I know every parent is different...I know every child is different. I also know that there are medical conditions that cause certain parents to react to a ill child the way they do....
With that said, I do not understand why the initial response to a child being ill is to go to the ER. I know it isn't like this for all people but for many.....no just of Cafemom but in real life.
Is it fear? Lack of education? Bad experiences?
Have we (generally speaking) have lost faith in our abilities to care for our children at home?
I try to stay out of the ER at all costs. I try to help the person, if it seems serious, then I say to go to the ER. I think I've only suggested it to someone on here once.
Alot of people are scared into thinking that they dont know what is best for their own children. I avoid the ER unless there is extreme amounts of blood a severe fever like 104 or if I think something is broken and even then it has to be after hours because I will take them to the doctor.
My oldest was hospitalized at 2 weeks old due to an infection. She had reflux of the kidneys and any time after that, meaning the first year of her life, I had to go to the ER for a fever, per my pediatrician. They had to use a catheter to get a urine sample and get her on a quick dose of antibiotics. It was faster than the ped's office.
I think its due to all the hype about swine flu. And the fact that its killed so many( I know lots of people die from the regular flu), people who are generally healthy. I think people would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to the health of their children.
With our daughter we try to treat her at home first if she gets really bad then we will take her in or if it is over the weekend we generally try and wait until we can go to her pediatrician unless of course it is an emergency. My son on the other hand we do not take any chances with he has a rare disability and any type of resp. infection can kill him so we generally always take him in whether it be the peditrician or the emer. room. It isn't that we favor him anymore then her but she can fight them off and it not be life threatening whereas for him it is.
If it seems like it is more then just a common cold and I am unsure about what it is then I would go to the ER. Better safe then sorry especially with 2 and under because they can't always explain what hurts. It is like when my son fell off his bed one night he said his shoulder hurt. I didnt think anything of it ... it isnt a very high bed. So i gave him some motrin and he went back to sleep. The next day I notice he wont use his arm but he is acting normal and playing. That night he tells me it hurts again and he cant sleep. I am wondering why he didnt complain during the day. Well I take him to the ER anyway and turns out he fractured his collar bone because he landed in just the right way to crack it. So sometimes it really is better to be safe.
I'm not sure...I have seen the same level of response (like I said not just on Cafemom but in real life) before anyone had heard of swine flu...
Quoting Lilcountrygrl86:
I think its due to all the hype about swine flu. And the fact that its killed so many( I know lots of people die from the regular flu), people who are generally healthy. I think people would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to the health of their children.
Quoting anetrnlov:
I know every parent is different...I know every child is different. I also know that there are medical conditions that cause certain parents to react to a ill child the way they do....
With that said, I do not understand why the initial response to a child being ill is to go to the ER. I know it isn't like this for all people but for many.....no just of Cafemom but in real life.
Is it fear? Lack of education? Bad experiences?
Have we (generally speaking) have lost faith in our abilities to care for our children at home?
I dont get it. I have a friend, who everytime she's sick she goes to the ER, her husband too.
I think its just a meantality that needs to be broken.
The only time I take my dd to the dr is if she won't stop crying I used to freak out but that was because when she was 8 months old I almost lost her she had a bad febrile seizure and stopped breathing ( everyone that has them stops breathing ) she was blue and was basically gone we got her to the hospital and was told by the dr that we got there just in time that there was such a bad infection that she wouldn't have came back if we would have waited longer her fever was so high it would have fried her brain so I did tend to freak out until her dr told me how to take precautions to prevent that from happening again. She was so bad her dr was on the other side of the country and my aunt called her and she ended her vacation early and came back to make sure my dd would pull through she was hospitalized for 24 hrs because we choose to bring her home so she could be comfortable and had a 104.1 fever for 5 days I don't over react anymore but boy did I have my days for a long time after
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- anetrnlov
on Nov. 21, 2009 at 4:14 PM