3 Local Mommy Doctors Create Special First-Aid Kits For Young Children

EAST LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Parents often take their children to the emergency room when it is not necessary or when it is too late, according to three local doctors who work in the ER.

According to Three Mommy Doctors or 3MD, these are among the most common questions parents ask in the emergency room:

• When does my child need stitches?
• When does my child need to go to the hospital?
• If my baby has a fever in the middle of the night, is that dangerous?

"We're seeing a lot of the same things in the ER, and what we found is that we were doing a lot more educating than treating," Dr. Veronica Vasquez said.

"When your kid is bleeding, you don't want to run to google and go online and figure out if this needs stitches," Dr. Mizuho Spangler said.

That is why the three physicians, who are also moms, launched two special first-aid kits designed especially for young children.

One is called babySTAT for newborns, the other kidSTAT for toddlers. Each kit is filled with hospital-grade material, specific instructions, information about pediatric injuries, ER visits and red flags.

"If you don't meet any of those red flags, then you can keep going and open up all the gauze and materials that you need," Spangler said.

"I can't tell you how many times we have parents say: 'Gosh if I had known that, I would have saved myself a trip," Vasquez said.

The doctors said they picked everything inside the kits based on what they use on their own kids or on their patients.

"The ones that are on the typical pharmacy shelf are full of things that we find not that useful. We don't actually use them in the emergency room when we take care of your kid after they have a fall or an ankle sprain," Spangler added.