DD fell backwards on HARD floor! : (

[Quickening]

Bah, she was standing in a puddle of pee on mil's hard marble floor downstairs and holding onto a light chair. We didn't know about the pee or else we'd of been there to remove her and clean it up. She slipped in the pee, went backwards pulling the chair onto her (a foldout small stool chair). Her head hit the floor and DH was already walking towards her because he didnt want her playing with the chair....

of couse he moved faster when he saw her fall but i was clawing him out of the way because it seemed like he was moving slow.... but in reality i suppose i was moving super uber fast!!! got to dd, carefully pulled the chair from her tight grip and carefully picked her up to comfort her.

It surprisingly took a short time to comfort her considering how BAD it looked when she fell... she breastfed on and off and cried for a bit and we talked to her and cuddled her and dh got crushed ice wrapped in a towel for when she calmed down enough and we put the cold compress on the back of her head as often as she'd allow us to.

Within 5-6 minutes of it happening she was fine! Giggling at dh, very alert, smiling and enjoying her cuddle with me. THEN i started feeling SO bad for her! It happened so fast I didn't have time to react in terms of emotions and now I feel like crying for her even though she seems to be completely fine and crawling around naked and happy on the CARPETED floor in our bedroom.

[CherylE]

I think something like this happens with most little ones at some point. Glad she seems to be o.k. - I do want to mention that even though as moms, our first instinct is to run over and pick up a child that has fallen - it's not the best idea first aid wise. I took the child safe first aid course recently and they stressed if the child has fallen and hit their head/neck/back hard - that the child should NOT be moved in case there is a spinal cord injury. So from a 1st aid perspective - it's imortant to wait and make sure they can get up on their own and move their neck on their own before picking them up. Hard to do I know - I've been there.

[Marsupialmom]

I think those types of injuries happen to us all.

I never knew how fast my dh could move until my son slipped down a muddy hill. Came up laughing! We freaked.

[oceanbaby]

I turned around one evening to find my then 2yo ds standing on one of our wobbly kitchen chairs. As I turned to put the phone back to go over and get him down, he lost his balance, and fell smack on the back of his head onto our hard tile floor. I was sure his head was going to be split open, but it wasn't. I couldn't even find a bump to be honest. He was screaming for a few minutes before he could even nurse, then he nursed and seemed to be okay, although a bit tired (from all the screaming I suppose).

I called our ped because I was worried about a concussion. She told me the signs to look for, but then also said that these falls are pretty common, and that kids have pretty hard heads.

He was fine, but it freaked me out. I'm glad your dd is okay.

[Quickening]

thanks for the experiences everyone!

kids do seem to have HARD heads yet they seem so defenseless and "breakable" to their parents lol

[coleslaw]

I am so glad she is OK! Those moments are scary! And I know what you mean about your own delayed reaction in trying to deal with what happened. MY dd fell and gauged her tongue when she was 13months. We had to go to the ER, both of us with blood all over ourselves. She was fine, no stitches, but it wasn't until she was in bed asleep that I found myself shaking and crying and catching up with all of those emotions that I didnt' allow myself to have for her sake. It is really amazing what we can do for the sake of our children!

[rainsmom]

This just happened to my friends ds the other day....hes 4. He was playing with dh and fell off the bed onto a carpeted floor. he landed on the back of his head.........had some broken capillaries and vomited a 1/2 hour later. She checked him thru the night (she's apprenticing to be a midwife). I think she's taking him in today, or I hope so. He seems to be fine, but sometimes it takes a few days for symptoms to occur from a concussion.

[Heavenly]

All kids have these accidents unfortunately. When my daughter was 5 months old she was on the change table and i took my hand off her for a second to get a diaper out of the dryer and she fell off. I can still see it in my head, this little naked baby laying flat on her face on the floor. I called an ambulance but by the time they got there she was fine so they didn't take her in. Told me this happens all the time but I still felt horrible!

[Piglet68]

Isn't it amazing how we mamas react? I never felt such things until I was a mother.

When DD is hurt, I could knock a sumo wrestler out of my way to get to her. Drives DH nuts, but he just doesn't understand that "mamabear" instinct.

Thank goodness kids' heads are thick, lol.

[PumpkinSeeds]

My two year old (at the time) fell off a 2 foot ledge head first on the cement. You could hear the thud. Of course, I panicked, but my friend did not, thank goodness. Later, I read in Mendelsohns book "how to raise a healthy child, in spite of your doctor" that you don't need to panic over a head injury unless you note one of the following:

A loss of conciousness
edited to add: Fluid draining from the ears

If no loss of conciousness then observe for 24 hours for signs of:

lethargy or difficulty arousing
abnormality in size of pupil(s) or unresponsive to bright light
is child experiencing double vision, do eyes move in unison
can child move all extremities in a normal manner
is he having respiratory problems
is there loss of coordination
does child have a severe headache



This really helped me a lot since my tendency is to panic.

[magnoliablue]

Every one of my kids hit their head at some point in babyhood. Ds still has the nickname "boo"....short for "booboohead" that will follow him through life..lol...they are tougher than we give them credit for but I agree it is instinctive...nothing like a mama bear andrenaline rush..wish they bottled it I would take a swill every morning instead of coffee!