When to call us?
Breathing:
Call if you feel your child is not getting enough air to his lungs. Count the number of breaths your child takes per minute, listen for wheezing, look for nasal flaring or skin tugging through the ribs with inhalation.
Circulation:
Call if you feel your child is dehydrated. How many times has your child urinated in the last 8-24 hours? Does she have tears when she is crying? Remember that excessive diarrhea can lead to dehydration, just as excessive vomiting can.
Mood:
Call if your child is not acting in a usual manner. Look for alertness and playfulness. Call if there is a loss of consciousness, extreme sleepiness, unexplained lethargy, severe headache or head injury with symptoms of any sort (loss of consciousness, vomiting, poor skin color and any other symptoms.)
Fever:
Call if your child is 0-3 months old with fever over 100.4 F, 4-36 months old with fever over 102 F, any age with fever over 106 F. Call if your child has a fever with a stiff neck, rash or sensitivity to light; fever with back pain; fever for over 72 hours without a known cause.
Symptoms:
Call if your child develops any unusual or severe symptoms, including seizures, staring spells, whole body chills, blue skin or lips, ear pain, discharge from ears, bloody diarrhea or diarrhea lasting more than 3 days, sharp or persistent pain in the abdomen or stomach.
Illness:
Call if your child seems very sick or cries inconsolably; has a cough or cold that persists for over a week; has a sore throat or trouble swallowing; has urine that is discolored, bloody, cloudy, or has an unusual smell; frequent urination or painful urination.
Parents Intuition:
Call if something just doesn’t seem right with your child.