My poor, sweet, 17 month old Benny broke his arm! It was a quite Monday morning. We were playing in McKenna's room. I was sitting on the bed doing some mending and Ben was playing beside me by her pillow. He stood up and when he went to sit back down he sat down off the edge of the bed. Since I had a needle in my hand, I sadly didn't even reach out for him. :( From what I saw, I thought he landed pretty flat on his back and maybe bumped his head on a book basket. But he screamed and screamed and screamed! I had a very difficult time getting him to calm down and he wouldn't really eat any lunch. But because of how I thought he landed, a broken arm was not even on my radar. I put him down for a nap, he slept off and on (waking a fussing a few times, which is NOT normal) for 3 hours. When we sat down to dinner that evening, Ben held out his left arm to me while making his usual voice inflection. I rubbed it a little and kissed it, thinking maybe he slept on it funny. But he screamed once again. That's when things started to click in my brain. "Something's not right here." I soon noticed he wasn't using his left arm to eat, pick up his sippy cup, or even to play. It was kind of dangling by his side. I called the pediatrician around 7:30pm. The nurse suggested giving him motrin, putting ice on it and keeping an eye on it for swelling or bruising. She said that, if he's still not using it the next day to bring him in.
The following morning he was using the left arm a little bit more, but still not a lot. My visiting teachers came over. I told them the story and they both suggested I take him in, because even if it wasn't a broken arm, I would know for sure. I called the pediatric ER Doc we have in the neighborhood, told him the story, and asked him if he thought it would be worth it to take him in to get looked at. He said yes, based on what I told him, had he seen this in the ER he would have sent him to get x-rays. Shortly after those conversations, Ben tripped (like toddlers do) and he caught himself with both hands and screamed and screamed and screamed. SO... we were finally in to see the Dr by 3pm that day. He felt the good arm first, then the bad one and Ben fussed. Off to x-rays we went. I cannot say enough GOOD about the x-ray tech. She was phenomenal with Ben! She brought out a toy, spoke softly and sweetly to him, and he held her hand and sat in her lap no problem! I think she might have been an angel. ;) Maybe I was so pleased with how the x-ray went because the mommy guilt was starting to set in and I was so worried about him being cranky and fussy since this appointment took place during his nap time.
We went back to the pediatrician's office and waited for the results. Turns out his radius (thumb side) suffered a "buckle fracture." The bone just kind of bent. The doctor did NOT cast Ben's arm because casts tend to slip off chubby baby arms that don't taper off at the wrist so he'd have to cast him above the elbow. And, you have to remove casts with a really loud and scary (for a 17 month old...and maybe mommy) power tool! So we left the office with a splint we can remove for baths and swimming. We gave him motrin every night and as needed for about a week. The poor little guy was having a tough time sleeping through the night without meds. I always thought our kids would break bones at some point in their lives, but not this young!
It's a good thing he's still so cute and happy...poor little boy!
Some of the bruising after a few days.
After a week or so. Big, dark, purple bruise!
The band-aid is to keep the splint from irritating his elbow pit.
Our follow-up is this Tuesday, July 3rd. Wish us well!
I have to share two more cute pictures of Ben. This particular Sunday, Ben had woken up at 6:30ish instead of his usual 8am. He fell asleep on the 2 minute drive home from church, stayed asleep from car to highchair, from highchair to crib and then napped for 4 hours--with no lunch in his belly!
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This picture just makes me laugh. I usually shut the bathroom door and leave Ben outside while I do McKenna's hair and brush her teeth for the day. I don't really want him playing with the plunger, toilet, etc. Usually he sits in the hallways and cries and bangs on the door. This particular day, I think he finally got used to the idea that he wasn't getting in the bathroom. So he set up camp with toys and books and waited patiently till we came out. :)
We love our little broken Benny!
