children's x-rays

[AliAmble]

Hi.
My daughter who is just over one was referred for an ultrasound of her hip. when I arrived at the hospital I was told that she was too old for an ultra sound and should have an x-ray.

As the specialists were fairly confident that she did not have a hip problem but just wanted the x-ray to be 100% sure I questioned whether she should have an x-ray as I was concerned about radiation of her ovaries. The doctor assured me that a shield would be put on her ovaries but the person carrying out the x-ray said that it was not appropriate and took the x-ray without using a shield. The result of the x-ray showed that her hips are fine, as thought.

I now regret having had the x-ray done. I just didn't have the time to properly think about it as I had been told that my daughter would be having an ultrasound. When I got home and googled whether the x-ray could have done any long-term damage of course I found mixed opinions but one article said that an x-ray of the ovaries could lead to future miscarriages and birth deformities and that has sent me into a panic! Has anyone had x-rays of their hips (and ovaries) when they were kids and gone on to have healthy pregnancies and children? Or has anyone had problems?
I just can't shake off the feeling that i have let my daughter down by exposing her to an unnecessary risk.
Thanks for your help.

I am glad to hear that your daughter's hips are OK.

Modern X-rays have an extremely low dose. NHS hospitals use digital X-ray machines so do not need such high doses. If there was an issue with her hips then its important that it is picked up as soon as possible. It would be letting her down not to check out a potential problem.

Your daughter will get plenty of background radiation before she is old enough to have children. Our bodies are made to cope with a small amount of radiation.

I wouldn't worry about one X-ray, like has been said modern x ray is very safe.

DS has had over 20 chest X-rays

Unnecessary x rays should be avoided but sounds as if this was necessary as it can be serious life long consequences if there was an issue with her hips.
The NHS are pretty good at not doing unnecessary ones. I have pretty much had every part of me x-rayed including my neck whilst pregnant with DS, some parts of me multiple times.
Some were as a child, many in my late teens and loads as an adult. I have a healthy DS, no problems conceiving and the only pregnancy issues I had were due to the condition I've had all the x rays for.
I am currently receiving treatment on my hip and have had a few x rays & MRIs in the past 6mths and we are looking to try for a baby later this year, we are not overly concerned.
I'm sure your daughter will be fine, it's hard not to worry but she had it for a good reason.

There is a lot of scaremongering on the internet about radiation. I don't know if it still exists but the health protection agency (or going back years the National Radiological Protection Board) used to answer questions like these.

This is a link that might put your mind at ease.

www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/Radiation/UnderstandingRadiation/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/MedicalRadiation/

There is about an increase 1 in 67,000 chance of your daughter developing cancer as the result of one hip x-ray. The radiation dose is the equivalent of what you get from background in 7 weeks. (However these stats are a little bit nonsense as the risks to children are greater than adults.)

www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1195733826941

Clearly you would not want to x-ray your daughter's hips everyday.

Ok, your child is fine. Medical staff know very little of the mechanics of taking or X-ray protection. The radiographer was correct, you do not protect ovaries etc for 1first hip / pelvis X-ray. You did entirely the correct thing in consenting to the procedure. The X-ray dose would have been minimal.

Hi - thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. This is the first time I've used mumsnet or anything like it and I was amazed to log on and find all your helpful posts. Thank you!

I am a Radiation Protection Supervisor for X-rays in my work place. As everyone else has said the exposure from a single x-ray is very low. There are set levels for exposure that are considered unsafe. I am where a x-ray dose meter and take 100s of x-rays per year and have never had any significant level of radiation register on my badge.
Modern x-ray machines use very tiny doses of radiation, a lot of the 'scare' stories relate to the machines that were around in the 50s and 60s that used doses 100 of times greater than today's.

its very nice to Liston..really ...
Mater Children's Medical Imaging/X-ray provides a broad range of general and complex radiology services for paediatric patients who are in hospital and those who come for examinations as outpatients.
seuss

But u people r behind the lead shield , my son recently got x rayed 6 times and for nothing
4 films of mandible area
1 abdominal xray
1 chest x ray
Now i just keep on regretting as i am unable to forgive myself , my life is just hell

Whilst this is a zombie thread I will answer, in veterinary medicine we are not behind a shield. I personally have had a large number of diagnostic x-rays including four views when I was pregnant so I do stand by how safe I believe it is.

Thanku for ur reply , yup its a zombie post but i want few words of relaxation that nothing ll happen with 6 xrays , i want little reassurance from a mom Whose kids had been x rayed when they were too young N they are doing perfectly fine even after decades , any old moms who wana share their experience to relieve a mom whose kids r young enough n she is in real depression

My own daughter has had several x-rays three sets of two views of ankles and one set of two views of her wrist. She is 14 now and has suffered no side effects at all.

Be happy n stay safe always, just for info i wana say that the x rays ur beloved daughter had have least radiation , limbs n joints get .005 to 0.008 msv which is vvvvvv low so u be happy , my son had 0.014 msv each for mandible views, in total around 0.048 msv n for chest x ray 0.02 msv may be coz i cudnt get to know the dose from radio tech and abdominal x ray google says 0.7 msv n i dont know the dose as radio tech cudnt tell , n mandible chest abdomen all contain vital organs so m ashamed of being mom, i let the drs decide n now i regret,
I had a ct scan abdomen n the dose for tha is 10 msv n i had loads of x rays but i m above 30 yrs and my son is 5 n at the time was x rays he was 2 yrs and 4 yrs. may God protect our kids

I’ve not got older kids but I have a child who had around 10 x rays last year. Hers were on her arm.
She also had one on her hip when she was a baby. Similar to OP.
All I can say is I’m not concerned. I’ve not read any research. We did ask question but consultant reassures is. Sometimes ignorance is bliss

Yup ignorance is a blessing n i m a curious freek n thats y made my life hell coz i read all the articles regarding radiations n all the information which starts from 1885 till 2018, for ur info arm’s x rays r having the least radiation.

Freak*

Hayaa the mVs values you quote are still relatively low I x-rayed a cat's chest this morning with a portable machine that for various reasons requires higher mVs, my KV value was 60 and mVs was 2.0.
Your son clearly had suffered a trauma in which there was serious thoracic, abdominal and facial injury as possible consequences. You made the best decision you could at the time with the information you had.
You sound incredibly anxious about this, it is worth bearing in mind that 20-30 years ago the x-ray machines were not high frequency and so the exposure levels were much much higher than they are today.

Dear lonecatwithkitten i mentioned radiation dose that is in milli sieverts and u hav written milli volt both r totally different things anyhow i m an anxious mom and my kid had these 6 x rays at different times n just cant forgive my self for ignorance n carelessness

Reading through this thread now got me very worried.

In 1998, when my dd was 10 months old she fell head off the bed onto a carpet floor. She was fine, cried for a few seconds, but because she was my first child, I panicked and took her to the hospital.

She had a small red patch on her forehead and the doctor decided to
give her a xray. In hindsight I should had refused but we went ahead. I trusted doctors then and I didn't question them.

My dd is now 20 yr old and is in good health but I still worry about that x-ray.

Please tell me if X-rays in the 1990s were safe and the dose was small.

Dont u worry dose for one x ray is damn small and secondly in 90’s even the radiation dose was small just like today so just be happy n relax

Hayaa, thanks for reassuring me when you're anxious yourself.

But she was only a baby and it was a head x-Ray. I've actually forgotten about it until I read this thread and all my worries surfaced again.

Hayaa, hope you don't feel too bad yourself.

Head x ray is safe dont be worried at all, i m concerned about my kid’s mandible x rays coz thyroid is the direct target there n in childhoon thyroid is v sensitive and he got 4 xrays in one go n that too just for nothing , i wish i was not that silly n ignorant , ome x ray is just nothing repeated r bad for kids

None of ur other kids ever been irradiated?my daughter too got one x ray for chest when she had pnemonia an yr back but there was reason so i m ok with it

My other daughter had a chest x-ray last year. She was wearing a bra with a tiny metal on the strap but wasn't told to take it off. So she had to had a repeated one which I was not too happy about as it was not needed if the radiographer did her job right. But chest x-rays are low dose?