How many times kids taken to A and E

[louise5754]

Hi I'm just curious. I wondered how common it is for kids to go to a and e and for what reason?

I've been speaking to a lot of mums today and it seems to happen a lot more than I thought.

4 times I think...all with v high temperatures when he was a small baby and I was a neurotic new mum. He does have a disability though and has an increased risk of meningitis which has put me on high alert for illness.

DD6 - swallowed a coin x2, non-stop vomiting, fell out of high chair. Total - 4 times
DD1 - reaction to routine vaccination, bumped head and vommed. Total - 2

They’re both bonkers so expecting to visit A&E a lot over the years.....

DS1 who is 4 - twice, first time for suspected hernia strangulation and second time because I thought he’d swallowed some Imodium

DS2 15 months- none, yet.

12 year old , never been to A+E and has ADHD so very lucky

DD14 never.

DS9 never.

DD7 once aged 4. Fractured elbow after falling on the trampoline.

Dds age 8 and 6 have never been to a&e.

I think between the 2 girls age 6 and 3 we have been around 20 times.

I'd say 2 or 3 times a year.

A few times for injuries (fell of something and sprained ankle).

The most though at about 6/7 times has been bad chest infections.

DD1(19) - 0

DD2(17) - twice once for a broken arm age 8 & the second for a really bad cut on her knee which needed stitches age 11

DS(11) - once after a fall in the bath left him with a busted chin at age 2

2 x febrile convulsions (different DC each time)

2 x elbow dislocations (same DC and elbow both times)

1 x suspected allergic reaction

1 x bump on the head that was followed by vomiting

1 x dehydrated 18 month old DC from nasty stomach bug

So that's seven times in total over five years. DCs are five and two.

Dd has been a few times, and DS has been several times. One nurse once said that they should award nectar points for some dc!

However she also said that she would much rather see the children with injuries caused from playing outside, like my dc, than never see them because they are forever inside watching a screen.

Dd1 (now 10) - twice, sent from doctors at 3 months old & 18 months old, with bronchiolitus.
Dd2 (now 8) - once. Same as dd1 at 9 months old.
Never been direct to a&e, always via the doctor.

Many,many times as was medically fragile as a baby and child-usually every holiday for some strange coincidence

I have been once when there was a very slim chance my toddler had swallowed a lithium battery.

2 DCs both now teens - take the eldest once as a 5 yr old after the GP told us we should

DC1 once at four days old when they went floppy

DC2 once at three years old when they broke their leg

DC3 multiple times from 6 months to three years when they got repeated croup that required hospitalisation

DC4 never

I'm 50 with a 22 year old daughter and have never been in one.

I don't think I have... aged 8 and 2

I take my fourth child (DH) more.

Four times for ds:-

Swallowed a pound coin 🙄
Fell over on the street and cut his hand on broken glass 😥
Dreadful rash that they were worried could be meningitis- wasn't thankfully
Very high temperature at age only four months - first baby and terrified so I rushed him to A&E.

Once for dd:-

I heard a huge thump and ran to their room and ds told me she'd fallen off the top bunk 😧. Rushed to A&E just in case, no injuries thankfully, asked ds to show me where she'd fallen from when we got back and he pointed at the second rung on the ladder 😒. To be fair he was only five and had delayed language.

6 year old DD has been 5 times

• Concussion
• Broken arm
• Twisted ankle that she couldn’t walk on which miraculously resolved in the waiting area
• ditto with arm that she refused to move after falling
• Rash, fever and drowsy which turned out to be scarlet fever

9yo DS1 once by family after he fell in the playground and put his teeth through his lip. I took him to the walk in when he ran into a blackberry bush and got lots of little thorns in his neck. No way I could keep him calm and get them out myself.
4yo DS2 I took to minor injuries when he split his eyebrow on a drawer handle, they sent us to kids a&e because it was in the facial triangle and he was only 2. They only cleaned it, no glue or anything and he's got a little scar now.
Nothing for 1yo DS3.
I've never had to go to a&e for myself, but been for DP's footballing injury and my Dad's car crash, that was a full resus job.

DD1 - taken to A&E and admitted for asthma between ages 8m and 3 yrs several times (until diagnosed and we learnt to manage it). For anaphylactic shock once. For meningitis once. For x-ray on injured arm once. So about 8 times. She's now 18.
DD2 - once for X-ray. Now 13.
DS1 - once for anaphylactic shock, twice for stitches to head injuries (one serious, one not) - 3 times in 15 years.
DS2 - once for glue in a split open head, once for viral infection in hip lining. So twice in 13 years.

Dd10 a split head and a split eyelid.
Dd8 a split head, seizures and uncontrolable temp/infection
Ds4 a split head TWICE and bronchiolitis
Dd4 nothing so far thankfully.

Going by the first three, I better put helmets on my lot.

Mine are now 21 and 19. The younger one has been twice.

The first time she was 4 or 5. She fell over at school and banged her head. I was at work, so my childminder collected her and took her to the minor injuries clinic who said she was fine but provided a sheet of things to watch out for. In the evening she vomited, so I took her in.

The second time she was 5 or 6, and we were in a car accident on the way back from school. Car was a write-off. My daughter complained of a sore neck so, to be on the safe side, the police called an ambulance and she went in on a stretcher and with a neck brace to get an x-ray.

The older one has been once, aged about 9. She slipped over on some ice and cut her chin badly (I could see the bone). It probably didn't need A&E but it happened on a Sunday and our local minor injuries clinic wasn't open.

I nearly took her in when, aged about 3, she bit the top off a thermometer and I was worried that she'd swallowed some of the mercury. I phoned for advice and they checked with the poisons unit at St Barts (I think) and concluded there was no need.

We've probably been lucky.

I have three kids aged 12, 9 and 7. We have never been to A&E. Or the doctor for that matter. They've never been in an accident and they don't get sick (except chicken pox as kids but that wasn't a doctor's issue)