Private Scan With 5 Year Old In Tow

[TheAgeOfAquarius]

Wondering if anyone has taken a preschool/young primary school age child to a scan and can let me know how it went? My DD is 5 and keeps mentioning she would like to come see the baby on the 'TV'. I was going to book a private scan for after our 20 week anomaly scan so can make sure (as can be) that baby is ok and can join in with her excitement. I have checked with the local clinic and they have no problem with younger siblings being present for scans provided they behave, which DD would.

If you want to take her then it's upto you... Will you have another adult present just incase for some reason she may play up as kids are unpredictable at times. Most private scans are also rather quick too so won't be as if she will have to sit for ages but would be nice for her to see if she's been wanting too. X

I took 3.5 year old twins to a private scan which I booked for the week after the anomaly scan, because I thought they would like to see their new sibling "on the tv", however, to them he looked like an alien growing in my tummy and they both got quite upset. (Their attitude towards him is still about the same about 8 years later....)

Ive taken our 2.5 year old to 2x private scans so far.. one at 8 weeks where she looked confused and then carried on watching Bing on my phone & one at 16 weeks in 4D where she was fascinated and stood at the screen going look mummy, baby. 😂 she was pretty well behaved in both, I’d take her again!

I imagine your 5 year old would be really interested.. although it may make her realise baby is ‘real’ and about to change her little life a bit! I always think baby in a tummy must be such a weird concept to a child, even older ones before they really understand the biology!

With dd we took dsd who was 5.. She still talks about it now.
Recently took her for this scan along with the 1.5 Yr old and my teen
It's fine. It's a relaxed environment

Just think about what if something went wrong, very small chance but what if the scan shows something seriously wrong? Do you really want your DC present for that?

We booked a 4d scan and my 2 yr old came. It was fine, my husband was there to distract/ entertain him. I think you'll be fine

I took my 23 month old to private scan. She really wasn't very interested and sat on the floor playing with her doll. When we heard the heart beay she stood up and walked over to the screan to see what was happening. I would think a five year old would find the whole experience interesting and would like to see the baby on the screan.

We took our 3 yo to our scan, was lovely to have him there but he couldnt understand what he was looking at! Made me laugh as he kept saying "is that a willy?"

We took my 5 year old along to a private scan at 27 weeks (we had had several scans so were confident everything would be ok). Part of the scan was 4D which was great as it meant it actually looked like a baby! We also found out the sex at the scan so we all found out at the same time which was nice to find out as a family. I think it's a great idea for introducing the baby to young siblings as it makes it more real.

I also had a bad experience a few years back though when he was almost 4 and I had to take him to an early NHS scan - it was when the beast from the east hit and the traffic was so bad with the snow that we couldn't get him dropped off at granny's in time so had no choice but to take him. The scan was at 10 weeks and it was an anembryonic pregnancy - luckily we had not told him the scan was for a baby and that it was because I had a sore tummy and we had his kids pad with us and he quite happily played on it while we got the bad news.

Thank you for your replies, was worried in case I was looking at this through rose tinted glasses and missing something glaringly obvious. I will either have DP with us unless he has to leave for work early, or my DM so there will be another adult present just in case I need to be spoken to alone however planning to book for as soon after my 20 week scan to limit the chance of any bad news.

Sorry @MarchionessOfCholmondeley sitting chuckling away to myself, I can imagine DD will probably be of a similar attitude in 8 years time