Emergency medical situations and preparation

Visiting practitioners

There can be a lot of anxiety surrounding a visit to the doctor, dentist or other health professional. For most generally healthy children, the only times they may see a doctor in the early years is for immunisation. Eventually they may need to go for something else – a cold, sport injury or even just to accompany you. And they’ll be terrified, jumping to only one conclusion and demanding to know “Am I going to get a needle?”.

Despite your reassurances, they doubt your sincerity as you’ve already tested their trust when “you ripped that Band-Aid off really fast when you said you wouldn’t!”.

It might sound like a cliché, but communicate honestly (to your best knowledge) about what is going to happen during the visit. Discuss the importance of health and a practitioner’s role in your child’s well being. If this is in fact a “needle” visit, be up front about it, tell them how quick it really is and it only hurts for a few seconds. If your child’s anxieties border on the hysterical, discuss skin anaesthetic solutions with your pharmacist.

Allow your child to take a comfort toy, have a reward such as a sticker or trip to the park afterwards.

Early Childhood Health Services

Early Childhood Health Services provides services for families with children from 0 to 5yrs.

Information & services may vary between Health Centres but generally include:

• Baby growth and development
• Crying & sleeping patterns and concerns
• Diet, feeding & nutrition
• Height and weight measurements
• Home visits for first appointments
• Immunisation information
• Individual consultations
• Mothers & parenting groups
• Parenthood information
• Referrals available to specialist services
• Social workers

The services are free, but in many cases appointments are required.

Please call your closest service to make an appointment or find out the drop in times.

Over time, we will be adding articles, lists and other resources here from various services to enable people to be as prepared as possible for their needs. Please subscribe to our e-News below to stay up to date.