Accidents Will Happen
Author: Dr. Anna Kaplan
No matter how careful you are, your toddler will have some kind of accident. Maybe he will just fall down and land flat on his still-diapered bottom, and nothing worse will come of it.
When your toddler falls down, try and determine what injury, if any, has occurred. Your child will cry a lot at times simply because of the suddenness and surprise of a fall, even without much of a visible injury. A child can fall and hit his or her head on the floor or side of a table. If there is a cut on the face or head, it will bleed a lot. Do not be alarmed. It always looks like more than it actually is. Get a clean cloth and hold it firmly against the cut. It should stop bleeding in less than ten minutes. If it is a deep cut, if it will not stop bleeding, or if it is a large cut on the face, you want to take your child to see the doctor. Some cuts on the scalp can be sealed with the medical equivalent of Super Glue®. Others need stitches. Cuts on the face obviously need special attention to prevent marked scarring.
Children get nosebleeds after bumps on the nose. They can walk into things, or something can hit them accidentally, like another child swinging a bat. Nosebleeds look even worse than cuts on the head in terms of quantity of blood. Again, it always looks like more blood than it actually is. Keep your child upright. Gravity is then working with you, since the blood has to be pumped up from the heart to the nose. Apply firm pressure to both sides of the nose with a cloth and your fingers. You have to press hard enough to keep it closed. Ice is not necessary. If the nosebleed does not stop in 10 minutes, you will need to see a doctor.
After a similar fall, your child might wind up with a "goose egg" on the forehead or back of the head. You can apply ice to this, inside a towel, for 20 minutes at a time, or you can use a commercial cold pack. If your child does not lose consciousness, and can communicate with you as well as he or she usually does, you probably do not need to take him or her to the emergency room. Your child may even vomit from this, but not repeatedly. If your toddler seems normal to you, but wants to go to sleep after hitting his or her head, that is okay. There is no reason to stop a child from sleeping; it is a normal reaction to the injury. If you are unsure, you can wake your child up in 30 minutes or an hour to see if they still respond normally. If your child has been unconscious and does not make sense to you, or seems to have a terrible headache and repeatedly vomits, take him or her to the emergency room. If you are not sure what to do, try and reach your doctor by telephone.
Other scrapes and cuts should be washed with soap and water, removing all the dirt. Bandages are appropriate if the abrasion or cut is on an exposed area that is going to get dirty. Some abrasions need protection from further injury. If possible, uncover the wound at night.
After an injury, you can give your toddler ibuprofen or Tylenol® at the appropriate dose if needed for pain. Never give a child aspirin; it can cause a serious condition called Reyes' syndrome.
Obviously, some accidents are more serious than others. If your child has jumped out of a tree, or fallen off a balcony, or anything out of the ordinary, you may wind up in the emergency room. If he or she looks severely injured, keep the child as quiet as you can and call 911. Luckily, most toddlers escape childhood without catastrophic injury.
