8 week old baby has had a CT scan- now i'm petrified of the risks :(

[Anon501178]

Having such a horrible time and so scared :( went to the GP as recommended by health visitor because my little boy (8wks) has a raised lump/patch at the back of his head.GP hadn't seen it before so referred us to the hospital.Doctor and consultant saw baby and whilst saying they weren't overly concerned thought it might be to do with sutures fusing, still decided he should have a CT scan.It has all happened so fast I didn't really think about the risks and yet going into the room having to look away and wear the special radiation suit whilst my baby lies there exposed to it has petrified me.
I am starting to think I should have declined it and asked for an xray instead! I have since read something on a medical website about the risk to infants of cancer later in life and i'm sitting here in the hospital room in tears, spiralling thinking what have I done and feeling like I have failed him as it doesn't even seem like they think it is anything that serious! Also remembered I was at A&E once with my DD aged 2ish when she bumped her head, and they said they didn't want to scan her because of the radiation risks.So I am just so worried now.

I know nobody can guarantee his outcomes for life but has anyone else had a baby that has had this procedure done?
I am wishing I could rewind the clock and kicking myself that I agreed to it rather than push for xray.I asked the radiographer after (should have done it before) about the risks and she said its a low dose but basically that they can't eliminate all risk which made me feel worse.....and there is not much risk why make me wear the suit, everyone leave the room and then i have to look away?!

Feeling so bad right now and should be asleep but just cannot settle :(

You can't eliminate all risks. You putting your baby in a car is probably 100 times more risky than them having a CT scan but I bet you do that every day without thinking about it.

I will say in my line of work (I'm not medical but the work I do is involved in medical area) and I see people, adults and children getting CTs all the time. I've been in this job 21 years and I've never seen anyone having cancer attributed to a CT.

I've seen people react to the contrast agent like an allergic reaction but that's about it.

Do you have anxiety in general or just since having your baby? I do empathise as I also can get health anxiety really bad too. It ruminates in my brain with very intrusive thoughts and locks onto things like this.

Your baby should be fine.

Please don't worry. The doctor who referred your baby did this because the benefit of the procedure outweighed the risk of the scan.

CT scans are much lower dose than they used to be and fairly trivial within the lifetime radiation dose that we all receive due to background radiation.

The risk from any individual exposure really is incredibly low, likely lower than the journey to the hospital but it's because there is a slight collective risk from all millions of procedures that are carried out each year so a tiny percentage suffer detriment.

But that isn't a reason to not scan people if there’s a chance they have a serious illness or other life limiting condition because the consequences of not detecting and treating that would be far worse.

For the head bump, not having an X-ray was probably because it wouldn't change whatever treatment would have been given, eg if it was just a superficial injury.

For you and the radiographer, you're not patients so there's no justification for receiving a radiation exposure, this is covered by H&S regulations and steps must be taken to reduce your exposure hence not standing near the scanners, wearing protective clothing and looking away when the scanner is running because the eyes are more sensitive to radiation exposure and not protected by the leaded gown.

Stop reading things you do not have the knowledge to understand. I don't men that in a nasty way but if you don't have the background knowledge.

We are all exposed to radiation everyday. Depending on where you live and the job you do you can be exposed to slightly higher levels of background radiation.

X-rays, including CT do expose you to more radiation, but it is a question of will this extra radiation be worth it.

Now let's have a look at how much extra radiation your baby has been exposed to, well an adult head CT would be the equivalent of 5 months background radiation. I believe it is less for a child.

So your baby has been exposed to less radiation than a 1 year old who has never had a CT.

Thanks so much for all the replies and reassuarance, which really helped me feel better last night!
The doctor has said this morning that the CT scan shows an extra suture on baby's skull.Sounds dramatic but they are hopeful no surgery is needed, or any more scans, but just need to get a second opinion from a specialist at another hospital as it is quite rare.
I am feeling glad they did it now to be honest, as it sounds like it was important to determine the cause and rule out any fracture or brain damage.
Also I think they would have wanted to do it regardless of my views for safeguarding reasons anyway.

Yeah i do have mild intrusive thoughts and get very anxious about my children's welfare as vulnerable babies - currently getting CBT to help that and its usually much better than it was when I had it alot with my first baby some years ago.
I think all this has just really shocked/thrown me.

When a doctor requests a CT, the request gets sent to a radiologist who ‘vets’ it to ensure it’s an appropriate request. Then the radiographer who does the scan also checks if they agree before performing it. So 3 different health care professionals have considered the scan and decided that the benefits outweigh the (tiny) risk, and that it’s the best type of scan for what they’re looking at.

The reason you had to put on lead is because the scan was of absolutely no benefit to you so the risks of the exposure are unacceptable. The risk to your child would have been balanced against the risk of not getting the diagnosis or not excluding anything serious. If you’d asked for an X-ray it probably wouldn’t have excluded all the possibilities and you’d have ended up having the ct anyway. IIRC for an adult ct head/brain the radiation dose is less than a year’s worth of normal background radiation (much less than a year of living in Cornwall tho!) …it’s probably even less for a kid.

From the age of about 2 (back in the olden days...) I had regular actual xrays on my head. Probably one every few months unil I was in my teens - plus all sorts of awful things that wouldn't be done now.
I'm absolutely fine apart from normal trauma stuff from it all - so seriously a ct scan is highly unlikely to have done any damage. They are an essential and bloody brilliant part of medical investigations.

Glad everything is OK OP.

That's the main thing.

Oh OP, bless you.

The reason they have to wear the suits and look away is because while one scan is negligible in terms of radiation etc., the cumulative effect would be huge. They probably carry out 20-30 scans a day. Doing that everyday for 40+ years would be a huge impact! It’s like how flying for the normal person doesn’t present much risk, but for cabin crew and pilots it’s a cumulative effect.

Glad everything is okay with your little one 🤍

The risk is cumulative through your life so you need to be protected because even small doses add up, and more so for the staff who could be exposed multiple times a day. I'm sure the doctors thought the tiny risk was compensated for by the possibility of finding something that might need urgent treatment.

The risks of a CT are minimal. There are structures which also don’t show on an X-ray, so diagnostically not much use.