How do you get the balance right?

[FabulousBakerGirl]

I am a bit of a worrier when it comes to my children's health and will often defer to DH as to whether they need medication or a doctor's appointment. Other times I will insist on either when I am sure it is necessary but he would never argue anyway.

I suppose I am surprised how long some parents sit it out with a sick child before seeking professional help. It can't all be instinct so how do you work out what you need to do?

I am probably on the other extreme to you and rarely medicate or seek a dr's advice about my chidren.

I trust my instincts and they have never been wrong to date.

Mine have all had problems so maybe that is part of why I can be a worrier.

I'm usually pretty good a judging whether DD needs medical intervention or not too. But then, she has never been ill really. Just the odd cough or cold. I do seem to endlessly take her to A&E for foot injuries though! She's 13 now and when she injures herself doing something, she really injures herself! We are currently nursing torn ligaments in her left foot!

I usually 'ride' out high temps etc without medical intervention.

I use calpol or neurofen if I feel or they tell me they're in pain eg recently ds had sore throat and temp.

We took ds to a&e after he fell downstairs at a famiy party and his whole forehead became swollen and his nose was bleeding but tbh if family hadn't insisted I wouldn't have done as I could tell he was ok.

On the other hand instinct lead me to push for dd to have tonsils out as I felt she wouldn't grow out of it as consultant suggested.

I think it's fine to use instinct.
The times I've gone against it, usually to please someone else, have lead to sitting for hours in waiting rooms with a grumpy child who wants to sleep, only to be told they have a virus or are fine (as in no broken bones)

I am interested as there have been several threads just lately about sick children and what to do, and it seems that lots of mums are unsure.

My DD has a condition that makes it harder for her to deal with illness or injury. We have spent a lot of time in hospital and had some scary times so I worry about her a lot and would never take a risk. But one thing I find to be a strange side effect of all of it is that I have a list of what to do and when from the hospital and now genuinely can't imagine making some of the judgement calls that most parents have to. I mean if I am at all worried I call her specialist or similar who tell me what to do, if in doubt I go to a and e and know that it will always be taken seriously.

I would only take DS to Dr's if temperature hadn't been brought down by calpol. However DS has never had anything serious - just usual coughs/colds/chickenpox which I just deal with.

I have taken him to A&E when he said that he felt dizzy following bump on head, but not otherwise.

I think I did call NHS helpline a couple of times when he was a baby, I think I had just wanted reassurance which I got.

ds1 gets calpal and told to get on with it. ds2 has had/got heart problems so i tend to take him to the doctors straight away. looking forward to swain flu down here!!!!!!!