What's your criteria for "needs a visit to the doctor"?

I have a 16mo with a nasty cough. She got it on Saturday, we got it soon after. She sounds like a chain smoker, my throat hurts just from coughing, I'm sure hers does too. Pretty miserable, but no other symptoms besides a bit of a stuffy nose every once in a while. So a bad cold, I think.I called our pediatrician, and it went like this:P: Any other symptoms? Ear infection related, like tugging on her ears, fever, runny nose?Me: Nope, just a bad cough, probably a sore throat, stuffy nose not runny.P: Definitely come in, I want to check out the lungs and make sure nothing's wrong.Which, sure, OK, let's check it out and make sure nothing is worse than it could be. But our kiddo is in good spirits besides the gross cough, and assuming we all have the same thing, I certainly wouldn't take myself to the doctor, just sleep it off.Now I feel like I'm exposing my toddler to more illnesses at the doctor's office just so they can say it's fine and to get some rest.What criteria do you use to make a doctors visit? Am I being way too lax? Or was I overreacting when I called in the first place? via /r/Parenting http://bit.ly/2LA6fbb