For treating the common cold or a flu, then typically the best place to take your child is an urgent care clinic and not the emergency room. Flu-like symptoms and the cold are non-life-threatening in children – unless they are a newborn, in which case you should immediately take your newborn to an emergency room – and are easily treatable by an urgent care clinic. If you visit the emergency room, you will often experience lengthy wait times that may be frustrating in a situation where emotions may be running high. Conversely, urgent care clinics are able to provide faster wait times; your child will be seen, diagnosed, and receive treatment much quicker than they would at an emergency room.