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When you think about a bite that could prompt you to seek urgent care for your child, you likely imagine a scenario in which a dog or cat bites them. These issues can be a concern, but there's also a chance that another child could bite your child and cause an injury. Bites of this nature might be rare, especially to the point that they require medical care, but they can certainly occur. In a daycare environment, for example, a child with behavioral issues can sometimes bite other children when upset. Ideally, your child's bite wound won't require care from a medical professional, but you should take the child to an urgent care center in these cases.

Constant Bleeding

If your child's bite wound is bleeding, you can typically get the bleeding under control in just a short amount of time. However, there can be situations in which you have trouble stopping the bleeding. The wound might constantly bleed, or you might feel as though you've quelled the blood — only for it to resume bleeding. Excess bleeding is not only distressing to the child but can cause the child to lose too much blood. If you're having trouble getting the child's bite wound to stop bleeding, seek urgent care.

Concerns About Stitches

Most bite wounds won't require stitches, but if the child who bit your child did so very aggressively, the wound might leave a serious scar behind. This could especially be a concern in certain areas of the body, such as the face. If you've looked at your child's bite wound and are concerned that it might need stitches, you don't want to shrug off this concern. It's better to visit an urgent care center and have the doctor tell you that stitches aren't actually required than fail to seek care and have the wound leave a bad scar.

Signs Of Infection

While the two above issues might compel you to seek urgent care for your child soon after the biting incident occurs, other scenarios could cause you to get medical help a day or more after the injury. For example, if you wake up the following morning and check on your child's bite wound, you might notice that it's showing signs of infection — swelling, heat, and perhaps even the presence of pus. This is another good reason to visit a local urgent care clinic, as infected wounds can often be serious.

Contact a pediatric urgent care center for more information.