Often, parents don’t know whether to take their sick or injured child to the emergency room or urgent care. The emergency room can be a long wait, but urgent care can’t treat emergency situations. We’re here to help you decide where to bring your child for the best and most efficient care!

Urgent Care can be a great place to go when we aren’t open and need to be seen soon. Before you go, make sure the urgent care you go to treats children to ensure proper care for your kid. You should take your child to urgent care if they:

• Have a fever accompanied by symptoms that might be the flu, and they are over 2 months old
• Has a minor cut that may need stitches
• Is tugging at their ear and might have an ear infection
• May have a sprain or minor bone fracture, but the bone is not coming out of the skin
• Has mild wheezing
• Is having a mild allergic reaction
• Mild skin rash
• Foreign objects in ears or nose
• Burning when they go pee
• Has a minor burn
• Had a seizure with a fever that stopped on its own
• Is vomiting or has diarrhea without blood in stool but no belly pain or signs of dehydration
• Has a headache or migraine without numbness, tingling, or weakness

Emergency rooms are for true emergencies. We are associated with Providence Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, so we highly recommend you take your child to their emergency room for high-quality care. You should take your child to the ER if your child:

• Is younger than two months with a fever of 100.4 Fahrenheit or higher
• Has possibly swallowed a button battery
• Has a suspected fracture with visible swelling or unevenness and bumps in the injured area
• Has ingested a poisonous substance or taken too much medicine
• Has a severe burn on large parts of the body or on the face, extremities, or genitalia
• Has hit their head AND lost consciousness
• Has sudden neurological concerns such as a change in mental status, high fever with a headache and stiff neck, or sudden changes in the ability to speak, see, walk, or move
• Has changes in alertness or trouble waking
• Has bluish lips or face
• Shows signs of dehydration, such as very dry lips and mouth, absence of urination for more than 12 hours, lethargy, confusion, and a fast heartbeat.
• Has trouble breathing - heavy, fast breathing, gasping for air, or manages to utter only two or three words before taking a breath
• Has persistent chest pain or pressure
• Has gaping cuts, especially on the face
• Has a skin rash that is oozing
• Has a complex chronic illness
• Has a psychiatric issue, including suicidal thoughts
• Facial or dental injuries

If you are unsure whether to go to the ER or Urgent Care, we recommend heading to the ER, where they will take good care of your child and assess for further treatment. Contact us for further questions or concerns!

--Blog post written by Maggie Rietze, Centennial Pediatrics of Spokane Summer Intern Extraordinaire