that may or may not come along with it. Remember, you’re the parent. You know your kid. If you think something is really wrong, trust that feeling. If you’re not sure, take a minute to breathe, explore your options, and decide what’s best for you both.