My son broke his leg on a bounce house at his 2 yo bday party. He is in a temporary cast until we get to the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow, but I feel so helpless. He is in so much pain, and although we're making him as comfortable as possible, my heart is hurting everytime he cried in pain.
The Dr gave him Tyleonol w/ Codeine, which relaxes him, but is making him flinch (whole body) when he falls asleep. The flinching makes him move his leg, which wakes him up, and causes severe pain.
Has anyone been through this situation? If so, any advice on how to make him comfortable would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you have any experience on how your child adapted to the cast, how long the child was in the cast, etc I would love to hear from you.
Sorry I don't have much more information, but I just feel so helpless and woud take his pain in a heartbeat if I could. Thank you for reading, and thank you in advance for your responses.
Thank you so much to all of you that responded. It is so comforting to know I have a community of other Moms that care so much! For those of you who indicated you've been through the same situation, I am so sorry for your heartbreak and glad to hear your children have recovered well and back to normal routine.
We went to the orthopedic surgeon this morning and had a cast put on. Although it took 1 doctor, 2 nurses, me and my husband to hold him down, he's actually doing so much better! He has to wear the cast for 6 weeks and then to a walking cast for another 2 weeks. I can already tell he's feeling better and he's more resilient than I could have ever imagined. Now I need to post a request for creative things to do with a 2 year old that can't/not supposed to walk!!!! :)
Thank you again for your care and concern. You eased my mind and helped me more than you could know.
Kindest regards,
K.
It's the tylenol that is relieving the pain. He may be having a reaction to the codeine. I would suggest you try alternating children's tylenol and children's motrin every 4 hrs. Yes you can take these two meds together without any issue and is recommended for pain. To help with the anxiety, get Hyland's teething tablets. They have a calming effect and they are all natural.
My heart goes out to you and your little one! :(
So sorry to hear about your son. It does break our hearts as moms when we cannot fix it or kiss it and make it better. I would suggest just giving her son tylenol or ibuprofen/motrin for pain.
By the time he gets his regular cast his pain will probably have subsided, and he will become a pro at getting around in his cast.
My advice would be to make sure you see a pediatric orthopedist. We are lucky in this area to have some highly specialized doctors and you want to take full advantage of that. Hang in there...kids heal fast once they are on the right path!
My little guy (21-months) just got out of a leg cast. He broke his jumping on the bed. The first few days were the worst. I did my best to keep him comfortable and still. He really did not like that "still" part. He also didn't like that he couldn't get all the way into the bath. Just know that this will pass and then he'll be clunking around like a one-legged sailor.
Your poor little guy! My daughter broke hers last year right before Christmas, she was 15 months old. She broke it right before we put her down to bed and we just thought she was crying because she fell. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized something was wrong with her leg (she didn't cry long and slept fine); she couldn't put any weight on it and screamed if I tried to get her to stand up the next morning. Fortunately, we were able to get her in a cast that same day. She screamed the entire time they were putting it on her and she cried like crazy through every x-ray.
She wore the cast for 6 weeks, from her toes to the top of her thigh. At first she couldn't get around at all in it. It took her about 2 days to realize she could crawl with it on. After about 5 days, she learned to walk in it. The said she wouldn't be able to but she did. I double checked with the doctor to make sure it was okay and he said it would be fine. We still tried to keep her off of it when possible. We did sponge baths the whole time.
When they removed it, she walked funny for about 2 weeks, but you can't even tell now. She hasn't forgotten it and she will talk about her cast ever once in awhile.
I know you feel helpless, it broke my heart. But it will heal and you will be surprised by your little ones resiliency.
My now 3 year old broke his tibia through the growth plate in June of this year, he turned 3 in August. I so feel your pain. The first few days were the worst if that helps at all. He broke his leg is a bounce house at my husbands company picnic. We did not realize it was broken until the next morning when we took him to the pediatrician. It happened on a Sunday late afternoon and we did not realize how bad it was. We thought maybe he sprained his ankle because he was ok as long as we would hold him still, but that night was awful because he kept on moving it in the night and was waking up screaming about every 20 mins or so.
Once he got his cast on, his pain subsided greatly. He would never take any medicine because he hates the taste and is generally a bad medicine taker. He adapted pretty well to the cast. It was a full leg cast because he broke the tibia in the growth plate which is near the knee. It went from his toes to his upper thigh and he was not allowed to put any weight on it for the first 5 weeks which was hard for a active toddler to remember this plus it was the summer and we couldn't go swimming, to the park or ride bikes, it was a long summer! He was finally allowed to walk on it the 6th week and he got it off after the 6th week. During this he would get around by crawling and dragging his leg around behind him. It just killed me and my husband to have to watch him go through this, but he did it like a champ!
When we took him to get his cast off the doctor told us he would just go back to walking normal within a day or so which was not quite what happened and it freaked us out so I wanted to warn you in advance. Once he got the cast off we thought he would be so excited to walk but his leg was very sore and he crawled around for the first couple of days and we really had to encourage him to walk. It took a couple of weeks until he really got back to walking normal again and now I can't even tell he broke that leg. We took him to Chuck E Cheese the day his cast came off to celebrate not realizing how sore he was going to be. It was a long 6 weeks because I also had a 11 month old at the time who was just starting to learn how to walk. I am a nurse so I am suppose to heal people and it was very hard to watch him go through all of it and we felt responsible because we turned away for just a minute when it happened so we are not sure if someone landed on his leg or he just fell on it funny. He had been bouncing all day in it and we had been watching him all day and when it happened there we only 3 other kids in with him and it was a large bounce house.
Needless to say, both he and we are very cautious around bounce houses now. He has bounced on a trampoline and has gone through one of those inflatable obstacle courses, but not a bounce house since. I am still really nervous that he might re-injure that leg, so I am really paranoid. We felt a lot of guilt for a while, but he is back to being his crazy normal 3 year old self now running around with the best of them! I hope this help and contact me if you have any other questions! Good luck and our prayers are with you!
Yep...been there. My son broke had a toddler fracture at about 18 months ( I think)from going down a slide. He was sitting on my lap, and his foot got stuck between my leg and the slide. He did great in the cast. It took about a week for him to walk on it, but then he was a maniac. The pain should subside with the cast on.
