DD(3yo) is very accident prone, should i get her checked out?

[meg-momto2]

DD just turned 3 last month. she is very active and keeps up well with her older brother. lately she seems to be constantly falling, tripping and having accidents. at the moment she has 2 giant bruises on her forehead,twin molar bites on her tongue, a busted chin, broken blood vessel in her arm and countless bruises all over. i'm afraid to take her out of the house and deal with the looks i may get.

i mentioned this to some friends and someone said their granddaughter was getting more clumsy and she ended up needing glasses. her vision was causing the issues. i don't know what else it could be if anything. i keep putting off taking her in for a check up because she's always hurt and i'd hate to open a suspicious can of worms. any ideas on what going on? does this sound normal for an active 3yo girl?

[ChristyMarie]

It sounds normal for my DS when he was 3. He inherited my husband's lack of fear and my clumsiness and tendancy to bruise. BAD combination.

Is she falling/getting hurt because she's exploring, rushing around and just not paying attention? Or because she thinks jumping off the back of the couch is a good idea? That is totally normal.

DS still constantly has bruises. But now they are mainly on his legs and back. There for a while he pretty much had a constant goose-egg on his head.

[A&A]

Yes, get her vision checked!!!

(By an actual eye doc. Our pediatrician dismissed our concerns and my dd did need glasses.)

[meg-momto2]

lately is seems like her body can't keep up with her brain. her feet get caught under her or she mis-judges something and falls. she loves to jump off furniture and has never gotten hurt that way. she runs into walls and doesn't look where shes going often. when she's moving slow she's great but as soon as she starts walking faster or running it's an accident waiting to happen.

i'm going to call and see if the optical place we've been to will she her or if i need to find a specialty office.

[lotusdebi]

My 3 year old is also very accident-prone. I thought it must be his vision, so I got him checked out. His vision is fine for his age. My older son's occupational therapist recommended an evaluation based on what she saw of him in the waiting room. He has motor planning issues among other things, and is getting occupational therapy as a result. I'm not saying that this is the case with your child; I'm just throwing it out there, in case the clumsiness continues and the vision test comes out okay.

[Marsupialmom]

IMO, if you are questioning it then you should have her checked out. It could be nothing.

[nextcommercial]

These are just daycare kid stories. Not my own, so I don't know what the doctors said.

*A* was knocking over her cup at lunch all the time. She would clip doorways as she walked through, she would knock herself in the face with things a lot, and when she bent over to pick something up, she'd miss it by a few inches. It was funny at first, but by age three, mom decided to have her vision tested. She got adorable "Cabbage patch" glasses.

*J's* problems were much more serious. He'd run right into poles, or the corner of the walls. He'd cut his forehead open several times, and even got a bad cut above his eye when he walked into the bumper of his truck. He hit his forehead on the coffee table all the time. He'd go to step up on a step, miss it by two inches and fall into it. His eyes needed surgery because his eyes were not focusing at the same time. So, he'd see two slightly different images and never knew which image to believe. He also had to have vision therapy to train his brain to see one image. With J, though, you could SEE that his eyes didn't focus. Especially in pictures of him, you could tell that his eyes were pointing in slightly different directions.

[LynnS6]

Have her checked out by the doctor. It could be vision. It could be motor planning. It could be something else.

You'll need a pediatric opthamologist most likely to do a thorough exam. If her vision checks out, I'd ask for a referral to a physical therapist or occupational therapist.

Don't worry about taking her to the doctor, especially if you're worried about her clumsiness. That's the evidence that the doctor needs to see. They can tell the difference between bruises that happen to a child because of active play and bruises that are inflicted by an adult.

[meg-momto2]

i found a pediatric eye doctor in our neighborhood. she's going in next week. they said they'll need to dilate her eyes. she's going to freak out. she's got major doctor phobia. our peds. office was already closed for the weekend but i'll call first thing Monday. i do recall her having a lazy eye for a few weeks after her birth. we haven't noticed anything since she was very little though.

the motor planning issues don't seem to fit, i think. she was an early mover and walked by 8 months and was climbing and balancing on things shortly after. she can also draw very well inside the lines and lace beads on a shoestring. i don't know if that means anything but it didn't seem to fit under the motor issues.

[camracrazy]

Make sure you take a pair of sunglasses for her. It takes awhile for the pupils to return to normal after dilation and the sunlight outside when you leave could really hurt her eyes.

It's really good to find out about any vision problems now before she is at the age where she is learning to read. My oldest got her glasses at 3, my middle one at 5. They have done fine with reading (well, 5 yo is still learning). My oldest niece had vision problems that weren't diagnosed until 1st grade, and she really struggled with reading. She's in college now doing great, though!

[jtbuko]

Maybe check her iron levels?

[Tway]

Not to dismiss any of the previous possibilities, but thought I'd just pass this on. When my friend's daughter was 3, my friend had to routinely cancel a family photo session because the poor kid always had some sort of bruise, cut, scratch, or what have you on her face. This went on for about a year. Turns out the child took after her Dad--bold and active and unafraid--which just put her in the position of getting a bit banged up a lot.

She grew out of it.

[pbjmama]

I thought sensory seeking, so OT eval. The funny thing is it can look like they are having "accidents" but really they are seeking sensory input. My ds is always way bruised up.

[One_Girl]

My dd has always been like this. She is in the 75th percentile and grows constantly so she frequently has to get used to her new body again because it changes so much. This is a very normal thing for kids. I got my dd's vision tested and she was just fine. The doctor wasn't at all worried and said she was being a normal kid.

[happysmileylady]

If it seems to be something new, it isn't a bad idea to get the vision checked. Also, a general physical check up, and even maybe get her ears looked at, if there's fluid in there or something it could mess up her balance.

However, I also want to mention that little kids are often just prone to accidents and getting bumps and bruises. My dd2 is 2 rather than 3, but in the last two weeks, she has tripped and gone head first into the corner of a box of diapers (nearly got her eye, she got lucky,) walked off the porch (only a 3 inch drop) and scrapped her knee and elbow, gotten a bunch of random scratches on her fingers, don't know where they came from, I suspect cat, then just as soon as her black eye healed from the diaper box incident, she bounced off the corner of the wall and blacked her eye and cheek all over again, fell out of the grocery cart and got a big goose egg on top of her head, and fell and busted her lip and bit her tounge.

My nephew is 4. When I had dd2, I had her in the hospital and my sister brought him to visit in the hospital. He was running around the room, ran into a cabinet at full speed, bounced off, shook his head and took off again. He hit it hard enough that he got a bit of a goose egg, but it totally didn't phase him. And now, he's is just constantly covered in bruises. They come from everything, falling while trying to learn to skateboard, to climbing on the playground, whatever.

And someone mentioned cancelling photo sessions-I am a photographer and that is so so super common, that people have to cancel because the little one has a new bump, scrape, bruise or whatever. Or they are asking me to photoshop it out.

[meg-momto2]

pbjmama- it could be sensory stuff too. both DS and i have some mild sensory issues. DS is a sensory seeking kid but has never gotten this banged up.

one_girl- growth could be a possibility too. she is very tall for her ages. i haven't measured her in a few month but she was topping of the percentages last time i checked.

thanks for all the input everyone. i'm sure it's nothing but it just seems to be getting more and more often and is causing concern. an eye check and visit to our pediatrician should cover it.

[4evermom]

My first thought was is she getting enough sleep? Has she recently dropped naps? Could be an ear infection effecting balance, as well...

[DaughterOfKali]

My son is very clumsy. He has double strabismus and has terrible depth perception. Plus, he has terrible spatial relations. On top of that, he left foot turns in a little and he's always tripping over that foot.

So yeah, if it's happening more frequently, I'd make an appt. Doesn't hurt to get her checked out.

[meg-momto2]

DaughterOfKali- you just reminded me she's a bit pigeon footed. it's pretty mild but that could be a cause as well.