It is respiratory season, kids are snotty, parents are tired, and emergency rooms around the country are seeing long waits. Knowing what to do or where to go for help when your child is sick can overwhelm even the most medically savvy among us. And while I by no means aim to give you a comprehensive list, I do want to make a plug for a few things that can usually wait to be seen in your pediatrician’s office, saving you the time and headache of waiting in an emergency room.
If your child is healthy, a cough of any duration can be safely evaluated and treated at your pediatrician’s office. Yes, I realize that if you are up in the middle of the night, the urge to do something about it in that moment — and the worry as a parent — are nudging you to grab your keys and head to the nearest emergency room. But I want you to know that in otherwise healthy children who are breathing well, there actually isn’t much ER physicians can do. You’re better off getting whatever little rest you can get at home, reaching for the honey if your child is older than one, and making an appointment in the morning.
The same goes for most fevers. In children who are older than three months and are otherwise well — no dehydration, trouble breathing, or underlying medical conditions — the pediatrician’s office (and not the emergency room) is the best place to evaluate a fever. Though most fevers in young children are due to a viral illness and resolve on their own, primary care pediatricians are also equipped to evaluate for other common causes of fever, such as ear infections, strep throat, and urinary tract infections.
When children are seen in the office, we are also able to take a stepwise approach. For example, if you come in early during an illness, we can always see you back in a few days for fevers that have not gone away and do additional testing then. This approach is tough to do through an emergency room.
Another conversation that is perfect for the primary care office: viral testing, and whether it’s even needed. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, “testing” became a common word in our vocabulary, and many daycares and schools required it regularly for what felt like an eternity. As a result, many of us want to know which virus is causing our ailments- even when that may not change how you or your child is treated. As primary care physicians, we want to talk through the need for these viral tests with you, in the calm of our offices.
I’ll end with two important caveats to the case I’ve made until now. First, if you are worried, we are worried. Emergency rooms and the physicians, nurses, and staff who work there are dedicated professionals ready to help who will not turn you away. And second, there’s no medical advice or compilation of tips that can replace your parental intuition. If something doesn’t feel right and you believe your child needs to be evaluated right now, grab those keys and head on over to the nearest ER.
Editor’s note: Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez is a practicing pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, co-founder of Informada, a contributing editor to SheKnows, and a mom to an active toddler.
Before you go, grab these all-natural remedies to relieve your child’s cold symptoms:
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