Your kids are going to get sick occasionally. Nurse Mark returns to The Lab to quiz Daddy Brad and Daddy Clay on some common parenting medical scenarios. When do you go to the hospital emergency room and when do you stay home? Topics include a laceration or cut, fever, vomiting. This video is full of useful information and advice for parents (and for our own DadLabs dads). DadLabs ep. 42 The Lab.

Nurse Mark: Hi, I’m Nurse Mark and I’m here with Daddy Brad and Daddy Clay and we’re here to play a game called “Should I Stay? Or Should I Go?” Now, these gentlemen are real dads and real dads are faced with situations where junior is sick or has a cut and do we take care of this at home or do we go to the hospital? So I’m going to give these gentlemen real life questions and they’re going to tell me whether or not they’re going to the hospital or if they’re staying home. Gentlemen, are we ready to play?

Daddy Clay: Ready. We’ve got our three colored bottles here. Red: staying at home. Yellow: watching very carefully. And Green: we’re going. We’re going to the hospital. So I think we’re ready, let’s rock and roll.

Daddy Brad: Ready to go.

Nurse mark: Daddy Brad and Daddy Clay, you guys are in the park and all of a sudden you hear junior scream from the sandbox. You run over and you see that junior has a laceration on his arm, it’s about three quarters of an inch long, and it’s bleeding just a little bit. Do you stay or do you go?

Daddy Clay: Hmm. Three quarters…this sounds like a small, minor injury. Not bleeding that much. Three quarters of an inch? That’s a stay for me. That’s a no-brainer. Shake it off kid. We’ll throw a Band-Aid on that.

Daddy Brad: Yeah, yeah, I’m with you. Less than an inch, not much blood. I don’t want to go to the emergency room. God, it takes hours.

Nurse Mark: You guys are absolutely wrong. The American Academy of Pediatrics tells us that if the cut is a half-inch long or longer, if it’s deep, or if it’s bleeding heavily, you got to go to the hospital. Sorry guys.

Daddy Clay: You know, they call that a lac on ER. “You got a lac.” Well, it’s good to know, because I would have thought that you rub some dirt in that, you’re fine. But now it’s good to know.

Nurse Mark: Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad, it’s two ‘o’ clock in the morning, your child seems a little bit fussy, you go and take the temperature, and your one-year-old has a temperature of 101 degrees. Do you stay or do you go?

Daddy Clay: A hundred and one? A little bit fussy. That doesn’t seem terribly…I don’t know, I got to keep a good eye on that but I’m just going to watch that for a little while, maybe give him some Motrin or something.

Daddy Brad: Yeah, I’m going to stay. 2 AM? 101? Give a little Motrin. You know, just kind of go back to bed.

Nurse Mark: Well actually guys you’re both right, but I’m a little confused. Daddy Brad, it’s 2 ‘o’ clock in the morning, you’re not going to watch your kid, you’re going to go back to bed? Do you understand the rules of the game?

Daddy Brad: I think I’ll change my answer. I’ll watch the child.

Daddy Clay: Nothing like sticking by your guns there big guy.

Daddy Brad: Yellow. That means maybe. Watch. Make a decision later.

Daddy Clay: Okay, I’m going to keep a close eye. So when does this situation go from yellow, keeping a close eye, when do you go green, when do you head for the hospital with the kid that has the fever?

Nurse Mark: Well Daddy Clay, that’s an excellent question. So Daddy Brad you’re actually going to retake that temperature every four hours. And if the temperature is over 103, you have to come to the hospital. The other things that we look for are dehydration, so if your child has signs and symptoms of dehydration, if they are delirious at all, if they have any seizures, those are medical emergencies and you have to go to the hospital then.

Daddy Clay: You know, sometimes even if it it’s not a green, a go to the hospital kind of situation, sometimes I like to leave the house. Because the middle of the night, the sick, it’s kind of a bad scene.

Daddy Brad: It’s a bad scene but have you seen the nuts at the emergency room at 2 AM?

Daddy Clay: That’s true. All right, feverish kid, 101-103 degrees, we’ve gone yellow.

Nurse Mark: Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad it’s a Saturday afternoon, it’s four o clock, and your eight-year-old has just returned from a birthday party. They get home, they say they’re not feeling very well and they begin to vomit and they puke about three or four times. Do you stay or do you go?

Daddy Clay: I know this one because it’s happened to me. And the kid came home and he threw up blue icing everywhere. Blue icing, I mean, you could see the skittles in the vomit. I’m not going anywhere on that, I’m staying right at home, let him sort that out.

Daddy Brad: Yeah, I think that’s bad cake, man. And especially at four on a Saturday afternoon. Football games? I’m staying home.

Nurse Mark: Daddy Brad and Daddy Clay, you guys are right. So when do we go with vomiting? Well, of course the answer is if the child is vomiting you make sure they don’t eat or drink anything at all for the next two hours. And if the vomiting subsides after that, you’re okay. If not, they’ve withheld food and liquids for two hours and they continue to vomit, or if they’re feverish or show any signs or symptoms of dehydration, you got to bring them in.

Daddy Clay: That’s good to know, my rule on vomiting, up till now, now that I’ve heard Nurse Mark, but before that, as long as the kids are throwing up in the toilet, it’s not a emergency.
If the kid starts throwing up anywhere else, that’s a problem.

Daddy Brad: On the couch?

Daddy Clay: Yeah. If they can’t get up and make it…but now I know. Nurse Mark has helped us learn a lot of useful things today. Thanks a lot, Nurse Mark.

Nurse Mark: Hey dads, thanks for playing “Should We Stay or Should We Go,” looking at medical issues facing the dads of today. Please, if you have any questions about medical issues, contact your family doctor. Today’s medical information can be found on the American Academy of Pediatric website, which you can link to from www.dadlabs.com. We’ll see you next time.

Daddy Brad: If you have a fever and you were delusional and you were to drink all of these, what color would your pee be?

Daddy Clay: Is that beer?

Daddy Brad: Is that purple? It may be something else you don’t want.