Would you take a 4yr old to scan appointment??

[NorthernRunner]

Apologies if this is in the wrong place.

My 4yr old daughter (turned 4 in Jan) attends nursery 9-12, daily, we have our 20week scan booked for 8.30, we could drop her off at 8am sharp and pay for the extra hour, but we would then have to get a taxi down to the hospital to get there in time, and this would be cutting it fine as it’s rush hour, or take her with us and drop her off after. Husband wants to take her with us, I’m not so sure.
We have the first appointment of the day so shouldn’t be waiting around for too long, I just don’t know if it will confuse her?
Has anyone else ever taken their four year old to scan appointment?
Any thoughts welcome x

It's two of you. If you think there may be a problem, tell your OH to wait outside with her. Maybe they could get in just to see a quick image at the end.

No I wouldn’t. The 20 week scan is an abnormality scan. You may find out there is something wrong with your baby, would you either want to have to hold it together or for your child to witness your reaction.

Many hospitals won’t allow you to take your child in with you.

We had the first appointment of the day for our 12 week scan but the sonographer was ill so we have to wait ages while another came to the hospital.

My letter said no children could go, so I would double check. In all honesty, I wouldn't.

I have just had my 20 week scan and they were scanning for over 30 mins that’s a long time for a 4 year old to sit quiet in a darkened room.

Absolutely not! It's an anomaly scan and you could (but hopefully won't) get bad news. You would not want to have a 4 year old with you if there is anything wrong. Even slight issues that might need a second opinion at the scan, or a referal or a call back will be much harder to deal with if you have another child there.

My hospital won't let children in, the letter specifically tells you that you must make childcare arrangements as no children will be permitted into the scan room. Check your hospital policy.
At my last scan I got the news that there was no heartbeat and I was very grateful not to have to deal with that in front of DS.
Maybe DH and your daughter could stay in the waiting room?

That's very interesting to read as I'm not in the UK - just different culture around the scan/siblings present. We went w DH and 4yo DS. DS happily played w DH in the waiting area, I got scanned and it was clear that everything was fine. So DH brought DS in and showed him his sibling on the screen while the sonographer did some final measurements. Very pleasant experience, DS was super happy, although his main question was how was the baby going to come out!

No, I wouldn't. If my mother couldn't have looked after DS, then he'd have gone for a walk around the hospital grounds with his dad while I went in for the scan.

I took my three year old, the hospital had no problem with my husband and child coming in with me. My daughter loved seeing the baby.

Obviously if anything wasn't quite right it wouldn't be easy having her there but we didn't think like that.

I took my ds1 to the scan for Ds2 and it was fine, but am glad I didn't have one for ds3's scan, as he was smaller than expected and it was very worrying and upsetting. All had been fine at the 12 week one too.

Having had that experience, I'd say not to take your child - hopefully all will be fine (and with DS3 all turned out ok, he is still very small but healthy and happy), but you just never know.

I didn’t take my son to my scans this time for same reasons everyone else has said and it meant my husband couldn’t see the 12 week one which was sad. There was another family there in the waiting room with their toddler making a lot of ‘what will I do when there’s two of you?’ Comments and it struck me how horrible it would be if you were in the waiting room knowing/suspecting a problem - for that reason I wouldn’t take children with me as it would feel like rubbing it in. I appreciate I am probably overthinking things here!

I took my 3.5yo. Husband and I had discussed if anything wasn't right he'd take her out but she loved seeing the baby and finding out she was having a sister the same time we did. I'm glad we took her she loved being involved

I took my 4 year old recently. She loved it. Tho got upset when she realised we could find out the sex right then but didn't want to haha!

Ahhh ok it hadn’t crossed my mind children may not be allowed, looks like it will be early drop off at nursery and taxi down then.
Thank you for your advice.
To be honest you have echoed my concerns x