# Mommas of toddlers with broken arms...tell your story



## PuppyFluffer (Mar 18, 2002)

Well, dd broke her arm yesterday evening!!! Never a dull moment in toddlerhood!

I was 2 feet away from her! It happened in the bedroom. The irony is that we moved our bed down to the floor so dd didn't get hurt getting off the bed! She got up on a stool, a short one, maybe 22 inches tall, and either fell accidentally or jumped and landed wrong. She said she jumped. I had my head turned as did dh, so we didn't actually see it. She cried and I knew it was broken as it had a bit of an upward "bend" a few inches back from her wrist.

Off to the ER we go! We had a great medical experience there, nice to say. I'm at the top of the chart when it comes to distrust of the medical environment. We got very competent care, had all my questions answered (and I had a lot of them) and dd was treated so very well. It helps that she is very articulate and willing to carry on complete conversations with people she hardly knows as long as she senses that they are safe.

So, we have a fractured radius and ulna. Nice breaks, didn't displace the bones that much, easy to cast, should be simple straight forward healing with no complications. She's in a temporary cast and gets a permanant one in a few days. They do that to accomodate for swelling. She's had little swelling and no pain that she is complaining about. She's not needed any meds at all for pain. I am surprised. The kid is tough!

I should have known I was in for trouble when she started going down slides head first right off the bat!

So, anyone else wanna tell me broken bone stories?


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## bobica (May 31, 2004)

oh mama!!! my best friend's daughter is prone to "nursemaid's elbow" & one time it just wouldn't resolve- after hours in the ER, it turned out that she had a fracture in her elbow







poor thing. she was 16 months old & in a cast from her hand up to the middle of her upper arm. the lucky thing was the fracture was so small the cast was only on for a few weeks.

I hope dd heals quickly!


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## PuppyFluffer (Mar 18, 2002)

Thanks for the well wishes!

Yeah, we know about nursemaids elbow too! That was our other ER visit! One of my friends, a mom in our play group, was helping dd out of one of those ball pits at a kids play center. She pulled her by her outstretched hand and dislocated her left elbow back in January.


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## lilgsmommy (Jun 21, 2004)

Hope she heals quickly!

This past February my DS climbed over the top of our King sized bed to follow me to the bathroom and as he came to the end of it, he stood up and went to walk to the edge to jump off. Well instead he got his foot caught in the blanket fell head first onto the floor and used his right arm to stop the fall. When he put his hand down to stop the fall, his elbow twisted out at a funny angle. Needless to say he fractured a bone in his elbow and displaced the growth plate in the elbow. We were in a wrist to shoulder cast for 5 days, wrist to over the shoulder around the neck and waist cast for another 5 days. Then he was put into a wrist to mid-upper arm cast for 3 weeks, followed by another one from hand to shoulder, keeping his arm in a certain postion to move the growth plate back for 2 weeks, and after that he was splinted for another few weeks whenever he was playing. During naps or nighttime we got to take it off. We are still following up with the ortho monthly for xrays to make sure the growth plate isnt having problems. His elbow is still very tender and even with the slightest bump to it, it bruises and swells.

It was a pain in the butt! Ill tell you one thing.....he will not stand on a bed at all!!

The best part for him though was we went to Disneyland when he had his 3rd cast on and Mickey Mouse signed it for him.....we still have the dang thing in the closet. I think Ill take a picture of him holding it and then toss it.....but who knows.


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## PuppyFluffer (Mar 18, 2002)

Lilgsmommy,
OH MY! What an ordeal! How old was he when he did this? Anything involving the growth plate is very important to follow up on. I hope things continue to heal well for him.

Is he being seen by a pediatric orthopedic?

I have been Googling "pediatric forearm fractures" "pediatric radius fracture" and such all evening. There is some good information out there.


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## lillaurensmomma (Jul 5, 2003)

When my DD was 18mo, she climbed up on the dining room chair to get something. Dh was in the kitchen cooking and told her she needed to get down. She did just as we had showed her and got down on her tummy to get off the chair, but as she was getting down she slipped and landed on the linoleum floor. She didn't cry much but eventually we figured out that something was wrong so we took her to the ER. She had a hairline fracture. They wanted to cast her over her elbow because apparently toddlers are notorious for pulling the cast off, but I begged them to give it a shot just to the elbow, saying we would come back and do the elbow cast if she pulled it off. She stopped letting me feed her at 8mo, I didn't want her not to be able to bend her arm! We had no problem with the cast at all. She quickly learned how to milk it for sympathy though







And I got smacked with it more often that I care to remember. She only had to wear hers for 4 weeks and wasn't even scared when they used the saw to take it off!
Sorry your little one is going through this! Hope your experience is as easy as ours was!

Jamie


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## melissel (Jun 30, 2004)

Ugh, big ((HUGS)). We've BTDT. Last November when Bella was a little over 2, she was up late one night (I just KNEW I should have made her stay in bed!) and decided to stand on this big ottoman that we had pushed against the front window for the dog to sleep on. Now, the thing did have wheels, but it was dug so deep into the carpet from the dog being on it that it really hadn't moved since we moved in and put it there. Bella turned to face us with her back against the wall, and I guess she hit it just right because it slid away from the wall, she went backward, and smacked her forearm against her art table that was right next to it. Just like you, I was two feet away with my back turned, but DH was facing her and saw it. She was in a LOT of pain, so we gave her Tylenol, which got her most of the way through the night. When she was still crying the next morning I knew it was really broken, but there was no bruising or redness or swelling! We spent 8 hours at the peds ER (what a nightmare) where they finally put on the soft cast. It didn't hurt her after it was stabilized, and we got the hard cast 3 days later. She was upset and crying at the ped. ortho. at both appts (x-rays, and cast on and off) but it didn't hurt her, and she only had to wear it for 3 weeks. Bathing was fun, of course. I had to wrap to a fluffy hand towel around her upper arm and then tie two plastic grocery bags with no holes, secured around the towel. It worked really well, her cast never got wet at all, but what a production!

I know you probably feel so awful, but broken arms in toddlers are SOOOO common, especially the kind our DDs had. We are lucky it wasn't something like Lilgsmommy's guy has to deal with! I hope your babe's feeling much better soon.

Melissa


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## lilgsmommy (Jun 21, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *PuppyFluffer*
Lilgsmommy,
OH MY! What an ordeal! How old was he when he did this? Anything involving the growth plate is very important to follow up on. I hope things continue to heal well for him.

Is he being seen by a pediatric orthopedic?

I have been Googling "pediatric forearm fractures" "pediatric radius fracture" and such all evening. There is some good information out there.

He had just turned 3 in December. We are seeing a ped ortho for the issue, cause I didnt feel comfortable with a regular ortho seeing him. I wanted someone who worked with kids only and could better undrestand and care for DS.


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## PuppyFluffer (Mar 18, 2002)

I agree. I was given the name of a regular ped but I told them I really wanted a ped specialist. They gave me a name and we have an appointment tomorrow.


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