Emergency room for 7 month old

why dont they tell over the counter medicine to make her sleep peacefully through the night.

Surekha, That wud be bad advice on the onset. First of all your baby is only 7 months old and you must have told the nurse the baby's symptoms.Without looking at the baby or patient, I feel any advice is not safe and shud not be given or taken.Becoz unless seen how can the symptoms be detected to the ailment.

Here probably the doctors or nurses are scared becoz they can get sued for any lapse in treatment.But apart from that , I do feel its good practice. I know the wait can be big pain not to mention the bill.But apart from that here the practice is good.On second thought I havent known any doctors or nurses giving advice just on the fone even in India.Hope your baby is feeling better.Good Luck.

 

Surekha,

Choclate is right. Unless they see the patient, one shouldnt just treat them. That is unethical. This a'int a common cold, Surekha. Moroever, your baby is just 7months old, which means, they cannot ' say ' what is troubling them. The baby could be crying for many unknown reasons.. How can they give you over the counter medicines for that ? This is how it is when you go to any doctor in any part of the world. Regardless of wether they are Indian or not. Doctors are doctors.

Emergency room or there could be a walk in clinic too. Since you called after office hours. In India, we have something called Casualty if you go in the middle of the night. Here, they call it emergency.

The charges for emergency is higher as compared to the otherwise even if the tests / treatment would be the same. Maybe, you should check why your baby was crying continously. If she is ok now.. then good. But, just chek the weight and make sure it is not lost. Sometimes babies cry even if they have a superficial hurt which goes unnoticed by us, like a small cut or bruise.. I have faced this with my LO.. He cries quite a lot and I have no clue.. I just cuddle him in turns with my hubby and just distract him. But, the next day while giving him a shower, I would notice a cut, could've been either from my magalsutra, he all the time wants to play with. We dont know. So, just do your best to console and check the weight at home.. But, if the baby is just crying no matter what, just visit the emergency, that is what I would do, no thinking twice.

 

First off all, did you check if your baby has fever? Was she coughing and breathing heavily? Was this incident around vaccinations?
I'm no pro here... but here's what I do:
If above possiblities are ruled out, I personally would try to soothe rock hold first to calm the crying baby before offering meds (albeit otc). On some days my baby just wants to eat and drink less.. He's fine the next day... My ped wouldn't even offer meds for a week of loose stools...

 

I am not a doctor but when I was pregnant, I read a lot of books on infant care which clearly explained when I should call the doctor if the baby was crying - depending on how long baby was crying, body temp, activity level, urine and bowel movement etc. Also, they had recommended that we interview several pediatricians while we were pregnant so we could pick one that we liked, who also serviced the hospital where I would deliver.

We interviewed several and found a pediatrician practice less than 5 minutes from home, where the office hours are very convenient and they have a wonderful after hour policy. The policy is this : From after the office closes till about 9 pm and also for non emergency questions, I call and leave a voicemail. One of the two doctors in the practice will call within 1 hour. If it is an emergency or if it is after 9pm (obviously it must be emergency at that point otherwise why would I call that late?) then I page the doctor who will return the call within 20 minutes. I can't tell you the number of times I have done both over the past 20 months since DS was born.

The doctors know what new parents go through and esp our peds each have about 30 years of experience dealing with frantic calls from new and old parents. Both the doctors are kind and patient and listen to our whole story every time. They do not interupt us, they ask questions and then give us thier medical opinion. More often than not, the docs have given suggestions for temp relief and then asked us to come see them the next day. If the next day was sunday then they would either ask us to wait until monday or go to ER depending on worsening syptoms. The docs are always specific on when to not even call them and go straight to ER and when to wait it out. This makes DH and I more calm and capable of handling things. Because, we know what to do.

When I call during weekday, the nurse will always have us come in for visit. As Dr. preeti and chocolate said, they canot take any chance and will want to see the baby. If I have already gone 3times in a week, and my question is not urgent then they may be okay passing on a message to the doc or back. I agree that the Doctors and nurses should not take any chances. You don't want them to.

I don't know why you can't ask all your questions when you go in for a visit. I usually make a list of all the questions so I don't forget and ask them all. No nurse or doc (pediatrician or otherwise) has ever refused to answer or been imaptient with me or asking. Asking all quesitons and getting them answered takes no more than 5-10 minutes and I think it is worth every minute. We love our ped who spends more than 45 minutes for every appointment with us, going over everything from the mundane to the acute. He does this whether it is a sick visit or a well visit. We knew he would be like this when we interviewed him and that is why we picked him in the first place.

So... Goodluck, I hope you find a ped to your liking and your LO feels better.

 

Surekha, I dont have kids yet. But I have lived here for quite some time so I know waiting time for ER can be quite long. I would look into good referral private paedatricians practice if I were you and hate wait times.

One more suggestion wud be to set aside a little amount every month say around 50 $ or more /month for your baby . The baby is small and you might need to visit doctor from fever to teeth coming out and any upsets quite a few times for a yr or so. In that way by setting aside money you wont feel the pinch when you do visit the doctor.

Me and my husband do the same for anything we need to buy over 200$. We set aside 50 $ or less and in about 4 times when we are ready we go ahead and purchase the desired thing. That works for us and we dont dip into Savings for anything.

Doctor visits can also be worked into a similar budget.Try it.You wont feel the pinch even a bit.Good Luck.

 

Surekha,

My LO is fine. Thanks. His Ped also, like DNM wrote, has emergency helplines wherein a doctor would call back in the wee hours ( just like I had for my Gynec ) They also have weekend appointments. If the Ped calling back, feels I need to visit the emergency, then they would suggest us right away to the hospital which is affiliated to their clinic. That is the procedure for us. These were very important things I made sure was available at my son's doctor's clinic. Had nothing much to do while I was pregnant, so this was something I carefully looked at.

I agree, it a'int wise to run to emergency at the drop of a hat.. just try various ways to soothe the baby.. If they go about not drinking milk for more than half a day and appears too cranky then, do not wait till it is late in the night.. call the doctor. My son gets weird at times too, but as I said it always settles down once I try different ways to soothe him.

Play songs, talk to her and just clown around, usually they just find us funny and stop crying. :crazy Atleast my son does, when I just start singing ABCD or Itsy Bitsy Spider rhyme ! :bonkAs they grow taller and especially after the 6th month, their weight gain is a lott slower is what his Ped told us. She asked us to just go with what we are feeding him and introduce variety in it and not bother about how chubby or not-chubby he looked.

DOnt worry , as a new mom it is very normal for you to panic.. But, make sure you dont get too vexed up, because that will get noticed by your daughter !

 

I don't know how long your LO was crying, was she simply inconsolable, did you try everything to soothe, was she ok other than the reduced/no intake etc.

Generally during after-hours calls, these are the kinds of info the nurses try to glean out of you. Keep in mind that doctors always would prefer to err on the side of caution, especially for young infants. Similar to the previous posters, my ped office also has a nurse hotline during regular hours where you can ask all sorts of questions. After hours calls are answered by an answering service and a nurse/doctor will return the call.

Like you I had to go to the ER with my older son when he was 4 months or so, when he was crying non-stop for a long time, which was very unlike him. He also seemed to be in pain (at least to us). We called the doctors office, they asked all the regular questions, and when things did not improve we called them again and they asked us to go to the ER. Long night for us, but everything was ok. They are generally extra careful with infants especially under 6 months.

How much it would cost would really depend on your insurance plan. Insurance plans are not the most fun material to read, but I would recommend everyone (not just parents) to get familiar with what services your plan covers, copayment/co-insurance/deductible details etc. Also if your husband's benefits plan offers it, signing up for a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or an HCSA will be helpful.