Same child broke arm twice...

amother

Mon, Jul 12 2010, 12:58 am

What's crazy about it is that both times we did not discover it was broken till much later. At 14 months, she fell off the windowsill (12" from the ground) on Shabbos and cried for a few minutes. Tuesday night I took all my kids to the doc for one ear infection b/c couldn't find babysitter and casually mentioned it. Dr. said fractured on the spot and x-rays that night showed THREE fractures. I felt terrible for my daughter and soooo guilty. Since then, I've had her arm checked several times when she fell because I became neurotic about it.

It's four years and two kids later and I've eased up on the dr. visits with her since she's older and more articulate about pain now. Last Friday she came home from daycamp complaining about her wrist after a fall playing red light, green light at camp. Friday night she howled because she was wild and hurt it again. After that, I kept asking her if it hurts and she said no or only if she touches it. Thursday night I went to the dr. with my baby and took her along to double check that it's not broken. What do you know? It is. Somehow, I failed once more. Dr. says it's normal for kids to use broken limbs for a while before discovery as they develop resilience to pain easier than adults.

But TWICE for the same kid? Has this ever happened to others? I am eating myself up from guilt and pity for my dd.

teachby

Mon, Jul 12 2010, 2:46 am

If she was using it and not crying that much, there was no way you could have known. My bro and SIL just discovered that my niece has two broken vertabrae and a ruptured disk (she is all of 6 years old!!). She complained about a little back pain like a year ago and the doc. said she was constipated. Now she complained a bit more about pain, and voila!! This diagnosis!! She has to wear a back brace for probably 10 years. But, because she didn't complain--in fact she did tons of sports all this time--there was no way they could have known!!

amother

Mon, Jul 12 2010, 2:38 pm

one dd broke her arm twice - 18mo and 4yr. another dd broke wrist 3 times.
I have low bone density, from a young age (it's a genetic thing), so I was worried about them. My Dr. said if it's from "trauma", then it's normal and just bad luck. you may want to look into this, though.

Try not to feel bad that you didn't know! At least she's ok now.