Caring for Your Child’s Injury: Urgent Care or ER?
Learn how to tell if home care or medical care is needed
Learn how to tell if home care or medical care is needed
Every parent dreads the moment their bundle of joy gets hurt. It’s bound to happen sooner or later, but there’s a big difference between run-of-the-mill bumps, bruises and scrapes that can be treated with Band-Aids and booboo kisses and more serious injuries that require a visit to the doctor, an urgent care clinic or the emergency department.
“We see a lot of musculoskeletal injuries in children once they become mobile. That means things like ankle sprains or falls or tripping on things,” says Scarlett Chen, MD, a pediatrician at Scripps Clinic Rancho Bernardo.
“We also sometimes see head injuries, especially when kids are learning to roll or move around, since they tend to be a bit more uncoordinated. In older kids, injuries can be caused by getting hit by objects during sports or other activities.”
Home care vs. medical care
Dr. Chen says the number one indicator as to whether an injury can be treated at home or requires medical attention is pain.
Severe pain, worsening pain or pain that can’t be managed with over-the-counter medications, like ibuprofen, should be checked out by a doctor. So should any injury that comes with numbness, tingling or a weak pulse, or a head injury accompanied by vomiting, vision, hearing, speech or behavioral changes. In cases of sprains and strains, if your child can’t move or put weight on the affected area without pain, have it evaluated.
“If the child’s pain is mild and you’re able to manage it at home with over-the-counter medications, then give it a few days. If things are getting better, then we don’t necessarily need to see them. If things are getting worse or not improving, we would definitely like to see them,” she says.
Urgent care or emergency care?
So, should you wait for an appointment with your child’s pediatrician, find an urgent care clinic or head to the hospital? It’s important to know the difference between emergency and non-emergency care.
Open wounds or an obvious deformity warrant an immediate trip to the emergency room, says Dr. Chen. Also, if you’re worried about blood flow to an area or are unable to move a joint, also head to the emergency room.
For possible fractures where your child can still move and their pulse feels normal, urgent care or primary care are reasonable options for evaluation. Urgent care tends to have more immediate access to imaging, but some primary care physicians can also do imaging to evaluate for fractures or other abnormalities. Urgent care may also be the right destination for a minor wound that needs stitches.
If you’re still unsure, err on the side of caution and seek help, Dr. Chen says.
“It’s never the wrong answer to bring children in to be seen. Or if you’re not quite sure what you should do next, then it’s also never the wrong answer to call, and we can give guidance.”
This content appeared in San Diego Health, a publication in partnership between Scripps and San Diego Magazine that celebrates the healthy spirit of San Diego.