How to Know if You Should Take Your Son to the Er When Hurting Their Knee
Kids become hurt. They come across walls, they eat rocks, they stick crayons in their ears, and they lose peas and pebbles up their noses. And considering you lot can pretty much count on kids getting injured or ill after normal pediatrician hours, most parents observe themselves looking at whether they should accept their kid to the ER or urgent care in emergency situations.
As a full general rule, urgent care is for minor, not life-threatening situations and the ER is for crisis situations. If you think it'south the type of situation that needs a follow up, like a sprained joint, go to urgent care. If yous think your child needs major medical attention, like a major os break, or might require continual observation, like trouble breathing, the emergency room is your best bet.
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According to Oreste Joseph Bruni, M.D., ED Liaison at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage and full fourth dimension attending physician at CityMD Urgent Care in Massapequa, New York, if you have a kid under two months old, no matter what the situation: a bump, a bruise, a fever—become to the ER. Urgent intendance clinics are not equipped to evaluate or care for children that young. An emergency room will give yous immediate admission to a range of staff and specialists for a child that historic period.
"Children of that historic period present their illnesses differently and give very different signs to underlying problems," says Dr. Bruni. "Yous need to be in a place that has a full staff on mitt for a child that historic period."
If you take an baby over ii months of historic period, call the urgent intendance clinic ahead of time to ensure they treat infants. Some clinics have age limits and won't take patients nether a certain age. Brand certain the facility works with children and is comfortable treating them. When you call, exist sure to speak with the attending dr. and be specific almost your child's symptoms. Yous don't desire is to get to an urgent care with a sick kid but to be told you lot should head to the ER instead.
Basic rules aside, we went to the experts to accept the guesswork out of how to handle the about common kid injuries. Here's how to be prepared and make an informed decision when you are weighing your choices to have your kid to the urgent intendance vs. ER.
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A Nada on the Head
Pocket-size bumps, bruises or cuts on the scalp are terrifying, but usually nothing to worry nearly. It tin can be hard to immediately tell if your child has a concussion or if there is an underlying injury that needs immediate attention. If the child is airsickness, seems disoriented, or complaining about ongoing pain, skip the urgent care and go directly to the ER.
"You need to be in a place where a kid can be monitored over the course of 24-hours. It may non crave that—they may transport yous domicile—just an urgent intendance can't provide that kind of monitoring," says Dr. Bruni. In brusk, if your child needs to be anywhere other than dwelling for a head injury, information technology'due south going to be an emergency room or a hospital, so make that your first end.
A Cough That Won't Get Away
An emergency room visit will price yous more than a trip to urgent intendance, it will expose your child to more illnesses, and the wait is typically longer. For something like a persistent cough, the urgent intendance is the fashion to go. "You'll be waiting in the ER for a long time for something like this. A cough will not have precedence over a major injury," says Dr. Bruni.
Urgent intendance should be able to run all the necessary x-rays to make up one's mind the crusade and handling of a persistent cough and it volition permit for follow upwards to meet how things are progressing.
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They Swallowed Something They Shouldn't
Mark Due south. Mannenbach, M.D. pediatric emergency medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic Children'south Center in Rochester, Minnesota, says this is largely dependent on how the kid is presenting at dwelling, and what they swallowed. If choking is a real hazard or they swallowed something corrosive like a button battery or a detergent pack, call 911—your child may need to be air-lifted. If your child proudly announces from the dorsum seat of the car that they ate a stone, the urgent care should be fine.
Your kid will probably need x-rays and probably a 24-hr follow up with additional x-rays, which is easily done in urgent care, and you'll go out of there much faster. "The x-rays are important and urgent intendance is great if you demand a follow-upwardly date, which yous most-likely will," says Dr. Bruni.
They Stuck Something in Their Ear
Sorry but true, this i is worth a trip to the ER. If left in there, or accidentally pushed in deeper by a frustrated child, information technology can cause pain, infection, or hearing loss. If you can't see the object, chances are it's far plenty in there that yous are going to need a professional that has worked with kids to get it out and an emergency room is your all-time bet. Because kids are very creative, information technology's always a good idea to take the doc bank check both nostrils every bit well as the ear cavities, while they're at information technology.
A Divide Lip, Eyebrow, Mentum, etc.
This all depends on the severity of the cut and the placement. If the cutting is very deep, both Dr. Bruni and Dr. Mannenbach recommend an emergency room. This will give you access to a plastic surgeon, and Dr. Mannenbach says most ERs are equipped with topical anesthetics that tin can minimize a child's trauma when they've been injured.
If you are looking at a fairly pocket-sized cut, however, urgent intendance is fine. "Honestly, derma bond works great, is elementary, and doesn't crave any needles. Urgent intendance will go you in and out and it'll be covered past your insurance. I've seen plastic surgery bills for $18,000; you lot really take to make up one's mind if you think your child needs that before you make your choice," says Dr. Bruni.
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A Deep Cut or Broken Bone
This is where you may start to worry near damaged tendons or fifty-fifty infection. Both Dr. Mannenbach and Dr. Bruni say, if it's a serious suspension or cut, go to the ER. "If the bone is sticking out, or if there is a laceration where you think you lot may have cut a tendon, go to the ER," says Dr. Bruni.
If you lot can't move a joint or apply information technology for strength like squeezing, you've likely severed a tendon and need a specialist to repair information technology and evaluate it for underlying abnormalities.
A Breadbasket Ache
Dr. Bruni says it requires a skilled physician to determine if y'all are dealing with a kid who is suffering from appendicitis or a ruptured appendix and is in danger of going toxic. If your child has a fever and airsickness, accompanied by hurting that starts effectually the omphalos and seems to be migrating to the right side, go to the emergency room.
"You lot would not want to miss appendicitis. Information technology could exist deadly," says Dr. Bruni. Nigh of the abdominal hurting experts see is attributed to constipation; however, you never desire to filibuster an appendicitis diagnosis. If you suspect appendicitis, the start stop should be the emergency room.
- RELATED: 'My Tummy Hurts': How to Solve Common Breadbasket Problems
A Loftier Fever
If your child has a fever over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, Dr. Mannenbach and Dr. Bruni recommend y'all go to the emergency room. A fever that high can lead to seizures or serious dehydration, and both scenarios are all-time treated in a hospital setting. "An urgent care isn't for seizures and if your child is dehydrated and needs intravenous fluids, you are going to want someone that specializes in working with kids to exist doing that," Dr. Mannenbach says.
That said, yous should telephone call a doctor if your child is less than 3 months old with a fever in a higher place 100.iv degrees F, betwixt 3 and 6 months with a fever above 101 degrees F, or older than 6 months with a fever over 103 degrees F.
- RELATED: A Guide for Treating Fever in Kids
Exist Prepared Before Accidents Happen
Do Your Homework. Find out which emergency facilities in your area work with children your kid's age. Your pediatrician's office tin can give you tips, and can even recommend which facilities they are affiliated with. Most urgent cares exercise not have pediatricians on staff, and then research beforehand if yours does. "Pediatrics is a specialty and the emergency room pediatricians accept grooming that takes intendance of the unique needs of children. There is extensive grooming and experience in handling and reading patients that needs to occur in an emergency setting," says Dr. Mannenbach. "Find out which facilities near y'all have an emergency pediatrician on staff."
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Know the Hours. Ane of the limits of urgent care is their hours. Urgent care isn't meant for prolonged observation or treatment. If you are seeking emergency care for something that might observation, like problem breathing or a head trauma, bring your child to the emergency room. "You definitely don't want to go to an urgent care only to be turned away because they close in an 60 minutes. Practise your research ahead of fourth dimension," says Dr. Bruni.
The Bottom Line
In the stop, your selection between urgent intendance and ER may depend on proximity of facility or gut feeling—something that both doctors say a parent should always go with. It's okay to assume the worst and exist pleasantly surprised that your worries were worse than the actual diagnosis. "I've never seen a parent regret going to the emergency room," says Dr. Mannenbach. "When your child is hurt or in pain, you have to brand the all-time choice for them."
Source: https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/injuries/urgent-care-vs-er-for-kid-injuries/
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