Worried, AIBU? Police and ambulance

[MumofHennHals]

We had to call an ambulance, my 8 month old baby has flu and he went completely unresponsive, febrile convulsion and turned blue.

The ambulance arrived, so did the police? The police checked my other child and looked in the fridge and said 'decent food'

The ambulance determined it was his flu / temperature.

We have no issues within the family, happy and healthy household.

Thinking back this has shocked me, a moment of fear for my son's life and the police turn up too? I felt investigated for no reason!

Why would this happen?? They left quite happily, but now I'm over thinking will someone be getting in touch?were they concerned? It's been nearly 48hours now.

Am I being unreasonable to myself and over thinking? Xx

if your baby was unresponsive and not breathing then in some areas police are sent as well as ambulance to start resuscitation if necessary. However, that’s not the case in my ambulance trust and it’s certainly not routine here for police to attend a paediatric c1 in a police capacity ie doing a safeguarding check.

i think it would be reasonable to ask the ambulance trust via their pals why the police attended in your case.

I'm so sorry you experienced this OP. I remember when my son had a febrile convulsion and I remember screaming down the phone that he's dead 😭 the most terrifying thing.
Police would have been on hand to help, if it were needed. They would also check on things in the event you needed support for food, especially with young children and the vulnerable time of year/COL.
Don't take it personal, if it were any problem, then you would have heard by now.
I hope your son is doing better now xx

Yeah, that sounds like nothing to worry about from the police.

You've got a load of parents here telling you it's fine because we all understand piles of laundry not yet put away and so on.
The police officer said they have kids, so basically imagine it's just one of us who's popped in.

...
Hmm.
^This was supposed to be reassuring. But now I'm imagining the horror of some awful Mumsnet caricature dropping by ... checking your fridge for naice ham, a chicken that makes seventeen different meals, and pom bears! Looking in the bathroom in case you own a loo brush, and the bedroom for a penis beaker...

Sorry...

Be kind to yourself OP, you've had a rough day and a shock. I hope your LO recovers well soon.

It's totally normal for a baby. How can you not know this?

Please don’t worry. With baby being unresponsive they would have needed to check the situation. Unfortunately there’s too many cases where parents are the reason babies are unresponsive.

They just needed to check everyone was safe, the fridge check is fairly standard in these situations, they are quite rightly checking that there is enough food to eat.

They really wouldn’t have judged the washing don’t worry.

I hope you’re all okay now.

I'm sure this must have felt a bit intrusive to you at the time but I'm actually really glad to hear of this, I highly suspect as pp says its some new safeguarding regulations coming in that many children probably need.

@Oreyt what is normal for a baby?

For the police to attend all ambulance calls.

@Oreyt why would most people know that, and anyway someone has posted it isn't for their healthcare trust

They will have a list of things they have to check. They don't look at you and think oh hang on let's look at her fridge! They know that if they don't check everything they will get pulled up on it and quite rightly so.

I just find it a bit strange how a call to 999 for my son that required medical treatment for a horrible virus he's facing, ended with him getting the medical treatment to me also showing a police officer my other daughter in bed, him looking in my fridge and him taking details of our names? For someone who souly called for emergency medical help, I'm not too sure why a police welfare check was done???

But I will say, if them doing that every time results in just one child found in a neglectful environment then that's amazing.

The 999 call handler wanted to get us prepped for CPR before anyone got there... maybe it was a certain category that triggered police response, but the police made the situation a lot more anxiety inducing than it already was!!!!

My little boy is doing great thank you. He's got his temperature under bay and lots of the other issues seem to be better now 🤞🏼Xx

I'm so sorry, that must have been terrifying to see your little one so ill! Sounds like the police were just there for support in case baby wasn't breathing. With all the terrible news about abuse of children recently, I'm glad if they're being more proactive in checking all is ok in the home! Glad your little one is on the mend now 💐

Police are also highly first aid trained, some just below paramedic level and some carry defibs in their Police cars. Sometimes if something sounds very concerning and ambulance think Police may get their first they sometimes call us as well. And sadly as some others have said, if things didn't turn out well they would need to start an investigation just to rule out any wrongdoing. It's standard procedure once they are there to do a quick welfare check and check there is food in for the kids etc. Imagine if they didn't and it later came out that something awful was happening and they hadn't noticed. It's concern for your children and also a bit of arse covering too.

Don't feel judged. It had no reflection on you as a person or a parent. If they did have concerns you would know by now. In fact they would have told you on the night. I'm so glad your little one is OK and I hope you are too. You've been through a very scary experience so take some time for yourself and rest if you can xx

Why would people know this? I didn't, for one.

Cardiac emergencies generally have a police/ first responder response. Them checking the welfare of inhabitants is common oractice even in adult situations. Wouldn’t think anything of it at all. Hope your LO is feeling better soon.

That's what i thought. So it brings to one's attention again, with all the agencies and authorities involved, how did say a recent case, slip through the net! 🤦‍♀️

But checked the fridge at the same time.

Yes to see if the children had food

Reasonable

I just find it a bit strange how a call to 999 for my son that required medical treatment for a horrible virus he's facing, ended with him getting the medical treatment to me also showing a police officer my other daughter in bed, him looking in my fridge and him taking details of our names? For someone who souly called for emergency medical help, I'm not too sure why a police welfare check was done???

As others have said, the police would attend just in case they were needed either for support getting to hospital or in the event of a more tragic outcome.

It also means that if there were concerns about care if the children, the police could remove any other children to a place of safety immediately while paramedics gave essential health care.

When the police attend a home with young children they have to submit a report to social services, often called a Vulnerable Persons Report. In this they give details of the reason they attended and what they observed and they detail any concerns for the children in the home. The police will have checked out your other child, general home conditions and whether there was food in the house because it means they can give social services as full a picture as possible. In your case they’ll be able to say they saw two well cared for children, in a comfortable family home, with loving, concerned parents which means social services don’t need to do anything and can turn their attention to other families who do need them.

Honestly the police (and social workers) can tell the difference a home where parents have been caring for poorly children and just aren’t on top of things and a home that is never cleaned. They look (and smell) very different.

It’s very hard after such a crisis to stop and think about police involvement and the fact that in too many cases their presence is needed because children aren’t safe, that doesn’t mean they thought you were unsafe, just that they need to be prepared for all eventualities.

I’m glad your little one is doing better and hope you can rest knowing services worked exactly as they should in your case.