Can I bring 7yo to wait outside ultrasound scan?

[Meeko505]

My 7yo is throwing up and my 12 week scan is on Tuesday morning. We don't really have any childcare but I doubt she'll be able to be in school. Can we bring her and let her wait outside the scan room for us, or in the waiting area? Not sure what else to do at this stage.

That would be really inconsiderate. All the pregnant women and staff don't want to catch whatever stomach issue your child has. Move your appointment. A week won't make much difference.

You've said wait outside for 'us' OP. That's your answer, whoever was going with you has to stay home with the 7 year old. Of course you'd prefer company, particularly a partner, with you but once you have more than one child you'll find you often have to divide up and put your preferences second.

Do not take an ill child to a waiting room for pregnant women, that's hugely selfish.

The selfishness of some people never ceases to astound me.
No, you can’t knowingly bring a sick child to a place full of other pregnant women, not to mention the other patients.

This. Whoever is going to the scan with you can surely stay at home and watch your child.

Having had several scans in my own during Covid, I know it will be disappointing to not have that moment together, but sometimes things are out of your control. You really cannot bring a sick child to a room full of vulnerable pregnant women.

Do not take a sick child into the ultrasound clinic. You risk infecting large numbers of pregnant women.

The child should be looked after by her father, who has the right to emergency parental leave for such occasions, or if he is totally unavailable eg deployed in a submarine for 6 months you have to pay for an emergency nanny through a childcare agency (at least £20ph emergency rate) or rearrange the scan.

Longer term you need to put more thought into this kind of thing. If you can't find a better solution for a simple ultrasound scan how on earth are you going to cope if you need to be admitted into hospital for 6 weeks before or after giving birth, or deal with the myriad of issues with juggling care of a baby and an 8yo. Childhood illnesses happen so regularly you can't be treating them as an unpredictable shock event - they are goong to happen so life decisions need to cover the fact that they will happen, typically at the most inconvenient times.

First because she's throwing up don't take her. Other people may fall ill and she's probably feeling weak. Can your partner stay in the car with her? We did that. As 2nd baby was in covid so only I could go in and 3rd baby we didn't have childcare. Don't worry about partner missing out or anything focus on the 7 year old. She's poorly.

Can’t you phone up and rearrange the scan for a few days later

No because they could make someone else sick and what if they needed to be sick whilst you were in the scan. If your going with someone else they can stay with child if not you’ll have to rearrange.

My god. You’re not sure what else to do at this stage? It’s so blindingly obvious you can’t take her, so either don’t or rearrange the appointment.
You said yourself she can’t go to school so why on earth would you think it ok for her to go to an ultrasound clinic full of pregnant women?! I am astounded at this honestly.

No, your OH should care for her or rearrange the appointment. It’s a pain, I know. I’ve had similar thing happen but you shouldn’t take a sick child to a place where there are vulnerable people.

No. Her father stays with her at home. You cannot take a sick child to a hospital waiting room filled with pregnant women.

Why can‘t the other person in the ‚we‘ look after her, rather than cancelling a medical appointment?

I’m sorry for your situation but honestly …… to even consider bringing a vomiting child into a waiting room of pregnant woman is selfishness of the highest order. Just rearrange the scan.

No, of course you can't take her to a hospital. If she's sick and can't go to school (even if it's just to satisfy the 48hr rule), the exact same rules apply to hospital.

Maybe give the midwife a call?
”Hi midwife, I’ve got a scan tomorrow and my DD is vomiting so can’t go to school. Can someone look after her at the maternity unit whilst we go in for the scan? I’ll bring a sick bucket just in case.”

Even without the vomiting this wouldn’t be allowed where I work and your partner would have to stay in the waiting room with her and wouldn’t be allowed in the scan. Leaving an unattended child in a waiting room would not be considered good from a safeguarding pov and staff certainly won’t be able to babysit your child.

my kids were not allowed in the waiting room whilst I had scans; they had to wait outside the hospital.

I don’t see the maternity unit staff going for this one.

Do you really need to ask???
I can't believe you'd take a vomming child to a hospital when your partner can stay at home.

Wow. You know that the child won't be able to go to school because of the sickness but you're wondering if it would be OK to take them to a clinic where there will be lots of pregnant women?

Your partner needs to look after the dc at home, or you need to move the scan date. You can't take the child with you.

Nope

No you can't take her. Understand why you both want to be at scan though. If DD is ok by then and not been sick since then call in favour from neighbour or friend or family to sit with them , it should only be a couple of hours at most

I work closely with maternity services and can say with 100% confidence no one at the maternity unit would be willing to look after a vomiting child!
There aren’t members or staff just floating around with time to spare to look after children for a start. And they’d not want to expose themselves to a sickness bug or expose the women they look after either.
What a ridiculous suggestion.

I am a 100% sure it was a sarcastic suggestion 😁

It was very clearly sarcasm.