How to Keep Kids Entertained at Your Urgent Care Visit

Seeing a doctor at urgent care in Orange County sometimes requires bringing along the kids. When they are not the ones to be seen, keeping them occupied while you fill out paperwork and wait to be seen can be challenging. You do not want them being loud and distracting, or running around bothering other people who may be sick. In addition, once you do get called back to see the doctor, keeping them cramped in a small examination room while waiting for the nurse and doctor might seem like a punishment.
However, there are a few different things you can do to keep your children entertained and distracted during your visit to a walk-in clinic in Costa Mesa. The following tips will make your appointment flow more smoothly, even if you have to wait for longer than anticipated.

1. Pack a backpack. Before leaving home, pack a backpack with some small toys, coloring books, crayons, snacks, and a few bottles of water.
2. Bring along a tablet or portable DVD player with headphones. A tablet with your child’s favorite games and movies on it can help keep them entertained. A portable DVD player also works well.
3. Play sitting games. Some kids have short attention spans, so even with plenty of activities in their backpack, or games and movies on their tablet, they can act bored. Play guessing games, like I Spy or 20 Questions, with them during these periods.
4. Talk about objects in the room. Ask your child if they know what particular objects are in the room and what they are used for, like some of the monitors and equipment found in examination rooms.
5. Ask for assistance from the staff. Sometimes the nurse can take your child to get a drink of water or use the bathroom while you are getting a shot or examined, and you do not want your child in the room.
6. Find pictures in magazines. Have you kids search for a particular picture in magazines to keep them busy, such as telling them to find a picture of a beach or an airplane.
7. Play a memory game with items in your purse or wallet. Pull the items out of your purse or wallet and show them to your kids for about a minute. Now ask them to tell you what items you showed them.
8. Let them play doctor. Ask the nurse if it is okay to give them a tongue depressor, and let your child take your pulse and look in your mouth while the nurse is getting your vitals.

Keeping kids entertained while at an urgent care clinic is not difficult with a little planning. Not only will your appointment go much easier, but the other people in the waiting room will appreciate your kids behaving and not being a major distraction. When you need to see a doctor right away, stop by Xpress Urgent Care in Costa Mesa, or call 949-548-8400 for hours and directions.