UPSETTING REAL LIFE
Aliyah Carter, 21, from Neath, Wales, took her little girl to get help, but faced rounds of interrogation...
Scooping my baby girl up into my arms, she was feeling a little worse for wear.
‘There, there,’ I soothed. ‘Mummy’s here.’
Poor Lilah, then six months, seemed to have a horrible sickness bug in July last year.
Holding my baby close, she wouldn’t settle unless she was in my arms. Only, every time Lilah shut her eyes to doze off, she’d start vomiting again.
I felt distraught – it was horrendous seeing my baby girl suffer.
Lilah couldn’t keep any fluid down and in the early hours of 18 July, I decided to call 111.
Even if it was just a tummy bug, it was better to be safe than sorry.
111 asked me to bring Lilah 24 to A&E and so I called my grandma, Shirley, and asked her to come and pick me up.
‘It’s probably a little bug or an intolerance to her milk,’ Grandma reassured me.
Arriving at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, we were sent straight to children’s A&E.
Thankfully, she stopped being sick but we were moved to a different ward so she could get checked by a consultant.
Leaving Grandma in the waiting room, I took Lilah to see the doctor.
‘So, where’s this bruise the nurse told me about then?’ was the first thing he said.
Lilah had a small bruise on her shin – it was the size of a Calpol lid.
I’d noticed her little bruise over the weekend, but with Lilah an active baby, I hadn’t thought anything of it.
‘How did she get it?’ he pressed.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said, flustered. ‘She’s been trying to crawl.’
I also explained that we’d had a few sleepless nights where Lilah was teething, and how she kept sticking her legs through the side of her crib.
But did this consultant think I was hurting Lilah?
The thought made me feel sick and I burst into tears.
I didn’t even know what to say to defend myself.
‘Do you want to bring your grandmother in?’ the consultant then asked me.
It was a relief having her by my side, but I felt like the consultant only addressed her and ignored me.
‘But what about her sickness?’ I asked him.
‘It doesn’t look like an illness, but it could have been caused by anything,’ he said.
I felt horrible – all I wanted was to go home. I couldn’t understand why the doctor thought I was hurting her.
And sat there, unsure of where the bruise had come from, I felt like a terrible mum.
The doctor also pointed out a freckle and a patch of dry skin, demanding to know where they had come from.
‘She’s always
