Taking the child to the doctor – important mistakes parents should avoid

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Whether it’s an emergency, a slight fever or a routine check-up – visiting a pediatric practice is an enormous burden for parents. And yet it is needed more often than one would like. In order for the visit to go as smoothly as possible, the following points should be observed.

When the children are not doing well, the parents are in crisis mode. They often take the sick child to the emergency room. The resources are often lacking there. The first experts, including the President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians, Thomas Fischbach, are therefore calling for parents to contribute their own money in certain cases.

Parents should therefore always weigh up whether it is really an emergency or whether it is not enough to visit the pediatrician or family doctor.

Parents should keep six important points in mind.

1. Push forward

Seeing your own child sick is bad for all mothers and fathers. And all parents want their child to be helped as quickly as possible. Pushing forward is therefore an absolute no-go. In addition, the tests are hardly successful anyway, because the patient sequence is determined by the practice employees. These are professionals.

If they have the feeling that other children need to be treated more urgently, then that will be right. But if you suspect that your child has been forgotten, you can of course ask in a friendly manner.

2. If you have a fever or at the doctor’s: Sentences like “You don’t need to be afraid”

A visit to the pediatrician can trigger anxiety in both children and parents.

The same applies if the child has a high fever or feels unwell.

It is important that you try not to transfer these to the little ones. This includes, for example, avoiding supposedly reassuring phrases like: “Nothing bad will happen” or: “You don’t need to be afraid”.

Such statements often give the children the idea that something bad or frightening might await them.

3. Let children play in the waiting room

Especially if there is a suspicion that the child has a contagious virus, it is right to keep it away from the other children. In concrete terms, this means that a sick child does not belong in the play corner in the waiting room.

4. Distract kids with loud tablet or cell phone

The child is not allowed in the play corner, so it is exceptionally distracted with video clips and games on the smartphone. Actually a good plan – after all, hardly anything distracts children as reliably as a smartphone or tablet.

But for other parents, this is one thing above all: annoying. On the one hand because of the volume and – depending on the game – the constant beeping and ringing, on the other hand because it arouses the curiosity of the other children.

They would prefer to watch, but this increases the risk of infection.

5. Being late

It seems completely logical that you should be on time for your doctor’s appointment. However, as there are often waiting times due to emergencies, there are parents who deliberately show up late in the practice in order to avoid precisely these assumed waiting times. But it is often they who mess up the whole schedule.

6. Leave leftover food and drinking bottles in the waiting room

For reasons of hygiene, you should not eat or drink, not only in the treatment room but also in the waiting room.