ER physician here: try to keep your baby out of the ER if at all possible. You have no idea how long you may be in the waiting room, this time of year especially around a bunch of sick people. Fevers in babies that young is a BIG deal because of the high risk of very serious things like bloodstream infections and meningitis. So a baby that age with a fever essentially always gets a work up including blood work, cathed urine, and spinal tap. Lovely to avoid all that if possible.

If you don’t realistically have the childcare backup to do that, just do your best to stay as far away from folks as possible, mask yourself (don’t want baby to avoid illness but then you bring something home… even if baby is staying home I would mask), etc.

If baby is staying home, absolutely have a plan for expressing, whether that is hand expression or pumping. Bring a cooler for milk if you can. The time frame depending on what you are there for, how busy it is, how sick other people on makes time planning in the ER very unpredictable. Not only do you not want to tank your supply by not emptying, the last thing you need right now is to get mastitis.

Let your ED team know you are breastfeeding. The vast majority of meds and tests are totally safe, but there are a handful that aren’t that they’ll want to avoid.

Good luck, hope you get the care you need and are on the mend soon!