5yo has minor boo-boo, refuses to walk. How firm should I be?

[seashells]

Yesterday, while we were all out for a family walk, my daughter slipped and fell on her butt (icy, snowy). Not a bad fall, really - and I'm sympathetic to falls. I helped her up and brushed off her butt, no big deal. I don't think she even cried.

She did sucker daddy into carrying her back home (we were close to home at that point) and he was fine with it. But at home she announced that since she had a boo-boo on her leg, she couldn't walk until the leg was healed.

Now, I should say that this is not the first time this has happened. A boo-boo on her arm or her face seems to be dealt with fine, but she seems to believe that a boo-boo on her leg automatically renders her lame for the duration. Our response thus far has at least attempted to be matter-of fact. I will usually refuse to carry her, though I might offer to hold her hand. She'll ask me to get her toys and I tell her to get them herself. It's pretty ridiculous, but usually after a day or so of this carrying on I can usually push her into actually walking again.

I've told her that if she cannot walk, that's very serious, and we need to go to the doctor. Her response is that, well, she CAN walk but she doesn't want to. I say, well, there ya go. She still doesn't walk though.

I know how I can go pretty hardline on her about this but just was curious to know what you guys thought. The options as I see them are to just stand back and let her work it out herself, without enabling her, OR to get on her case and get her up on her feet RIGHT NOW, not tolerating her little drama. I have in the past utterly drawn the line at having her histronics interfere with her activities - I remember once it happened the day before her swim lesson and she decided she couldn't go, and I put my foot down. She went, she swam, and then she went back to her little lame routine (if I recall correctly, we did manage to push her back on her feet very soon after the lesson though).

Maybe now is the time to hardline it. I'm pretty laid back and I don't feel any particular need to interfere with how she works things out, but this is not just a one-time thing. It's getting ridiculous. It just is not my first choice to come down hard on stuff if there is no external pressure (like an activity or something).

[babymommy2]

If my 5 year old did that, at home I would just ignore it, and not cater to it at all. As far as activites, at first I am inclined to say if you can't walk then you can't go, natural consequence, but it sounds like maybe she is refusing to walk because she doesn't want to go. If we have somewhere to go and someone decides they are refusing to go, they I just pick them up and put them into the car. Sometimes my 6 year old will be mad at me aobut something, and then to "punish" me will refuse to leave the house, so I just put him in the car anyway. I'm not really sure if that works in your situation though.

[seashells]

Well, we dealt with it this time but it took a fair amount of effort. Finally I resorted to bribery - something I never do :) I'm hard-hearted, lol.

Bribery notwithstanding, it was DH's and my opinion that DD was genuinely scared to use her legs, not trying to manipulate us. There were a lot of real tears involved, and I think her legs sincerely hurt by the time she gave walking a shot - because she had been clenching them all day. Apparently she was too afraid to even straighten her legs, and they got all stiff.

She doesn't randomly stop using her legs to gain anything, not attention, not an excuse from an activity. It only happens when she falls and hurts part of a leg. My OP said she fell on her butt but apparently she fell onto her knees first (I just didn't see that part happen). She has a tiny, microscopic cut (if you can call it that) on one knee. I think it scares her for some reason. She has hypotonia, so she is not as secure with her body as a lot of her peers. She also remembers a PT working with her to walk (and before that, she never crawled) - so she doesn't take locomotion for granted. She remembers not walking, so I guess it's not that far-fetched to her that something could happen that could make her not be able to walk.

I mean, DD was willing to do a lot of stuff your average 5 year old would not be willing to do in order to continue the not-able-to-walk farce. Though feeling well, she didn't play much today. She crawled to the few places she went. We had a lot of opportunity to "catch" her walking, but she did not. I really don't think it was a farce, that she knew she was perfectly fine but wanted something out of us. I think she was really scared to try, and eventually her knees got stiff and sore for real. I have no idea what I'm going to do the next time it happens (and it will, what kid does not get a boo-boo on their knee every now and then?). I think I'll have to remind her of this time, and how her knees hurt BECAUSE she didn't walk, and get on her case right away to get back on her feet so she doesn't stiffen up again. Because time apparently isn't the answer. Sigh.