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Avoiding The Emergency Room

Children are always doing things to get hurt, so avoiding the emergency room can be a nearly impossible task. There are a few things, though, that may help to lower the number of trips to the emergency room:

•Watch carefully—
While it may be very difficult to always keep a close eye on children, and they have to be given some independence as they get older, it is important to always try to know what they are doing and where they are. If you can know in advance that they are about to attempt something dangerous, you can either stop them in advance or at least be there to hopefully prevent the damage from being worse than necessary.

• Take safety precautions—
Most parents would prefer to not allow their child anything that could possibly hurt them, but this isn’t really feasible most of the time. Children have to be able to try things that could result in injuries; it’s just part of being a child. But, what parents can do is make the known risks as safe as possible for their kids. For example, if you have a trampoline (which are responsible for the majority of trips to the emergency room by children), have a net around it that will prevent them from falling off. While they may still get hurt even with the net, at least the injury won’t involve them bouncing completely off. Other such things include making sure your child wears safety gear when riding bikes or roller skates, skateboards, etc.

•Know home remedies—
Knowing ways to deal with many illnesses and injuries at home can prevent some unnecessary trips to the emergency room. You can find home remedies for almost anything on the internet, and there are books available at most bookstores that contain many helpful household hints. One of the most common is having an Aloe Vera plant in your home. The gel from this plant can be placed on burns and bug bites to help them heal quicker and to help prevent infections that could later result in emergency room visits.

• Message Services—
Take advantage of your doctor’s after-hours message service. You can call the number, and they will page the doctor so that they can call you back. If you feel it is such an emergency that you may not be able to wait the time it could take for the doctor to call you back, you should not hesitate to take your child to the emergency room without even calling the doctor. If it doesn’t seem that serious, though, but you would like reassurance or to know if you should take your child before waiting for a doctor’s appointment, the doctor can assess the situation and let you know what to do.

• Check-ups—
Children are supposed to have a medical check-up once a year, even when they aren’t sick. This is so that the doctor can track their health and possibly catch any illnesses or diseases early. Taking your child to these appointments can prevent an illness from getting worse and resulting in emergency medical attention being necessary.

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