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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

117 replies

LouisaJF · 28/09/2013 22:36

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!

OP posts:

luxemburgerli · 29/09/2013 10:56

It is dangerous to think you are wasting precious resources by going to A&E (or calling an ambulance etc). The services are there to be used, don't wait until it's too late...

FrightRider · 29/09/2013 11:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tholeon · 29/09/2013 11:12

When we took four month old ds to a and e with 'a cold' he actually had severe bronchiolitus and needed intensive care treatment. Am rather glad I took him in...

Babies need careful assessment, often by medical professionals who can actually see them, and frequently it needs to be done urgently. I would far sooner criticise a and e time wasting by drunk adults...

Lweji · 29/09/2013 11:28

Oh, there was another time he had an infection on his penis.

Apparently the white fluid coming out was normal, according to my doctor brother.
It was pus.

At no point the A&E doctor hinted that I had been silly to take him in or acted in a way that made me think it.

StarfishTrooper · 29/09/2013 11:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

utreas · 29/09/2013 11:41

YANBU, one of my friends is a GP and she says that her surgery should just give some people a weekly appointment slot they are there so often.

eragon · 29/09/2013 13:07

have 4 kids one with a life threatening condition. we have often been to hospital and know our local paramedics quite well.

despite this have had a mother in playground mutter (pls excuse spelling) 'munchousen by proxy' in my direction.

woman can be such cows to each other.

Akray · 29/09/2013 13:25

YABU. I have 5DC. With my first I was very inexperienced and had her at A&E many times ~ in the middle of a long night when they are sick and have a very high temp you do panic and children's conditions can deteriorate rapidly, I think if in doubt you err on the side of caution.

Now with DC5, I am much more confident and have been through most of the sick bugs etc and know that with calpol, fluids and love they get through it. You know your child best though and if I was at all worried I wouldn't hesitate to go to A&E

babylann · 29/09/2013 13:47

I also think yab a bit u. Different children get ill in different ways. Two children may catch the same bug or cold, one acts like it doesn't affect them, the other has a
spikey fever or even convulsions.

I say that as parent of a child who is generally the former, running around like nothing is the matter when her tonsils are the size of golf balls.

paperlantern · 29/09/2013 14:10

YABU

if you are one of the lucky ones who are confident your dc can ride it out your lucky.

DS(6) can sometimes ride it out but all too frequently things tend to go belly up very quickly and for no obvious reasons.

for that reason I tend to jump quickly (although usually ooh gp). incidentally he too has been admitted for vomiting

SirChenjin · 29/09/2013 14:16

YANBU.

I've had to take the DCs to A&E a couple of times - bad burn, anaphylactic shock, broken bone - and the place was filled to the gunwales with entire families accompanying one person who had a minor cut on their head or a sore leg. Some people are just too quick to run to A&E here - esp. since the out of hours service is run from the same waiting room, so if you phone NHS24 they will give you an appointment (if needed) and you can be seen straightaway without sitting for hours adding to the A&E queue.

IamSlave · 29/09/2013 14:49

YADBU

My goodness, a small life in your hands, people should be more quick to go to A&E in my opinion, usually people are afraid of making a fuss, do not want to trouble people.

As others have said - babies and small children can go rapidly down hill, I have most definalty had more friends who the docs/a&E have told, you came too late, another minuet/hour and so on, the baby would have died....

Its not worth taking a chance, I hope your thread doesn't make the more meak amongst us think twice before taking child to A&E. All the people I have ever met in the HCP always always say do not worry, we would rather nothing be the matter, than you at home with something serious!

jamdonut · 29/09/2013 14:54

I think you know when a baby/young child is sick enough for A+E.

I think the OP is right ,though that some people use it for the flimsiest of reasons. There doesn't seem to be a lot of common sense about these days.

I am of the 'wait and see' brigade,generally.

When my dd was 4 months old she had chickenpox,and then when she was 14 months old she had a febrile convulsion which meant a blue light to the hospital in the early hours. That came out of nowhere from just having a bad cold. She was investigated for meningitis at first,which scared the hell out of me, but eventually they decided that she had just overheated with a temperature. However, we had to watch her carefully for several years after that whenever she had a cold, in case it happened again. So,you just never know...

Nacster · 29/09/2013 15:08

We got to be very friendly with the A&E staff.
DC1 - 2 concussions and an infected cat scratch (iv antibiotics!)
DC2 - head injury, stitches to face twice, bronchiolitis, broken leg, 2 anaphylaxis and asthma twice so far.
DC3 - just pneumonia so far! and that was 2 visits to A&E before someone actually x-rayed and then he was in hospital 4 nights!

Lweji · 29/09/2013 15:13

I suspect the biggest drains are people going to the GP for fevers and bugs rather than to A&E.

With DS, visits to the GP would end up in A&E anyway (brochiolitis that didn't resolve with Ventilan), so I stopped bothering.

I'm also of the sort that will ride it out and even go easy on the Calpol.

AintNobodyGotTimeFurThat · 29/09/2013 15:56

It depends how old the baby is, really.

If you have a baby under 3 months, they advise you to take them to A&E if they have a temperature or a bad cough if you are out of hours from the GP (like midnight, for example).

Also, if you have a baby who has a temperature that doesn't seem to go down after giving them Calpol, I'd say going to A&E would be a sensible option. If medication isn't bringing a temperature down it could be quite serious. They also could be getting dehydrated.

I'd rather someone took their child to A&E 'just in case' than to have someone not realise the seriousness of their child's condition and then end up taking them in when they are a lot worse than they were beforehand and when it could've been better treated.

bumperella · 30/09/2013 21:18

My DD has been in hospital twice with breathing probs. The first time was weekend, so made an OOH apt, and I walked in with a 2-year-old who was giggling, wanting to dance, generally cheery (I felt pretty sheepish and apologised for wasting time as we were going into the triage nurses' office thingy) but left about 15 mins later in ambulance with a 2yr-old on oxygen -her sats were 85%. The next time was similar. I'm sure there were people in the waiting room thinking I was being an hysterical first-time-parent with nothing else to do! I do think it's really REALLY hard to tell, and to that extent I do sympathise with parents who "get it wrong", (but not as much as with those who get it right and end up with a child in hopital!).

The "acquaintance" I refered to above posts her A&E/ambulance trips etc to facebook (she "tags" it - I'm on FB but no idea how to do this) and delightedly points out how many more trips to hospital she's had than anyone else, which is a horrible attitude, esp as her kids are basically healthy normal DC's who've never been admitted to hospital.

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