# My 2.5 year old Sprained his ankle...



## MotherMade (Jan 19, 2009)

My son (2 and a half) sprained his ankle, we took him to his Naturopath and had x-rays done and a sprained, not broken, was the verdict.

It has been 7 days now and he has been crawling and rolling and hopping... Playing hard since day 2. He has a pretty good range of motion when we move his foot/ankle with our hands, but he will not try to stand on it, he freaks out, clings to my legs and throws a fit if we ask him to even put it down on the floor... We have also tried to distract him, and subtly put it down... But he is quite aware of it. We have tried to catch him forgetting about it and put it down... But neither my husband or I have seen him put it down at all.

My first inclination is that it really does hurt... But he is in such high spirits and playing like normal (aside from not walking) and it has been 7 days, there is no swelling or discoloration... I am starting to wonder if it is a mental or emotional resistance. Could it be that he is scared to try it out? Does he maybe have trauma from his fall and no longer trust his foot? Does that sound like something that could happen to a toddler?

We keep talking about how strong it is getting and about how amazing his body is that it heals it's self... I think we are doing all we can to encourage positive feelings surrounding his injury... Maybe it really just needs more time to heal?????

Does anyone have any answers?

Thank You,

Robin Carlisle
www.MotherMade.org


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## Ironica (Sep 11, 2005)

When my husband sprained his ankle, he was advised to stay off of it for AT LEAST seven days. Whether it still hurts or not, I'd give it two weeks before pushing him to try it again; rest is the best thing for healing soft tissue injuries.

After he's confident walking on it again, you may want to consult your naturopath or someone s/he recommends about some physical therapy, to insure he restores complete range of motion and strength.


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## milkybean (Mar 19, 2008)

I agree with the PT suggestion.

Sprains and strains hurt like heck, and they take longer to heal than breaks b/c there's less blood flow to help with healing. I had a friend who rowed with me who was taking stairs 4 at a time (big strong guy), landed wrong, and was devastated to find out it was NOT a break. A break would have healed up enough for him to row in Regionals, but the sprain/strain he got would not and did not. We had access to terrific athletic training care as varsity rowers (the school had a program and several of us on the team were in programs like exercise science) and they did PT, but it still didn't help him in time.

So this is going to take quite a bit of time, and I wouldn't be surprised by pain after only a week.


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## KatWrangler (Mar 21, 2005)

I sprained my left ankle this past July. I was advised to stay off of it for at least a week. Keeping it elivated and wrapped (mine was black and blue and very oddly swollen. My toes even turned black). It took 8-10 weeks for it to fully heal.


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## riverscout (Dec 22, 2006)

My 3 year old sprained her ankle last month. I wondered same as you after awhile if it could be psychological and not physical, but I realized there is no way on earth a 3 year old could be that consistent. If it were in her head, there would have been times when she would have gotten distracted and forgotten about it, but she didn't.

She crawled and hopped for a couple of days and limped for a couple of weeks. The discoloration and swelling went away after a few days. I think it is still a bit weak compared to her other ankle because she tends to lose her footing sometimes.


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