Many of us have faced that fraught, nerve-wracking decision where we have to choose whether or not to take your sick child to the GP, to the hospital’s emergency department or to call for an ambulance. It can be a daunting situation and one that we all hope doesn’t happen very often, but when faced with this decision it is important to be armed with the knowledge and skills to know how to respond appropriately.
Every day children of all ages get sick with a cough, bronchiolitis, diarrhoea, vomiting and a range of other common illnesses, and most don’t go near a hospital or a doctor. That’s usually the right approach. But when these infections change from an illness that every child experiences to one which might kill them, it’s time to act fast.
To help parents and those looking after children to make these decisions my colleagues and I have written a book to inform parents and carers how to recognise sick kids. In this book we developed a traffic light scheme to help determine when a child’s illness is becoming dangerous, drawn from the triage schemes used by emergency nurses. Triage means “to sort” and is when nurses decide how urgently a child must be seen by a doctor.
The most important, red light signs are those that are very serious and potentially life-threatening. For example, not breathing very much at all or not breathing properly; unconsciousness; unable to swallow and so on. These are signs that you should immediately call an ambulance.
The amber light signs are if the child can swallow and drink but they are very tired, looking unwell and are getting more drowsy. In that case you should take the child straight to the emergency department but you can often sit in the waiting room once they have been seen by the triage nurse.
