How ill do your little ones need to be for you to take them to the doctor?

[stripeymama]

DD (4.7) had a horrible cold type thing t'other week, streaming nose, horrible chesty cough, not really wanting to eat, and very tired. She was coughing a lot in the night and just sitting around by the fire doing quiet things for a week (kept her off kindergarten), and if we had to go out went in the pushchair wrapped up with hats and blankets.

She got better within a week, I just kept her warm, let her take it easy, and gave her pretty much whatever she would eat/drink (mainly fresh juice).

Her friend has now got the same thing (doing the rounds at kindergarten) and has been taken to the doctors, diagnosed with bronchitis, and put on antibiotics. I'm not a rabid 'anti-antibiotic-er' - they are lifesaving drugs and if necessary then DD would be given them, but as yet its never been needed (in fact she has never been what I consider ill enough to need to see a doctor). Obviously Id have her straight down there if she was going blue/vomiting for over 24 hours kind of thing, but it just genuinely never occurred to me that DD should go to the doctor - am I really really slack? Should I have taken her? What does everyone else do?

I would only take if consistently wheezy or temperature for long period etc. Did take ds recently when we'd both been coughing for 4 weeks - not ill with it apart from waking up coughing - no antibiotics prescribed, but told that as it had been going so long it was the right thing to do.

What I do object to is someone dropping their dc off at nursery saying 'I've given them calpol because they are coughing so much that they are throwing up' If ds was coughing that much I wouldn't want him in nursery - not fair on him and not fair on everyone else at the nursery... I feel that if I need to give ds calpol or anything similar before nursery time (unless its for teething), then he's not well enough to go.

No you're not slack, you're sensible. My mum never took us to the GP for things like that (and I used to develop a cough which resembled that of a bronchitic old man!) though presumably she would have done if it had been necessary. Mind you, I also managed to finish school without having a single day off......

stripeymama - agree with Arriety think you're just being sensible.

We used to run to the doctor when ds had a mild cough when he was little. Dh was terrible about getting him checked but then he comes from a country where doctors aren't available for everyone and certainly aren't free. He experienced his own father dying of something that would have been no problem to deal with in Europe and several brothers and sisters who didn't make it past the first 12 months.

Now I don't bother with the doctor really unless one of my dc has had a temperature for more than 24 hours.

I take them to get their chests listened to, just in case there's something there (hasn't ever been). The triage nurse checks them over. Also if something like a tummy bug lingers for a week or more (one time turned out to be something environmental health needed to know about).

If I need a bit of advice then HVs, nurses and even GPs are on the phone. If they say best to be seen, then that's what we do.

my GP has said to me on every occasion never to second guess what's wrong with kids. Any concerns always wheel them in.

Oh good, its not just me then! I get a bit doubtful of myself at times (single parent so nobody to share responsibility!)

My GP same as Highlander's.

Also, they're just round the corner and have a walk in surgery, which makes it a lot easier to decide.

With dd1, I hardly ever had to take her and became quite relaxed (for a half French, half Jewish mother . Now she's nearly 4, and has become asthmatic, I get her coughs checked out if she has a fever or is very wheezy.

With dd2, I nearly didn't, when she was 4 weeks old and had a cold with some puking - I was a relaxed second time mother. In the end I did, because someone else said I should and because it was nearly Xmas - and it turned out that if I hadn't, she would have probably have died.

So now, I don't bother wondering - I just take them to get checked, but don't give ABs unless necessary.

I would have done the same as you, stripeymama.
With PFB I sometimes went to HV to ressure myself, and once I took him to a walk-in clinic as a toddler because he seemed so grotty with a bad cold (he was fine after a nap and ran amok in the exam room). Nowadays I'd dose a toddler up with Calpol and wait most things out, phone up NHS direct if I'm unsure.

Now I'd only take them if they seemed unusually ill, especially a set of combined worrying symptoms (like fever with headache and vomitting), or if I suspect it's a severe or recurring problem -- like painful earache, or DD has twice had UTIs, and they can lead to kidney damage if left untreated.

Well I try not to take ds to the doctor and this week I almost didn't. He had D&V and a mild temperature (39oC) but I knew that was doing the rounds so saw no reason to visit the GP. After 2 days of this he then started crying when eating and refused to eat for another two days.

So at this point he had had a temperature for 4 days and was crying in his sleep (waking hourly) and refusing to eat.

At this point I decided to take him and the doctor said he had quite bad tonsillitis as well as the D&V and gave him antibiotics which have worked.

Three months ago I also took ds because he was in so much obvious intermitent pain (screaming) we in fact took him to an emergency out of hours service. He had a urinary infection and within 8 hours of starting the antibiotics was better.

I don't think you are a bad mother at all for avoiding the GP when you can but I also think you are ucky that your dd has never been ill enough to warrant a visit to the GP, unfortunatley some of us have children who are ill enough.

If there was a seriously raised temperature for more than abour 24 hours that didn't respond to Calpol. Or anything vaguely meningitisy-looking (bit paranoid as we knew a LO who died of it a few years back). Sniffles, coughs, slightly hot, D&V for less than 24hours - no.

I used to take the kids to the doctor's for almost every little thing - especially when they were nursery age. But since they've started school, I don't bother - they get better on their own, and also tend to catch far fewer colds (at nursery, they would catch a cold/cough almost every month...) I haven't take them to the doctor for years now! They are 10 and 8 yrs. Unfortunately the dentist is a rather more regular affair
I haven't read this book but it has often been recommended to me How to Raise a Healthy Child Inspite of your Doctor

Rash together with high fever and/or vomiting and diarrhoea tend to get me reaching for the phone.

But general coughs, colds, snuffles etc - no.