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.

No you can’t. To start with most hospitals won’t let a child sit int he waiting room by themselves so it’s a no no info anyway. But you definitely can’t take a sick child to the maternity unit. Your partner can stay with DC at home and you go to the scan by yourself.

No, you very obviously cannot bring your spewing child to a room full of medically vulnerable pregnant women. Give your head a wobble.

Frankly I still haven't forgiven the old hag (who was not there to be scanned herself) wandering around the maternity waiting room with a hacking cough, which I inevitably caught because I had to sit there for 2 hours for a glucose tolerance test.

It's hard to believe that anyone could be so selfish and stupid. Yet this post would suggest otherwise 🙄

As a pregnant woman who had to wait for an hour in the maternity waiting room last week for my appointment which was running late, I’d have asked for a vomiting child to be removed from the hospital if the midwives and staff didn’t get there first. So, so selfish!

I had to spend an evening in the EPU a few weeks back. Whilst I was there, a nurse came up from A&E and asked if they’d take a patient who was in for vomiting and diarrhoea (classic norovirus basically) and was worried about the impact of that on her pregnancy and wanted a scan before going home. The EPU nurses really put their foot down on this and said absolutely not. The waiting room was tiny (hence me hearing this conversation by the reception desk in the room) and I’m so glad they didn’t invite someone (probably highly) infectious to join the 3 of us in the room. There wasn’t even a sonographer on the unit that evening. Just nurses and a doctor. So I’d say the pregnancy units take a dim view of active vomiting bugs.

You can just delay your scan surely?! My 12 week scan needed to be repeated so they asked me back a week later. They can scan up to 13+6 if you want the combined screening, and even later if you don’t want the screening done.

Or, as pp have said - go on your own.

No you can't is the short answer. She is a child not an adult. I have worked in an antenatal clinic and it's a real pain for staff to have to watch the children of patients whilst they have their scans. Staff are busy enough as it is. It's also a health and safety issue.

No, you cannot take a vomiting child to a hospital waiting room when it's completely avoidable. Your partner stays with your eldest.
They do not allow unattended children to these anyway, they don't like having children in the scans full stop as it is very distracting when they are carrying out important checks.

No, you can't bring her. She's potentially contagious and she'll be in a room with vulnerable people.

It's also a safeguarding and child protection issue nowadays and very selfish of any parent to put this on you or other staff.

Along with what everyone else has said a scan is a medical procedure not just a fun day out to see your baby, if you get bad news your DD being there would be wildly inappropriate you and your partner would need time to get your head around whatever issues were identified.

I think this is an excellent point.

I'm with other posters. You CANNOT bring a sick child into a waiting room full of pregnant vulnerable women. Whoever was due to come with you needs to stay home with your child. It may not be what you wanted, but it's the decent thing to do. I'm shocked that you'd even consider putting other people at risk.

I think not only is it a safety risk for pregnant ladies but also think of your child. shes poorly and being sick she needs you shes only 7. you cant leave her in a waiting room full of people when shes feeling or being sick how would that make her feel? upset and scared i would imagine, she needs her mom and dad. please rearrange the scan. your child is important here. not trying to be nasty.

I’m pretty sure on my scan letter, it mentioned not to bring other children, or something along those lines.

Either way, it would be incredibly selfish to expose other pregnant women, some of whom may already be high risk, to any potential sickness bugs. I certainly wouldn’t be happy if I went to a scan, and came back with a rotten bug, that could put my baby’s health at risk, and mine is a low risk pregnancy.

Ask your partner to look after the child, or their grandparents, or, push comes to shove, rearrange the appointment. Hospitals already have enough nasty bugs floating around them, they certainly don’t need any more being introduced.

'Can I selfishly take an infectious child into a waiting room full of vulnerable women?'

• No,

HTH

I guess it’s just too early in the morning to spot sarcasm 🤣

Not acceptable to bring her, it is unfair on others there and your dd. I would have partner watch her or move the appointment.

Thanks for the responses. Fwiw I am obviously assuming that by then she will be mostly over the bug but just not by 48hrs, and maybe it sounds dumb but I didn't realise it would be "full of" pregnant women. At the last ultrasound I had I was the only person in the waiting area and assume a small child sitting on her tablet in the corner for five minutes isn't going to spread anything to anyone. But thanks for the incredibly exaggerated replies re. bringing a sick bucket with me; I forgot how horrible the posters on Mumsnet can be.

No-one on here has been horrible.
You asked a question, you got replies.

So what are you going to do?

I'm all for not being overprotective and hospitals needing to be more flexible for parents without a lot of childcare but this just has bad idea written all over it.

Just go to the scan alone, partner stays home with child

Yes op what is your plan as given you are minimising the responses it feels as if you perhaps still think your plan is ok.

She can still touch/breathe the germs around.

And you still have the option of leaving her at home with the person who was accompanying you. I had to have quite a few scans alone. You'll cope.

@Meeko505 Fwiw I am obviously assuming that by then she will be mostly over the bug but just not by 48hrs, and maybe it sounds dumb but I didn't realise it would be "full of" pregnant women. At the last ultrasound I had I was the only person in the waiting area and assume a small child sitting on her tablet in the corner for five minutes isn't going to spread anything to anyone

Oh, come on. If a child is in a school exclusion period then they obviously shouldn’t be going to sit in a hospital waiting room. That’s common sense. Also, you can’t leave a child that age in a waiting area as it’s a safeguarding issue (from someone who worked in hospitals for decades). They need to stay home with someone looking after them while you attend the scan.

To be fair the 12 week scan is pretty basic, head, spine, 4 limbs, ok off you go. My partner just did the 20 week scan for our first baby.