Aibu to not take dd to the doctors

[Drinaballerina]

Dh has just called me demanding I take dd2 to the doctors as there's been an email from nursery about scarlet fever.

She has a small temperature, right off her food, quite grumpy and a small red patch that looks like eczema on her cheek. Looks like classic teething to me, but he insinuated I'm a terrible mother for not taking her.

If I was at all worried I'd take her but I'm just not. Would you with those symptoms?

She has a small temperature, right off her food, quite grumpy and a small red patch that looks like eczema on her cheek.

Yet you took her out to a toddler class

Seriously. I'm not one to rush to the doctors at the first thing and I would probably keep an eye on DC at home with your DC background, but come on, she isn't well.

What’s a “small temperature”?

Omg all these people saying take a slightly grumpy child to the gp!! No wonder there are no appointments available.

I completely agree.

Didn't get the email about scarlet fever until afterwards, as I said it would never even have occured to me it was anything other than teething. I think I will take her to the pharmacist to see what they think after her nap.

And she isn't unwell at all, I wouldn't take a miserable, ill child out. No grumpiness at all while puddle jumping or climbung.

If she is well enough to be out , has no rash other than a red patch of skin that's been there weeks then it's a total waste of time to take her to GP , total over reaction

You could always call NHS 111, they can triage her over the phone. You can reassure DH and not take her to docs unnecessarily that way

I wouldn’t. And I wouldn’t call NHS 111 either because you’ll get exactly the same response here about ‘just in case’.

She’s had a little irritated patch for a while and is not unwell. A waste of time for all involved.

DS is currently on antibiotics awaiting results of scarlet fever swabs. What your dd has sounds nothing like our experience of it. V high temp, sandpapery rash from head to toe, very red on both cheeks, couldn't swallow easily and completely not himself. I would not be rushing to the docs with the symptoms you've described either. As for the poster who said you can't get a temperature with teething, my children all have to varying degrees. I think this just differs cild to child.

Doesn't sound like scarlet fever (I'm no expert!) but I just wanted to say, if the husband is at work and mum is at home, why should the husband "drop everything" to take her to the gp? I think him "demanding" you take her is a bit off, but I wouldn't expect my dp to rush home from work in this case.

Honestly, I'd she is well in herself she really doesn't need antibiotics. They aren't good for you unless you are sick with an infection.

I think your right to trust your instincts OP. Your DH is probably having a panic because hes not current looking at your child to see shes fine and just received a scary email from the nursery.

I expect him to trust my opinion. He says I'm ignoring his but he hasn't actually seen her for 2 days (working late), so I think he maybe should have said can you keep an eye on her, have you considered etc. Rather than immediately demanding I take her when he actually has no idea how ill (or not) she is!

You're probably right grey. He's certainly more of a worrier than me generally!

Send him a whatsap of her happily playing or something and make a few there there dont worry noises to him - you have this covered

Op, you are with your child and are the best person to judge whether she needs to be seen by a doctor
I would say though, my DS wasn’t very Ill at all when he had SF. The GP said “ I think it’s Scarlett fever but he should be a lot more poorly”
We only took him to be seen because he was a bit unwell and Dr Google suggested it might be SF. It was important to know in case he Deteriorated rapidly but also because we had to inform preschool
To be fair though, DS is pretty bombproof and is rarely ill and even if he is he gets over it very quickly

The h should drop everything and take her himself because he has no faith in his wife's ability to judge when their child is teethibg and when she is actually ill. It's the demanding that's the problem - he has bugger all intention of actually doing it. He just wants her to

I think I'd be tempted to take her this week if she still has a temperature.

If she gets worse there are two Bank Holidays coming up plus the weekend. It's not so easy to see a GP during those four days.

meh, I wouldn't take her on those symptoms.

She doesn't sound ill. She is eating, playing and puddle jumping. Trust your instincts OP.

In the absence of the classic scarlet fever symptoms (characteristic widespread sandpaper rash, strawberry tongue, associated high fever, painful sore throat with pus) your GP would be absolutely guessing if he told you your child had scarlet fever and needed treatment for it.

Throat swabs (much beloved of GPs) are often next to useless for diagnosis (very poor sensitivity and additionally around 1 in 10 children carry the bacterium as part of their normal throat organisms), which is why they aren’t mentioned in either the NICE or SIGN guidelines.

So effectively all you have to go on is the symptoms/signs described above. You haven’t mentioned anything that suggests scarlet fever yet, but it might be worth going to see the GP just so he can examine ears and throat to ensure there’s no evidence of infection there (group A strep which causes scarlet fever often manifests as either a tonsillitis or an ear infection).

She doesn’t have any of the symptoms of scarlet fever listed on the website.

So if the majority of this thread is to be believed, we now should take our kids to the GP just in case they have contracted an illness even if they’re not showing the symptoms of said illness