Your Visit

Your child's story is often spread across a primary health centre, a maternity centre, a laboratory, a chemist and another hospital. Bring whatever you have, even if it seems small or out of date. The care team puts it together into one record.

Write Down the Story Before You Come

In a busy room with a crying child, it is easy to forget the order things happened. Write a few lines the night before, or keep notes on your phone. Include:

• When it started, and what changed since then.
• Temperatures you measured, with the time and how you took them.
• Eating, drinking and wees: less than usual, and since when.
• Sleep and activity: playing as normal, or quieter and harder to wake.
• Every medicine given, with the time, and whether it helped.
• What other clinicians said, and any tests that were done.
• The question you most want answered. Put it at the top.

Our symptom diary does this for you on your phone; print it or show it to the doctor. For a rash, a strange movement or a noisy breath that comes and goes, take a short video or photo. It often shows the doctor more than a description can.

HMO and NHIA

Many families are covered by a health maintenance organisation (HMO), by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) or through an employer. Every plan is different. The front desk tells you whether your plan covers the care your child needs.

1. Call before a planned visit. Ask the hospital, and your HMO, whether your plan covers the clinic or specialist you are booking.
2. Ask which parts need separate approval. Consultation, laboratory tests, scans, procedures, medicines and admission are often authorised one by one. Knowing early avoids surprises halfway through a visit.
3. Ask for a written estimate. For anything planned, such as a scan, an operation or a stay, ask the hospital for a written estimate of what your plan covers and what you may need to pay yourself.
4. Keep every code and receipt. Take a photo of authorisation codes, bills and receipts. Your HMO may ask for them later.

If you are paying yourself, ask the front desk how payment works for the visit and for any tests before they are done. Ask what anything will cost, and whether a test is needed today or can wait.

Getting Here

Limi Children's Hospital is at 39 Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Wuse 2, Abuja. Open the address in Google Maps for directions from where you are.

• Allow for Abuja traffic. Morning and evening rush hours can double a journey. Leave early for a booked appointment, and bring water and something for your child to do.
• Bring another adult for a very unwell child. One person drives; the other sits with the child and watches their breathing and colour.
• Call on the way with a very unwell child on 0813 408 5400 or 0809 059 9995, so the team knows you are coming.
• Babies and children travel in a car seat or booster whenever you have one, in the back. Never in the front seat of a car with an airbag.

On the Day

1. Registration. The front desk takes your child's details, your contact number and your HMO or payment details. A first visit takes longer, so arrive a few minutes early.
2. Triage. A nurse checks how unwell your child is: temperature, breathing, heart rate and weight. The most unwell children are seen first. If your child looks seriously unwell, tell the staff at once, whatever the queue.
3. Seeing the doctor. The doctor listens to the story, examines your child and explains what they find. This is the time for your written notes and your questions.
4. Tests. The hospital's 24-hour laboratory runs blood and urine tests; the imaging department does scans and X-rays. The doctor tells you whether your child needs tests, which ones, why, and how you get the results.
5. Pharmacy. If medicine is prescribed, ask the pharmacist what each one is for, how much to give, how often, for how long, and how to measure it with the syringe or spoon that comes with it.
6. What you leave with. A plan in plain words: what to give, what to watch for, when to come back, and which signs mean coming in sooner. If anything in the plan is unclear, ask before you go.

If there is a wait, ask how long it is likely to be and why. If your child gets worse while you are waiting, tell a nurse straight away. You do not need to wait your turn to say so.

If Your Child Is Admitted

Some children need to stay: for a drip, for oxygen, for close watching, or after an operation. The hospital gives inpatient care day and night. The team explains why your child needs to stay, what the treatment is, and what has to happen before your child goes home. Ask again at any time.

Staying with Your Child

Children do better with a familiar person close by. Ask the ward whether a parent or carer can stay, because it depends on the ward and on how unwell your child is. In the neonatal and intensive care units, ask the team how you can be with your baby or child, hold them where it is safe, and take part in their care. If your baby is in the NICU, ask about expressing breast milk for them.

What to Bring for a Stay

• Two or three changes of loose, comfortable clothes for your child, and nappies if they use them.
• A favourite blanket, toy or book. Something familiar helps a child settle and sleep.
• Your child's own cup or bottle if they are attached to it.
• For you: a change of clothes, toiletries, a phone charger, any medicines you take, and a wrapper or light blanket.
• All your child's medicines and the records on the list above.

For a planned operation, our surgery checklist covers fasting, what to pack and how to prepare your child.

Meals

Some children need special feeds, or must not eat before a test or operation. Before you bring food in for your child, check with the nurse. Ask the ward what food is available for your child and for the parent or carer who stays.

Visitors

Sick children tire easily and catch infections easily. Ask the ward for visiting times and how many visitors can come at once. Keep visits short and calm, and let your child rest.

Keeping Brothers and Sisters, and Everyone Else, Safe

• Wash your hands, or use the hand gel, every time you enter or leave the room, before feeds, and after nappy changes. Ask every visitor to do the same. Clean hands stop infections spreading on a children's ward.
• Anyone with a cough, cold, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting or a rash should stay at home, including brothers and sisters.
• Young brothers and sisters can be upset by a hospital visit and can pick up or bring in infections. Ask the ward before bringing them, and keep them with an adult the whole time.
• Do not give your child's medicines, or any other medicine, without telling the nurse. That way nothing is given twice.

Going Home

Before your child goes home, ask for a written summary and plan: medicines, warning signs, and when and where follow-up happens. If your child was referred by another doctor, the team sends a report back to them.

Talking to the Team

You know your child better than anyone. The team needs what you have noticed, and you are entitled to understand what is happening. Ask these at any visit:

• What do you think is the most likely cause? What else could it be?
• Which tests are needed, and what will they tell us? Can any wait?
• What is the plan, and what happens next?
• What should I do at home, and what should I avoid?
• Which warning signs mean I should come back straight away?
• When should my child start to get better, and what if they do not?
• How will I get the results, and who do I call if I have a question after we leave?
• Is there anything I should tell my child's school, crèche or other doctor?

If you do not understand a word, ask what it means. If you are not sure you remember the plan, ask the doctor or nurse to write it down, or say it back to them in your own words. Ask for a second explanation, or for another family member to join the conversation, whenever you need to.

Older children and teenagers are part of the conversation too. The team speaks to them directly, in words they understand. A teenager who wants time to talk on their own can ask for it.

Languages

Many families in Abuja speak two or three languages at home, among them Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Pidgin and English. When you book or arrive, tell us which language your family is most comfortable in, so the team knows before the conversation starts. You are welcome to bring a relative who can help explain.

For questions about speech and language, it matters which languages your child hears and uses. Growing up with more than one language does not cause speech delay. See our guide to speech and language.

Feedback, Concerns and Complaints

If something is not right, tell us while you are here, when there is still time to put it right. Tell the nurse in charge of the ward or clinic, or call the hospital on 0813 408 5400 or 0809 059 9995 and ask to raise a concern. We want to hear it.

• Say what happened, when, and what you would like to happen now.
• Raising a concern will not affect your child's care.
• Good news is useful too. Telling us what worked helps the team keep doing it.

Your Child's Information

You can ask us at any time how your child's information is used and shared. Read how the hospital handles your child's information.