to have NOT called an ambulance?

[LaaDeDa]

DS, aged 14 months, fell down the stairs from the very top on Tuesday eve. He rolled over 3 times, landed on his back, cried immediately, had blood coming from his mouth and nose and got up.
I was out but dp sorted out the bleeding and checked him all over and then observed him playing, laughing etc for about an hour until he became tired and went to bed (he'd been on his way to bed when the original accident happened). By the time i came in he was asleep but able to be woken so we kept checking him through the night.
The next morning he vomited so i took him to local minor injuries who asked why we hadn't called an ambulance the night before.
My reasons for not were - how he'd responded following the fall basically. If i'd have felt he was non-responsive or vomiting through the night i would have done (and at the first bout of sickness did go to the hospital) so i was quite surprised they expected the emergency service to be used in that circumstance.
I really thought we'd done the right things and attended hospital at the right point so am genuinely surprised that the use of an ambulance at that moment would have not been wasting the resources.

So - in those circumstances would you have phoned an ambulance? Or am i the meanest, stupidest mummy going - as you can tell i am thinking that yes, i am :-(

I would have taken her to hospital or at least out of hours GP. To say watching her through the night is the same as taking her for proper clinical assessment is ridiculous.
The other day I was slated for not taking DH with stomach pain to A & E ,YABVU and V foolhardy

I would have rung 999 for advice and possibly an ambulance. If there were any brain swelling issues at all, you would only have an hour to act.

I am amazed how many people on this thread have suggested the child should just be observed at home overnight after a fall like that at such a young age. This doesn't sound appropriate to me at all, and I am a pretty laissez-faire mum of four usually.

I would have without a doubt taken him to A&E or if I couldn't have got there myself with him I would have called an ambulance on account of the nose bleeding and him having blood coming from his mouth.

Blood coming out of his nose and mouth? Would definitely have taken him to A&E (method of transport aside). You don't mess with head injuries.

I would have done. But largely because dd fell badly onto the back of her head when she was one and started 'bleeding' straw coloured fluid from her nose. We took her to A&E and they kept her in A&E under observation for 4 hours before deciding not to do the head x-ray.

They also gave me a sheet about head injuries about what to look out for and included on that was bleeding from the nose, ear etc. (obviously sickness is too).

I told them they should probably hand that sheet out in doctor's surgeries or at the health visitors as virtually every parent would need to consult it at some stage!

We've had several quite severe bangs that we haven't gone for, most of them FAR worse than the one that caused the bleeding.

Sometimes it's impossible to make the right call (we also got bollocked for not taking dd when she smashed her face just under her eye - she had a massive swelling but was totally fine behaviour wise, i.e. no more upset than your average bad bump. Took her to the doc a few weeks later for something else and they could not understand why she hadn't been taken to be x-rayed. Sometimes you are damned if you do and damned if you don't!)

It may be that the question why you didn't call an ambulance wasn't really intended as a criticism of your actions but a standard way of trying to find out more information about the circumstances in which the accident happened (ie was there a fight? were people drunk etc? was he left on his own? - none of which are the case, obviously).

I would say don't feel bad as it is a waste of time. You and your partner were the only ones who could judge the situation as you were the ones there. You made what you thought was the best decision you could based on the information you had at the time.

Everyone else is looking at it with the benefit of hindsight.

Head injury = A&E in our house, no question. Bleeding from nose &/or mouth would mean ambulance. But I'm probably over cautious.

Oh sorry, should have said that I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. I got into trouble last year for not taking my DS to see a GP earlier than I did when he had a fever. It was the weekend though and I didn't want to make a fuss. I know now that I err on the side of laissez-faire to I try to be more cautious

so I try to be more cautious, not do!