Will they refer to social services or am I worrying for no reason?

[MumofHennHals]

My little girl was taken to hospital yesterday in an ambulance, we got told she had croup.

The paramedics could tell straight away, gave her steroids to open her airways and then within 10 minutes and she was back to her normal self... chatting away, just sounding coldy.

They took her in anyway my husband went with, they saw the lead paediatric nurse who confirms croup also, gave her 2 more shots of steroids.

By this point my daughter is fully back to health, demanding food, saying she's tired, running around a&e albeit with your typical cold symptoms still.

The nurse sends my husband and daughter to MEDHOC, out of hours service to wait for a doctor 'but we will likely just be sent home' so my husband gets told that someone has been waiting for 4 hours and still has a minimum of 2 hour wait, so approx. 6 hours for the service.

There were kids being sick in buckets so my husband decided that she had the care she needed the steroids and that he didn't want to subject her to 6 hours of being around more illnesses when she's upset and tired ( it's already 3 am at this point )

I'm a little disappointed he didn't wait to see a doctor, but she's right as rain this morning, eating me out of house and home again, bouncing from the walls - the late night hasn't even affected her!

We don't have any involvement from services, but I'm worried that removing her from the hospital will make them trigger a referral? 😩

So she wasn’t discharged?

My husband spoke to the receptionist, and she said 'just call 111 tomorrow if she's still feeling rubbish and they can book her an appointment with us' as it was like an out of hours area for appointments or sent from a&e if it's not considered an accident or emergency anymore.

He let them know he was going home.

OP you have a few threads about taking various children to a&e and your acute health anxiety

Are you receiving any professional support for this?

Possibly a referral will go to the safeguarding hub but it wouldn’t trigger any further action if there is no back story.

In our area you might get a call from the HV but probably not.

Glad she’s feeling better.

The worst you'll get is likely to be a phone call where you can say 'Yeah, she had croup symptoms, they gave her steroids and said there would be about a 6 hour wait to see somebody else. He brought her home, she's been fine ever since'.

I think SS have bigger fish to fry @MumofHennHals

If they call you tell them she is fine now?
Make an appt with gp to review her if needs be
Croup can recur so ask about strategy for next time. Try cold air and steam.

Yes, I'm under going therapy. However, she needed steroids this time and needed to have the treatment. So this trip isn't part of my anxiety it was a necessity.

I'm just worrying about my husband discharging her. I'm annoyed with him. I was at home with my 6 month old baby who was born with collapsed lungs and in intensive care ( how my health anxiety was born. )

OP… how often have you been to a&e since having. children?

Do you think she didn’t need to go to A&E some of the times she has gone

Don't be annoyed at your husband. It was a perfectly reasonable decision in the circumstances. He told the receptionist and if there had been any serious concerns about her leaving there would have been a phone call telling him to bring her back. There may be a follow up phone call later today from the hospital just to ensure all is well but that is it.

no idea

but i just wonder whether a&e are very familiar with the OP given i’ve seen the op starting threads about multiple issues about health concerns

At least take her to gp for a review. Croup is worse at night and she may need a course of steroids, inhaler or even investigations if this is recurrent. Hv may be notified to follow up.

Nope. They’ll likely send an information sharing form to the GP and health visitor (standard practice for all a&e admissions). Even if a referral was made to social services, without a history of other issues, this on its own is nowhere near meeting the threshold for social services involvement.

Honestly, yes, discharging a child against medical advice probably will result in a referral. That referral usually wouldn't go anywhere after speaking to the parents if there was a logical reason for discharging them. BUT if you have a pattern of seeking medical attention and/or not following advice then at some point it might trigger an assessment.

Not many,

My son 6 months - went once, he went into respiratory distress after being in NICU for 2 weeks for collapsed lung- his reach out nurse actually sent us to a&e

My daughter is 4.5 years old and she's been three times, once they kept her over night as her sugar levels were dropping with a sickness bug, 2nd was croup and needed steroid and 3rd time this again croup.

Myself, I've only ever been once- when I needed my appendix removed.

I don't jump to a&e all the time as some of you are nastily making it seem. I've got health anxiety because I nearly lost my son when he was born and he was ventilated, with a chance of no life.

I'm going under therapy with a child bereavement / NICU support service as it was the only service that could deal with the things we were told that might happen to our son, as a mum post partum hormones, I'm not surprised I'm anxious are you?

You'll be fine. Do see the GP to make a plan for the future. I've self-discharged DS before when a nurse had seen him and his condition had improved. It wasn't worth waiting hours to see a doctor. It's normal to risk assess like that for your children.

op no one is being nasty

you asked a question about SS

Would they get involved in the scenario you outlined purely in the Op? unlikely or only just a HV make a light enquiry

would they get involved if they thought perhaps the mother had debilitating health anxiety surrounded her children? more likely

Worst case, they call, you describe what happened, they note it down and wish you a good day.

Try not to worry OP (though easier said than done really)>

My youngest DC once fell over whilst playing out and had a huge bump on his forehead.
SS were informed by school and I met with them on collecting DC (and his brother) from there.
However, as the fall was witnessed by the Mum of his friend, plus I took him to the Doctors as it was HUGE, everything was just fine and no case was to be Opened.

If anything, the fact that you DID take DD to A&E should show you in a good light.
Speaking of Croup has reminded me of another DC of mine and an A&E visit.
The mad Father accused Me of poisoning my DS so SS were called to the hospital, and Police.
Turns out it was Croup and not poisoning (which I knew would be the case anyway). Again, Case never opened.

As someone who also has health anxiety, hugs ❤️

My son was born with a mild congenital thyroid condition and his first year was filled with hospital appointments and tests etc. Even though it actually doesn’t impact his health/development at all, it was still a constant reminder that something was ‘normal’ and that triggered huge health anxiety in me. I always managed to keep it in relative check, but when they’re so young and can’t talk you through how they feel etc, it’s easy to jump to worse case scenarios. He also has a small lump behind his knee which has been investigated as benign but I’m still aware it’s there.

Last year my son randomly stopped putting weight on his leg with the wee lump. He was crying every time he tried. I took him to A&E convinced he’d broken it at the park earlier or by jumping off the couch, or that the lump was somehow causing pain. It was mobbed, 7 hour wait, and around 2 hours into our wait, he started using it normally. Running about the corridor etc. I spoke with a nurse, explained and said I’d take him home as he clearly hadn’t broken it. She laughed and said no problem.

And that was the end of it. Now, in hindsight, that would be a safeguarding concern more than croup. But nothing was ever said, no follow up, nothing. He’s prone to ear infections and we’ve been to OOH a few times with a burst drum over the weekend or GO during the week since then and it’s never been mentioned. We’ve obviously also had his usual consultant checks for his thyroid. I’ve worked hard on my anxiety and now he can talk me through how he feels if ill at 3.5 it’s definitely much better.

Your husband did the right thing. Your child is now fine and you sought medical care. I don’t think this would even warrant a phone call. I’d completely forget about it.

You possibly will be, get him a GP appointment so they can see you are following up on what happened.