As a parent, sometimes it can be difficult to know when a trip to the emergency room is needed.
When your child is sick, injured, or suffering in any way, our natural instinct as parents is to do everything we can for them immediately. But, when do these instances require an emergency room visit?
Sore throats or minor burns, for instance, can be handled by a child’s primary care doctor or an urgent care clinic. Quite often the best thing to do is to pick up the phone and call your pediatrician to see what they recommend. Many times what you thought was an emergency, can be handled at home or by a quick trip to the doctor’s office.
But what are some of the circumstances where an ER visit is absolutely the right call? I’ve put together a list of situations where this is exactly what you should do.
Visit the ER if your child has:
- Difficulty breathing
- Severe allergic reaction (shortness of breath, lip/oral swelling, persistent vomiting, altered mental status)
- High fever with a headache and stiff neck
- Suddenly hard to wake up
- Sudden loss of sight, speech or movement
- Broken bone pushing through the skin
- Body part near an injured bone that is numb, tingling, weak, cold or pale
- Heavy bleeding or deep wound
- Serious burn
- Coughing or throwing up blood
- A fast heartbeat that doesn’t slow down
- Vomiting followed by dry mouth, not crying tears, no urination in more than eight hours or acting very sleepy/“out of it”
- Rectal temperature greater than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit in children less than 3 months old
While this is just a short list to help give you a reference point, I hope it will help you if a situation arises where you need to make a quick decision.
No matter what you can rest at ease knowing that I, along with the rest of our team of ER doctors and nurses will be here 24/7 at Elitecare to ensure your child is seen quickly and given the best medical care available. If you aren’t sure of the next step to take for your child feel free to also give us a call anytime and we will be happy to help you get your child exactly where they need to be.
All of us at Elitecare understand how important your children are to you because we are all more than just doctors and nurses. We are moms and dads just like you.
