Parent Savers
TAKING YOUR CHILD TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM
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Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.
[Theme Music]
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Every year, more than 23 million kids under the age of 15 end up in the Emergency Room. While hopefully, this never happens to your family; there’s a good chance you’ll be visiting the ER at some point during your kids childhood. How do you know when to go and what should you know before you do?
Today, we’re talking all about: “Taking your child to the Emergency Room.” I’m Dr. Ahmad Bailony and this is Parent Savers Episode 99.
[Theme Music/Intro]
JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome everybody once again to another episode of Parent Savers broadcasting from the Birth Education Centre of San Diego. Parent Savers is your weekly online on-the-go support group for parents from the newborn years to kindergarten.
I’m your host Johner Riehl. Thanks again to all of our loyal listeners who joined us week in and week out. Thanks also to those of you who maybe listening for the first time. As you may or may not know, you can join our Parent Saver’s Club and receive access to special bonus content after each new show plus special giveaways and discounts from time to time.
If you haven’t already, please make sure to download the free Parent Savers App. You can get it for Android or iTunes and you can automatically have the access to all the great parenting advice and conversation we have on Parent Savers every week.
Before we talk about: “Taking your child to the Emergency Room” let’s meet everybody here in studio. I am your host Johner Riehl. We have three boys – a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 2 year old. They have all been to the Emergency Room, varying degrees of success. So, definitely this is going to be – I guess what I would say is: “It’s a fun topic for right now because everything’s turned out with my kids being okay but it can be a very serious.” It’s a good topic as well.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: You’re not in the Emergency Room right now.
JOHNER RIEHL: We’re not in the Emergency Room right now, exactly.
KIM SCHULTZ: I’m Kim Schultz. I’m 40 years old. I just turned 40 this month.
JOHNER RIEHL: Happy Birthday. I’m turning 40 actually right around the time this is airing. So, nice
KIM SCHULTZ: Awesome. I’m a stay-at-home mom. I have two boys who are 4 and 7.
ERIN ESTEVES: So, I’m Erin Esteves, otherwise known as OG Mama Sita for Officially Geriatric Mama that’s me. I’m 44 and I have one little boy. He’s 2 ½ and I am the producer of the show. I want to take a moment to remind you or let you know that: “If you can’t make it to our studio but would still like to participate, you can be a part of our Virtual Panellists Program and like us on Facebook.”
I always post our questions or the names of our experts so that you could post your questions and you can hash tag – #ParentSaversVP on Twitter. So, I’m excited about this episode and I do have quite a few Facebook questions for you doctor.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Great.
[Theme Music]
JOHNER RIEHL: Well, before we get started; let’s talk about a news headline. What we do is we talk from time-to-time about a story that we seen recently in the news and then kind of look at it from a parent perspective from a paediatrician perspective if you – well, if you happen to be a paediatrician which we’d always have in the office but we love it when Dr. Bailony is here.
So, today it’s from a website called www.FreeRangeKids.com and the headline is: “Grandpa picks up the wrong kindergartener and now parents want the world to stop in its tracks.” So, they say: “It’s a perfect illustration of the way our society works now.” It may kind of play in what we’re talking about with the Emergency Room.
But, a great grandpa picked up the wrong kindergartener from school. The two boys had similar hats and the one that grandpa took home had his hat pull all the way over his head. So, the grandpa took the wrong kid home from school, got home realize his mistake and then alerted the school immediately.
The principal called the mom to say: “That her son was accidentally picked up by the wrong man – someone that the school knew and the child was not in danger.” He’s being returned immediately but the mom still insisted the police and Child Protective Services be notified. So, what this article is saying is: “Maybe that was a little too drastic because it wasn’t a common mistake; it wasn’t harmful to the child.”
It goes on to talk about: “How maybe a society – we’ve been trained to over react, that this was a mistake but yet, it was one involving the kids.” So, the question I think in this article pose is – aside from how the kid gets all the way home with the wrong great grandpa?
KIM SCHULTZ: That’s really scary.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Should the mom have reacted like that-that you need to leap in the police?
ERIN ESTEVES: I don’t really know. That’s a tough call because
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Right? I think it plays in the kind of what we’re talking about with the Emergency Room. You only get one chance.
ERIN ESTEVES: Yes, you get one shot.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: To do something like early on, you don’t want to make any mistakes and so, their kid got picked up.
ERIN ESTEVES: I think based on what like Kim was saying is that – I think it’s a bigger; the bigger question is: “How did the kid get all the way home with this other grandpa and not say something?”
JOHNER RIEHL: Let’s say Cash was in a preschool and got picked up by the wrong person and then you found out that they had him and they were taking them back?
ERIN ESTEVES: Well, I know Cash would never – he would flip the F out.
JOHNER RIEHL: I know, right. Would you say: “Wait, I’m going to come and get him?” Would you say: “We need to call the police?” I mean Child Protective Services seems a little bit drastic.
ERIN ESTEVES: That’s hardcore but you know what it’s going to back flash on the mommy.
JOHNER RIEHL: But, I can maybe understand the police aspect of it.
KIM SCHULTZ: No, I would call the principal first because the principal is in charge of the school.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Well that’s actively happened. She talked to the principal and the principal was like: “Hey, everything’s fine. This is a bad mistake.” She’s like: “Call the police. Call the Child Protective Services.”
ERIN ESTEVES: But, I think that you’re saying that: “That the principal should be held responsible.”
KIM SCHULTZ: Yes, the principal should be held responsible.
ERIN ESTEVES: Not the grandfather.
KIM SCHULTZ: Not the grandfather – I mean there’s a difference between pres I guess. I have a kid in preschool. I have a kid who’s a second grader. When I get the second grader at the end of the day, I walked in the gate and he follows me out like a duckling.
JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.
KIM SCHULTZ: That’s it. The preschooler I have to sign him in. I have to sign him out. That’s a legal thing here in California.
JOHNER RIEHL: Yes. So, maybe it’s nothing in comparison.
KIM SCHULTZ: But, it’s that a question of
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: I mean it probably also depends on you know pass circumstances with the family themselves. I mean it’s hard to know these things but at least coming from my background and working in an Emergency Rooms and things like that – I mean the world is an escape place and you really don’t know who’s out there and what’s out there.
So, it really you never know. The family may have gone through some traumatic experience in the past and she might be a little bit more on the edge than per say a normal mother. So, it’s really hard to say just from
JOHNER RIEHL: I think it’s an unfortunate mistake. I think it’s kind of funny now that everything in retrospect. Everything’s turned out okay.
KIM SCHULTZ: It’s funny because everything’s were not okay.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Just don’t have your kid wear a hat.
JOHNER RIEHL: That’s the moral of the story is. Don’t have your kids wear hats. Yes, exactly.
KIM SCHULTZ: Honestly, is you’re telling that story – I’m thinking to myself: “I know who I would take home by accident instead of my child.” I’m not thinking about it from the other perspective. I’m thinking in it from the: “Yes, there’s a kid who looks just like my kid and if I don’t pay attention and look at their faces”
JOHNER RIEHL: I think it’s tough to begrudge. I think it’s tough to begrudge in the family for doing everything they can to make sure that their kid is safe.
KIM SCHULTZ: Yes.
JOHNER RIEHL: So, happily everything turned out okay. So, it’s an interesting story.
ERIN ESTEVES: Very.
KIM SCHULTZ: It is.
JOHNER RIEHL: All right, so today’s topic on Parent Savers is: “Taking your child to the Emergency Room.” Today, we’re talking with Dr. Ahmad Bailony from Sharp.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: I go to both Sharp Mary Birch and Sharp Chula Vista so it doesn’t matter.
JOHNER RIEHL: Nice. Well, thank you so much for joining us. So, what’s the big red flag if parents; when does the Emergency Room come in play for an injury or for a sickness or something?”
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, obviously like I preface all things. I prefaces with, especially with children; every single scenarios individual. Right?
JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: But at the end of day, kind of a thing – I tell parents in my clinic is: “You should always ask yourself just a simple question.” If it was the middle of the day on Wednesday, okay; my office is open and whatever scenario is happening with your kid happen at that time in the middle of the day on Wednesday – would you take your kid to my office or would you take him to the Emergency Room?
If the answer is: “Take him to my office” then you probably don’t need to go to the Emergency Room. That’s kind of a simple way of looking at it if you want a more structured way – the way that we’d look at things in medicine if you we use a A-B-C-D Format. Some people like mnemonics, some people don’t. But, what we do in medicine – the A stands for Airway.
So, basically for example, if you ate a carrot and your kid is choking on the carrot and can’t breathe, that’s probably a good reason to the Emergency Room. So, you look at the Airway and breathing. B is breathing; so breathing comes to things like asthma, pneumonia, colds those types of things. If you’re seeing true breathing problems where it looks like there is a hard time getting oxygen or just the kid is breathing so fast that it looks like he’s going to tire out – that’s another reason.
C is Circulation and that comes to things like hydration. So, if your kid has had diarrhea, vomiting and just like looks eyes are sunken in, hasn’t been urinating, those kinds of things that’s another good reason. These disability and that addresses things that are kind out of your control. Kid was skateboarding, fell off the skateboard, and broke something.
JOHNER RIEHL: [inaudible]
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Probably needs to be address right away.
JOHNER RIEHL: Well, so there’s no lying there between 911 and driving your kid to the Emergency Room. I think in all of our instances and we have to take our kids, we’ve driven them to the Emergency Room.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: 911 that you know is a very specific situation obviously – so for example, the first one that we’re talking about, right?
JOHNER RIEHL: Yes, the breathing.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: If someone’s choking on something and not breathing, it’s probably not a good idea to drive them to the Emergency Room. You probably want to try and attend to them, call 911 and have someone come get you so that you can have some medical care in the house.
ERIN ESTEVES: Talk you through it right there at that moment too.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Right. The other thing is like we were talking about earlier outside is: “If your kid is having a seizure and the seizure’s gone on for longer than five minutes, you probably don’t want to take the kid while having a seizure, put them in the car and transport them.” You want to attend to the kid that’s having the seizure, call 911 and have someone come and pick you up.
Basically, the answer is: “Whenever there is something where you really can’t move the kid or mobilizing them could put them in jeopardy then the best thing to do is obviously attend to them, keep your eyes on them at all times, call 911.” That’s otherwise the kid’s sitting up, talking to you but sick; probably you can try them to the Emergency Room.
KIM SCHULTZ: Well, there’s a gray area too because one of the doctor’s gave me the advice of: “Just because you call the ambulance, doesn’t mean you take the ambulance. But, if you have a situation where like one of my sons has Febrile Seizures.
I’ve been trying to get good answer on: “Okay, what would I do if he’s having a seizure?” Do I have to throw them into the car and take them to the hospital, drive them up there by myself or do I call the AMT and somebody said – Well, just if they get the care – if the ambulance comes to your house, they could:
• Administer the care
• Determine whether or not you need to go to the hospital for another look for a more extensive checkout and
• Whether or not that needs to happen in their care with their monitoring or whether they feel like it’s safe for you to take them in your car.”
So, there is kind of an in-between area.
ERIN ESTEVES: That is incredibly liberating.
KIM SCHULTZ: Isn’t it?
ERIN ESTEVES: Can I just tell you that right now? I feel such a sense of relief because
KIM SCHULTZ: I did too when you told me that. It’s like: “Just because you called the ambulance, doesn’t mean you have to take the ambulance.”
ERIN ESTEVES: My God.
JOHNER RIEHL: Then it becomes a matter of feeling with how everyone’s takes the ambulance to get there, even say on a long thing, it’s by 10 minutes. We were on the long and then I don’t know – I’m sure it’s faster than that usually or maybe longer in your case – whatever.
KIM SCHULTZ: It depends where you live.
JOHNER RIEHL: It depends where you live. But, that verses going to the Emergency Room – even if you park right out front or drop off because both parents are there and go park the car then you got to go through the check-in process.
It’s not like my experiences in being an ER – I’ll ask if you if it’s like this is: “You don’t often see people just get pulled, carried, straight to the back unless they’re coming on an ambulance.” The people usually that I see people that show up.
KIM SCHULTZ: That’s happened to us all the time.
JOHNER RIEHL: Has it gone through?
KIM SCHULTZ: Yes, all the time.
JOHNER RIEHL: How does it work?
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: How the ER’s work is there’s a triage process. So, Emergency Room is kind of like an operator. You have all these phone calls which aren’t phone calls in Emergency Room but it’s coming in and someone has to decide which of these is more critical than others, okay?
So, that’s the process it’s going on. If there’s something that’s serious enough – they are the rare cases where it does get wheeled in right away and things get taking care-off really fast because that’s what the situation calls for.
JOHNER RIEHL: But a lot of times when there are serious, an ambulance is involved
KIM SCHULTZ: I guess we’ve never gone in an ambulance. No, let me amend that. We got in the ambulance once and that was from Disney Land because Disney Land made us take an ambulance.
JOHNER RIEHL: How many times?
KIM SCHULTZ: I mean I don’t know. I was thinking its like: “We’ve been to the ER like 10 times.”
JOHNER RIEHL: Can you give us a little contact, a more contact for your situation there?
KIM SCHULTZ: Sure. I have a son who has asthma and when he was first diagnosed, we were learning the signs of what to look for; he had two very bad asthma attacks. He had one at Disney Land and we recognized that he was retracting and having problems breathing and we went to first date at Disney Land and they did take us to the ambulance to the local hospital where he immediately got treatment.
But the second one, we woke up and drove him in the night; we know that he was retracting which is: “When you’re using the muscles of your sides to suck in air, if you can’t breathe.” It was my husband and I, we went right to Rady Children’s ER and they did not wait for me to finish filling up the paper work. They came and took him out of my arms.
JOHNER RIEHL: But it still started that you had to go talk to someone at the glass.
KIM SCHULTZ: No, I mean it was in line and they took him.
JOHNER RIEHL: Right
KIM SCHULTZ: I guess, but I mean
JOHNER RIEHL: So, they have to make the assessment, right?
KIM SCHULTZ: No, I was waiting in line and then they came and took him out of the line.
JOHNER RIEHL: I guess but I’m saying is that you’re in line.
KIM SCHULTZ: Well, I know but it’s not I was going to hang out there. I guess I’d walked in with the kid who is breathing not well and they basically assessed the situation. He said: “He needs to be taken immediately.” So, they took him.
JOHNER RIEHL: Exactly, so that’s part of the assessment that you’re talking about
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Right, yes.
KIM SCHULTZ: I’m saying the same thing.
KIM SCHULTZ: Okay.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Everybody is going to get assessed one way or another. Whether it’s very rapidly or it looks like your kid is kind of fine and it’s going to get assessed a little bit slower, obviously with anything – I like to preface anything you know whether it’s giving a vaccine or going to the nursery. No system is perfect and it’s never going to be.
So, yes even the triage process; you might have a kid that’s sicker and just doesn’t look sicker. So, doesn’t get triage as fast as he probably should have. But, that is kind of the nature of the Emergency Room. The Emergency Room is exactly what the first word of it is: “It’s an emergency.”
So, a lot of things there are being processes very rapidly, by honesty not that many doctors. So, sometimes as a parent, I think it helps to understand that. It’s a very – sometimes frustrating process to go there and be
JOHNER RIEHL: I think that you don’t understand. I think that like: “You may as a parent be sitting there because you’re kids not breathing right but it’s not as dramatic as a seizure or having the really bad asthma attack. Then, having the perspective of folks that are sitting there to see other people go in: “Hey. How was your first?” It’s not like you don’t get served and they don’t know what you came for. You’re getting assessed.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: You don’t as a parent; have the grand view of everything that’s going on the Emergency Room. So, you can’t it’s hard to feel sympathetic because you’re there concerned about your child.
JOHNER RIEHL: So, then usually there are different rooms kind of in the back right as I’ve experienced to exams right? So, there will be people in all of these different ones and then you’ve got the nurses and the doctors kind of going. There are still that assessment going on I guess constantly being going on, right?
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, basically – usually wheres kind of in terms of structure is: “There is a nurse usually assigned to a couple of rooms in the ER.” So, she manages those rooms. So, she’s got certain responsibilities. So, if you’re in a room for four hours – for example, she has to have done vials an X number of times depending on what’s the situation calls for.
The doctor has to keep an eye on your labs and interview you and see what’s going on. So, there are a lot of people involved in the process of caring for your child and that’s I think sometimes as a parent, it’s just good to ask questions I think at the end of the day. As long as you’re asking the right questions then, usually it leads to a less frustrating experience.
ERIN ESTEVES: So, I have a question.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Sure.
ERIN ESTEVES: How do you determine – I don’t know if this is nationwide but here in California, we have urgent care and we have Emergency Rooms.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: It’s a good question.
ERIN ESTEVES: So, how do you determine which do you go to because as I understand based on my own experience, they can’t take care of everything in urgent care.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: There was a study that came out last year in 2013. It was the most common reasons people in the United States go to the Emergency Rooms. They found the number one most common reason 27% of visits was upper respiratory infections which we call: “The Common Cold.” That’s in the paediatric population.
So, basically urgent cares or the way I see them is: “Urgent cares are there for sick visits.” So, sometimes for example I’m sure you guys as parents have these experience – you call your doctor and you say: “My kid is sick, has X and Y. Is it sick enough to go to the Emergency Room?” You just want your doctor to lay eyes on them and rest make – tell you what’s going on but your doctor’s too busy that day.
I think that’s a good reason to go to the urgent care. I don’t know. For some reason, you were letting your kid prepare their own peanut butter jelly sandwich. They cut their finger. It’s not a bad cut but it looks like it could need stitches. It’s a little bit deeper than your usual cut. So, that’s probably an urgent care.
Fine, they could just stitch it up and there’s no reason to bother in the Emergency Room physicians for that.
JOHNER RIEHL: Right
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: You know Emergency Room like I said is: “Something that even if your paediatricians’ office was open, it just seems serious enough that even if you went to your paediatrician, you just going to send you to the Emergency Room.” So, that’s when you should go to the Emergency Room.
JOHNER RIEHL: Zyler just split the back of his head open a little bit about a week ago. We’re in urgent care. I knew and didn’t cross my mind; we go to the Emergency Room because he was fine. He had two staples and it didn’t even cross my mind to go to the Emergency Room but also, I wouldn’t just gone to the doctor with like we needed to get it – because it wasn’t actively bleeding. He was totally in good, fine.
I could tell that he hadn’t been concussed and so, we made the assessment to go to urgent care. Let’s take a quick break. I want to take a little more about parents’ advocates, the questions that they can ask and what the parents’ role is once they get to the Emergency Room. So, we’ll be right back.
[Theme Music]
JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everybody. Today we’re talking about: “Taking your child to the Emergency Room” with Dr. Ahmad Bailony. So, parents are really the advocates for the kids there especially like younger kids, they can’t talk or if they’re sick enough – they can’t really communicate.
Even though kids can be pretty good at expressing the pain, the doctors and the nurses do need to talk to them. So, what should parents know about putting into the Emergency Room or what questions should they be ready to ask or when should they fade into the background?
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, I think that there’s a couple of things to know: “Number one is what we’re talking about in the first segment where that doctor in the Emergency Room, may or may not be depending on what’s going on in the Emergency Room be taking care of something of very serious sometimes even life-threatening.”
JOHNER RIEHL: I wonder about that.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, you have to remember that those doctors are a little bit different. They’re not your paediatrician, okay? They’re not wearing a clown tie.
ERIN ESTEVES: Bed Side manner aside
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: I’m not going to say ill about any of them.
JOHNER RIEHL: Right. But, they’re dealing with a lot of different stuff.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: But, paediatricians are nicer. No, but in all seriousness – we’re all human. I think that’s one of the things as a doctor that I never got a chance to say because no one ever – nobody ever asks you – how are you feeling? That’s not part of the thing. Really, it doesn’t matter.
But, that doctor themselves is going through a lot of things in their own mind. They’re going through a lot of stresses, a lot of different scenarios that they’re replaying with other patients. Your child and so, it’s always good to ask them simple questions just to kind of see where they’re at and see what’s being done to your kids so you have a little piece of mind.
Those simple questions are like:
• What are you thinking?
• What do you think this possibly could be when it comes to your own child’s illness?
If they’re going to order a live test, make sure to ask what they’re ordering because a lot of the times – for example, when I see patients come out of the ER; they usually follow-up in my office in the couple of days; like well, did they do lab there? They’re like: “Yes, they took some blood.” What were to it? I don’t know – because [inaudible 00:21:21] there’s things come and get drawn and you don’t know what happened.
So, it’s good to ask like:
• What are the different possibilities?
• What tests are you ordering?
If you’re going to leave the ER so it winds up being something that you get sent home from; it’s good to ask:
• Well, is there anything I need to follow-up on?
• Is there anything pending?
• Is there any tests that are still going to come back and
• Is there anything my doctor should know?”
ERIN ESTEVES: Excellent. That wouldn’t have occurred to me.
JOHNER RIEHL: I think it’s really interesting just to try to have the respective of all the other stuff that they’re dealing with too. As a parent, you also kind of know if you’re in the Emergency Room, there’s something wrong. But then, also having the perspective of: “Does this needed immediate attention or if somebody just got in a car accident and has a tire”
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, it’s something like you expect to your doctor to kind of tell you these things, right? So, you don’t necessarily want to seem like: “You’re pushing their buttons.”
JOHNER RIEHL: Right.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: But at the same time, they’re in an Emergency Room – like I said; “They’re human.” As long as you ask them in a respectful way and like make sure that you’re just being an advocate for your child, nobody ever gets pissed if you’re asking too many questions. It’s just when you know.
KIM SCHULTZ: When you’re not considerate that they’re other people in the Emergency Room.
JOHNER RIEHL: So, then there’s a follow-up process too. After, like each Emergency Room visit, like it gets reviewed by other doctors too?
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: There is. There are a couple of things I go on. Number one: “Most Emergency Rooms or all Emergency Rooms track their own visits. They track what diagnosis they were. How those diagnosis were worked on.”
So, for example – if your kid has a cold, they track whether labs were drawn or whether the Emergency Room decision just diagnose it as a cold and sent you home. Then, also there is a follow-up. So, most of the time I’m sure you’ve seen if you take your kid to the Emergency Room, they’re going to tell you: “Go see your paediatrician in X number of days”
Usually, you go see your paediatrician and the paediatrician reviews with you
• What happen in the Emergency Room?
• How’s your kid doing now?
• What medications are they on?
• Do we need to do anything else?
That last part is really the most critical is: “Going to see your own doctor” because if your own doctor doesn’t know that your kid went to see the Emergency Room and has no perspective on this then that’s really a mismanagement amount of care.
The whole point of having a primary care doctor is that
ERIN ESTEVES: [inaudible]
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Know what’s going on.
JOHNER RIEHL: Yes, when we went to Whitaker broke his leg but they missed it in the Emergency Room. They basically sent Christina home. We had to split up because I would watch the other kids and they were actually in the wrong part of his leg.
So, they have done it a couple of times and got home then I’m like: “Something’s wrong.” So, the next day I actually went to urgent care and then as we were driving the urgent care, the followed out that the Emergency Room people followed up and like: “Hey were kind of looking and we think we saw something on his different part of the leg.”
I’m like: “Yes, pretty sure you guys missed it.” So, we head up there. So, as a parent: “You’ve got to follow your gut.”
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Medicine is really hard. I’m a big sports fan so I watch ESPN and I’m like: “I wish I had these people’s jobs because even if you predict who wins the Super Bowl and you’re not right, it doesn’t matter.” But at the end of the day, when you’re a physician or anybody in the health care field, it’s hard and mistakes do happen in there always.
We’re never going to have a perfect system. We’re all human. I think as a parent: “Yes, be an advocate for your child.” There is nothing wrong with that. You don’t want to be the annoying person that’s but it is.
If you feel something hasn’t been done right or if you feel something still not – there’s some lose ends that don’t feel quite right, go back to your paediatrician. Go back to the Emergency Room. You got to do what you have to do to keep your kids health.
JOHNER RIEHL: Is there a line that parents can cross though or is there everyone kind of understand that they’re a little bit crazy because their kids are going through something pretty nice?
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: We usually understand but there is obviously lying sometimes, people cross. It’s hard to really judge everyone. A doctor makes a mistake, a parent makes a mistake.
JOHNER RIEHL: What are some parents some mistakes parents going to make?
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: I mean it’s just not understanding the chaos that is in the Emergency Room. So, your child’s sick, you’re there and you want things done right away and you want to leave. That’s not how the Emergency Room works. So, there is a reason why sometimes you go and you wait in the Emergency Room for hours.
It’s not because they don’t care about you and they charge you for your time or anything. It’s just because there’s a lot going on in the Emergency Room.
KIM SCHULTZ: Well, and there’s other things that like – one of my kids who has Febrile Seizures; I had given him fever reducing medicine and I couldn’t remember if I had given him Ibuprofen or Acetaminophen that day. He had spiked a 104 something fever and they were trying to get it down.
One of the things that they tell you to do is: “Bring the bottles of any medication you’ve given to a kid.” If you’re going to go to the ER; bring it with you and I hadn’t done that. It was the moment of – one of them, you can get another does. One of them, you give the other medicine and which one had I given him and they needed to get his fever down quickly.
So, finally they did the math and said: “You know what? We can just give this one, it will be okay. It’s these many hours.” But taking all the medications that you’ve given the child or anything; if you’re going to go out the door to the ER – that’s something you can do that’s useful.
ERIN ESTEVES: So, that brings me to what I want to ask you is that: “What are some tips that you can give parents and that minute when dad is carrying the kid to the car and mom is grabbing things on her way out to the car, what do I grab? What do I take? What do I do? I’m panicking.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, that’s a really good question. I think obviously like you said: “If there’s medications that you’ve been on it’s always a good idea to take those medications the actual like bottles – because in the doctor world, we’re much more nerdy and so, even if you say the name of medication sometimes we want to know like what dose was it?
Because it comes in different concepts especially paediatric medications; paediatric medications are very different than adult medicine. Adult medicine usually like there’s a pill and it’s these milligrams and you take it. In the paediatric, there’s like different concentrations of one medicine. There’s like three different possibilities.
JOHNER RIEHL: Parents pour out different amounts.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: So, if you can obviously remember to take those, make this helpful. Otherwise though, if it's a situation where you’re honestly going to the Emergency Room and it is a true emergency, just go to the Emergency Room.
KIM SCHULTZ: No because you’re the doctor. Seriously, you’re going to have things to do from your perspective. From my perspective as a parent, you’re going to be there for six hours.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: That’s true.
KIM SCHULTZ: Take your phone charger.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Right.
KIM SCHULTZ: Take a book.
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: Take the extra iPad.
KIM SCHULTZ: Take an extra iPad, if you are in a situation where you have to take more than one child because you’re the parent and you’re at home and the other kid is there and you all got to go, make sure that kid has homework or a book or depending on the age – just something to do.
JOHNER RIEHL: You know, generally speaking we have an activity bag for our kids; if we’re going to a restaurant or whatever – it’s colouring books. You can throw the iPads in there. So, grab the activity bag.
ERIN ESTEVES: Right, a snack or something.
KIM SCHULTZ: A snack. I definitely take a snack with kids.
JOHNER RIEHL: But, I think with Dr Bailony...
DR. AHMAD BAILONY: I’m saying
JOHNER RIEHL: If it’s really a bad emergency with nice sticking out of the
KIM SCHULTZ: But, then you call on 911. If you have the minute
JOHNER RIEHL: Anyway, just for everybody listening – he pointed to the knife on the neck. Exactly, well thanks so much for joining us. For more information about: “Taking a child to the Emergency Room” for our listeners, you can go to www.ParentSavers.com and visit our episode page.
We’ll continue the conversation with Dr. Bailony after the show. We’re going to talk a little about: “The Emergency Rooms and insurance and how that’s maybe affected care recently or maybe it hasn’t affected,” I think it has affected it. So, for more information about that in the club and how to join; visit www.ParentSavers.com .
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DAVID VIENNA: Hi Parent Savers. This is The Daddy Complex. I’m David Vienna, father of twin boys and if my experience thought me anything about parenting, it’s that: “I know nothing about parenting.” Once your baby becomes a toddler, you will never be on time again ever. Not an exaggeration.
Your friends will simply assume that when you say: “You’ll be somewhere at 10 AM on a Monday, it means 11:30 AM and that’s if things going well.” If not, it’s not it means Thursday. You will also learn: “How to continue to work at speed that would make a top to a drugstore look like a radio flyer.” If you think you’re too organized for this to happen. Trust me, it applies to pretty much everyone because even militantly [inaudible 00:30:15-16] talk watchers will experience this often enough to either adapt or go insane.
My wife and I used to battle to get the boys to the morning routine:
• Wake up
• Go potty
• Dress for school
• Eat breakfast
• Get in the car and
• Depart.
As my mother in law says: “It’s not rocket surgery” the problem for us and other parents is – any member of this steps can and inevitably do take much longer than planned. For example, whether or not our son Boone decides to spend 15 minutes on the potty remains a wild card. Why do the seemingly steps take so long?
Take any combination of the following choices and for parents of twins or triplets, multiply it:
• Refusing to eat
• Wanting to be fed by one of us
• Wanted to be held by one of us rather than getting dressed
• Arguing why Go Diego Go though should be watched
• Running and/or screaming
• Unhappiness with choice of clothing even if said child picked it out
• Unhappiness with the choice of breakfast even if said child picked it out
• More of running and/or screaming
• Random and sometimes imagined injuries sustained while running and/or screaming
• Hunting for a specific toy that was absolutely swung across the room the previous night.
• Impromptu game of hide and seek.
• Conversation about whether or not giraffe stands
• Potty accidents
• Puking cause by unforeseen illness
• Trying to ride the dog like a shut land pony
• Simple lolly gagging
• Even more running and/or screaming and
• Adjusting the time level to start the process earlier doesn’t help; it just gives your child more time to mess around.
Toddlers of preschoolers simply have too much to do to adhere to your randomly chosen schedule. Just get even the car fixed 20 minutes unless of course, you’ve got a lot of 10 minutes for it in which case, it will take you work on 20 minutes to a fourth night. This may sound absolutely infuriating but my wife and I agreed upon a fantastically simple solution. We’ve made peace with being light.
We go to bed each night knowing the next morning we’ll feature a sparkling instructions and request of the boys over-and-over followed by a mad dash to work – and because of that adjustment, we sleep better and enjoy our mornings more. Sometimes we even prolong that conversation about dancing giraffes.
Check out more of my terrible advice at the www.DaddyComplex.com , The Huffington Post on Twitter at The Daddy Complex. You can also view episodes of Fighting with Babies, my puppet web series for parents at www.TheDaddyComplex.com/FWB and be sure to keep listening to Parent Savers for more fatherly tips.
JOHNER RIEHL: That wraps up today’s show. Thank you so much for listening to Parent Savers.
Don’t forget to check out our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed and
• Twin Talks for parents of multiple kids.
Next week, we’ll be talking about another great topic of interest to parents everywhere because this is Parent Savers and we are empowering new parents.
[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.
SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our line up of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com .
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