To think my friends are too quick to visit A&E

[LouisaJF]

In recent weeks 3 friends have taken their babies to A&E with a sickness bug. All 3 were sent home being told to ride it out. Two of them must have their own personal spot in A&E they've been that many times.

I know I am fairly laid back but my DS has been through the usual range of illnesses and I have never felt the need to take him to hospital. Common sense kicks in and tells me what he really needs.

Don't get me wrong, if these children are seriously ill their parents shouldn't hesitate, but it just seems that an hour after one posts about it on FB another one is at. Stop wasting valuable resources and get on with it!

Asthma and flu.

Of course not everyone who takes their DC to A and E is a time waster BUT there is a hard core of attention seeking fools who happen to have kids and take them to A and E as if it were the pharmacy in Tesco. A colleague does exactly this and then blogs endlessly about "bloody NHS have sent me home after 6 hours of waiting". I think she's on visit 12 for the year so far. Never for any of the red alerts we read about in the leaflets or anything but for things like wouldn't take ONE feed, teething, sick twice in 6 hours. She's stopped ringing NHS Direct as they were advising she sit it out. She is a grade Adrama seeking twat. For this type of parent YANBU

Hmm - on the fence here too. Sniffles, vomiting etc (if short lived and if not very small babies) I would never, ever take to A&E or the GP frankly. I sit them out if viral and if not dangerous. Croup however I have taken my dd2 to A&E at 2am about and was made to feel like a daft mother (she is my 3rd so I was not doing a PFB!) We went home again, I sat up through the night with a child who could hardly breathe, went to my GP at 8am upon opening and was blue lighted to A&E. Our GP was utterly livid with the on call doctor as with croup the symptoms calm down when outside in cold air and he should have thought about this (as should I!!) before sending her home without any help or access to nebuliser etc.

You do sound as though you're gloating OP

I agree with sirzy and the others who have mentioned that croup is not nothing. When you've spent some time on the respiratory wards as I have with ds, it's heartbreaking to see the little babies admitted with it. Especially when they are spending their first Christmas Day there in hospital.

I took Ds to a and e with a sickness bug he was pooping blood he was admitted for two days. I've also taken him up for a cold as a baby where he was put on a oxygen mask as he couldn't breathe. Dd who was a baby had a bad cold and couldn't breathe so I took her to gp and was told off for not taking her to a and e he got a ambulance for her.

My step sister works in our childrens hopsital A&E. She was there the night I took dd, who'd fallen at school and hurt her elbow. Elbow Swollen and bruised and dd unable to move it. Decision with dad was she needed it xrayed.

My step sister was checking us in, when I stopped and my mouth fell open at the polish family next to me was checking in their 7 month old because she didn't eat her tea! Apparently it's very common for the polish community to turn up at 6pm to use A&E as a GP service.

I mentioned about when dd had broken her heel, that it had been a problem there as a small child came in with a cold and there was a polish translator sent for to explain to mum that she needed to go to the GP as this was A&E but not a GP. So 4 years on it was still a problem.

I recently took ds to A&E after a big reaction to a bee stinging him. I really swithered about OOH or A&E but after speaking to NHS24, they advised just go to A&E as they will treat where as OOH will see then send to A&E. They commented on him having seen consultants more than visits to A&E in his notes. He's been 2 times in his almost 11 years. Dd has been 4 times in 13 years.

I have friends who lost a DC because they didn't take him to hospital until it was too late :-( It's a difficult judgment call and IMO better to err on the side of caution.Taking a baby to hospital for a quick reassurance check over by a doctor costs the NHS next to nothing - ?5 or 6 minutes of a doctor's time - and is a valuable service. YABU.

I agree with a poster above talking about drunks being much more of a pain to A&E staff than concerned parents of sick children. What also costs the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds a year is people mistaking the ambulance service for a taxi.

I had never taken my oldest four to a and e. DC 5 is 18 months and has been twice - in an ambulance!. Once for choking and once because she knocked herself clean out.

I have no idea why she is so prone to these things.

DD had a cold at 4 weeks old, health visitor and GP both said to let her ride it out. I wasn't happy with that, took her to a&e where they diagnosed broncholitus, she went blue and floppy twice whilst we were there. Poor little mite ended up being intubated and sent to intensive care 60 miles away for 2 weeks. Shudder to think what would have happened if I'd have not taken her in.

Having worked in an A&E years ago, I can tell you that I and all of my coworkers were of the same opinion - we would much rather see the child brought in and have it be something minor than not be seen and have it be serious.

No intelligent health care worker will criticise a parent for erring on the side of caution.

I wouldn't be to quick to judge. We took DS to sick kids when he was a newborn several times and each time we were told to go home and that we were perhaps a bit pfb. At the 6th visit we got kept in for 4 nights. There WAS a problem but no one had ever listened to me. Tbh I'd always rather get him checked when something seems wrong to me and now I really don't care what people might think about it.

You never know these people in the OP might have a GP surgery like mine where you cannot get an appointment for days/weeks so a&me becomes the easier alternative.

Although one thing that does annoy me is parents demanding antibiotics for a cold.

Our nearest A&E is a 45 min drive, and I haven't had to use that in the 2 years we've lived here. (touch wood) Thank God we have a minor injuries clinic 2 min away. I've had 3 trips there to glue up cuts to the head or remove things from eyes. DS had concussion from a fall at school and I had to call 999 for that one because he threw up and his eyes were rolling back in his head in an alarming manner.
NHS direct called an ambulance for my DP once. I called them because he was having chest pains and he begged me to. I was pretty sure that it was a panic attack exacerbated by a chesty cold but felt I needed to check. They only bloody called 999 for us, even though I said it wasn't necessary. The paramedic did an ECG in the ambulance and so we knew it wasn't a heart attack before we got to A&E. We were really treated shabbily by the staff. The Admissions nurse flatly refused to see us and sent through to the main reception. The guy on reception looked askance and said "Why did you call an ambulance?" I explained that I hadn't, that NHS direct had. "It costs £500 for every call out." In the end, I said "Well, between us we have 30 years of National Insurance contributions and this is the first time we've ever used an ambulance, so lets call it even." Luckily the doctor we eventually saw was really sympathetic and told us not to mess about when it comes to chest pain and that the guy on reception had no place questioning us like that.
Anyway, my point being that IME HCP don't criticise you for being over-cautious with children, but they do if it's you!

It think it's always better to be safe than sorry.

My DS age 3 had asthma which always seems to flare up on a Friday night for some reason! We have been at out of hours GP so many times & always get sent up to A&E. I'm sure to other parents in the waiting room I must look like an over protective mother who has just brought her son there because he has a cough but most times he's ended up on a nebuliser & been kept in due to low oxygen levels.

YABU and judgey. What's it to you? It's easy for a confident, experienced person to feel good about themselves by calling others over-anxious. I find it a bit bullying tbh. (Can you tell I'm an anxious parent?!)

elinor that dr was right - you don't muck about with chest pain. I do a type of test on heart function for people who experience chest pain (diagnosing angina ), and have seen a great many who put it all down to anxiety who turn out to have very poor heart function then go on to need angiogram/angioplasty.

We've taken DS to hospital 4 times with croup. 3 times by ambulance.

DS's sats drop really low during attacks, so we have no choice - the paramedics say he has to go in.
We get there, he has the steroid and we go home. All over and done with in a couple of hours.
It's not worth taking the risk, is it? 3 year old - not breathing properly, why wouldn't you get help as quickly as you can?

Our OOH refuses to see DS when he asthma is bad, our GP has misdiagnosed so many times his consultant now says to go straight to A and E when he gets to the point of needing treatment.

The amount of times people - in peads A and E - have complained about him being taken straight through after arriving is madness! Not helped by the fact he doesn't always wheeze (which makes life 10 times harder for us to know when its a problem) - but in over 30 A and E visits in just under 4 years he has needed admitting or further treatment 27 of those times, one of the times he didn't need any more was with a broken nose the other 2 times when he was stable enough to carry on with just high dose ventolin.

When your sat in A and E it is easy to try to judge people for being there for the wrong reasons, but if you don't know the full medical history then you really can't judge.

Yabu,there will be people that will run to a&e at a slight temperature but I imagine they are a minority and most of the time I'm sure people should phone nhs24 who then tell them to go to a&e,no?

My sister has her own personal spot at the sick kids hospital for her youngest 3 out of 4 kids.
The oldest of the 3 was forever getting head injuries.
And the youngest too we're very sicky babies,a slight cold would turn into bronchiolitis and always led to a hospital admission especially for the youngest and never mind gastriontiritis(sp?) that a gp ill advised my sister and lead to dc being severely dehydrated.

The only thing I don't agree with is hospital pics on social media.

But OP, surely you must realise that sickness bugs in babies can be very dangerous?

My DD was hospitalised at 18 months old and put on a drip as she was severely dehydrated.

My DS2 was hospitalised at 6 weeks old with a severe vomiting bug. He was also a prem baby so I'd have been pretty negligent had I not rushed him in.

It isn't always so clear cut, so I have to say YABU.

One of the times DS had to stay the night he arrived at the triage room pushing his buggy.
The nurse looked at me as if I was a time waster.
She quickly backtracked when his O2 levels read as in the 80s%

The first time, we waited for 2 hours until I went in and told them he was almost listless. He was called in in less than 5 min.

Ps - for croup babies, I've noticed steamy bathrooms do nothing for DS. The cold air during the night worked much better.

My DS has been taken in by ambulance for croup and I was told to call 999 if he displayed the same symptoms/severity again. His croup is 'mild to moderate'. A child local to us died of croup recently, it is absolutely not time wasting to attend a&e with it.

Anything in a young baby can become serious suddenly, if in doubt I would always seek medical help.

expatinscotland - I just wanted to say how very sorry I am for the loss of your daughter.