The Emergency Room

1. There is no worse place to be in the middle of the cold season than in the waiting room at the emergency room.

Right now in the waiting room in my ER there are probably kids that have Influenza (both the A type and B type), RSV bronchiolitis, a stomach virus, Rotavirus (the winter-time virus that causes diarrhea), and countless other CONTAGIOUS illnesses that generally do not require any medical intervention. You can bet if you take your child to the ER with any one of these illnesses they are likely to walk out with AT LEAST one more illness than they came in with.

2. All doctors feel compelled "TO DO SOMETHING." It is very likely that when you end up in the busy emergency room your doctor will order a whole array of tests that are NOT necessary. Some are no big deal, but some are. X-rays are commonly ordered and uncommonly indicated. Every X-ray contributes to your cumulative radiation exposure. There is no safe amount of radiation and any unnecessary X-ray should be avoided. CT scans are even worse. One CT scan is about 250 X-rays. If you insist on checking your child for brain cancer (which is exceedingly rare) because he has a headache it will probably be negative. However, depending on your child's age, you will increase their lifetime risk of brain cancer to somewhere between 1:1000 to 1:5000 because of the radiation exposure. Click here to read more about the effects of CT scans.

3. Your child will probably be subjected to many unnecessary and also painful (not to mention expensive) lab tests. Most ER doctors feel the compulsion to rule out things that children clearly do not have after taking a complete history and physical exam. A proper history and physical exam takes precious time and it is much easier just to have the nurse move in with her needles and IVs so that doctor can move on to the next patient. Avoid the ER and you can avoid needlessly traumatizing your child.

4. Doctors feel compelled to give parents something. The vast majority of the time all kids really need is rest, fluids, and a few days to let the body heal itself. Antibiotics are associated with all sorts of side-effects and many cold and cough medicines have now been taken off the market because they have been shown to have no benefit in kids. They have also been shown to cause catastrophic side-effects, like stroke, in rare cases. Again, best to avoid the ER unless there is a very good reason to go, and one that you cannot deal with at home.

5. Of course, this does not mean you should let your child sit at home all weekend if you think they have meningitis, or appendicitis, or something that needs urgent or emergent evaluation. However, I urge you to exercise some caution regarding trips to the ER. Let rational parenting be the rule of the day and do your best to avoid succumbing to parental anxiety, which for all the reasons above may be harmful to your child.

It is important for everyone to understand that the purpose of this website is educational - to provide information. It is not a replacement for your doctor and I am not entering into a doctor-patient relationship with any of the readers of these pages or their children. It is my goal that by providing you with easy to understand information based on the latest research you will be empowered to work with your doctor to raise...healthy kids!