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Toddler -how accident prone?

Anne - posted on 08/09/2010 ( 2 moms have responded )

422

8

Hi

I would like an idea of what others consider normal for the amount of accidents and number of times their toddler get hurt. I feel like my little girl is particulary accident prone to the point where I can't leave her with anyone in case she gets seriously injured. My friends all expect me to leave her with a sitter and some have kindly offered to babysit themselves but I keep declining and none of them understand my reasons. To give you an idea; by the time she had been awake for 4 hours this morning my little girl had 2 major accidents - one serious whack to the back of the head as she fell off a shoe rack and one accdient where she fell over a plastic toy box she was carrying and scraped the skin off her legs and nearly choked as she fell on to the side of it with her windpipe. She already has a big bruise to her face and a big purple lump on her head from 2 separate play park accidents in the last 3 days and graze on the back of her leg where she was sliding around on a park bench. Other mums tell me that their children bump their head regularly but my daughter manages to get minor bumps on the head around 20 times a day and several major whacks (feet go from under her flying through the air, landing on the back of her head) several times a week. It's not that we are not being careful. I never take my eyes off her, I follow her around all day, averting hundreds of disasters, but sometimes I just don't have enough free hands (I need at least 6!) or I don't react quickly enough, or someone has said something to me and I have turned my head for literally 1 second, and sure enough she gets hurt. She is very active, never stops, completely fearless and wreckless, climbs on everything. If she falls and hurts herself she is trying to get back on the thing that hurt her while she is still in floods of tears. My mum, a primary school teacher of 30 years experience, has said that she has never seen a child as wild. Whenever I try to eat my meal and her dad or granny are running around after her while I do this she always has a big accident. We have covered the floors in foam mats but she manages to find the bit near the door that has no mat with the back of her head. Everything in the house is padded now but she still manages to find something. She got a black eye from a cardboard box that the delivery man had left. We took her to the park and 30 seconds after getting out of the car she had found the only big stone in the grass to fall backwards and hit her head off. Other mums have said to me 'you can't take your eyes off them for a minute' but it seems to be just a saying because then they stand chatting while their little one toddles around - without coming to major harm! I am fielding accidents at a rate of one every few seconds! So is this more normal than I am thinking? I haven't seen any other toddlers in any of the groups we have been to that are quite so impulsive and active. Do any of you have the same problem? Do any of you feel that you can't leave your little one in the care of anyone? I'd like an idea of how frequently other toddlers have little accidents (stumbling, minor bumps, no real harm) and how many bad ones (big bruises, bad head bumps, significant injuries) they have in a day.

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Anne - posted on 08/09/2010

422

8

Lerin it was so refreshing and reassuring to read your post. You really know where I am coming from. I wish you lots of luck with your latest addition. Wow you are going to have your work cut out! :-)
I couldn't help laughing at the smiley face diaper change, eating stickers is my LO's new favourite past time. Whilst making a fairy at a children's craft event yesterday I looked away to get her some net wings to stick on and when I turned around half the fairy's face was gone - eaten. The rest sounds painfully familiar. Like the 'having a boy' quip. A friend was only telling me the other day how she thought her baby number 2 was going to be a breeze because it is a girl and being active is a boy thing LOL! Oh well it's nice to know that there are some other moms out there who have such intrepid adventurers. You are right by the way - I wouldn't have it any other way. I also considered the foam helmet and found this website http://www.babynobumps.com/ It wouldn't work for us because she wouldn't keep it on but if your LO doesn't mind a hat?...

Lerin - posted on 08/09/2010

446

15

I was just thinking this morning that both of my daughters seemed to have gotten my 'clumsy' gene, LOL. It's not funny, I know.
My LO is completely accident prone as well. Both of her elbows have scabs right now, she has a scratch on the side of one leg that I have no idea how she got it. Her shins are scraped up. Countless bruises on her legs. She trips over EVERYTHING, and seems to bang her head on everything. She loves to climb, more than any child I've ever seen, and like you said, despite the most attentive parent, falls, and still crying climbs back on to do it again. Just the other week, she was strapped in (good thing she loves buckles) to her booster seat that's strapped to a dining room chair, and in one split second, she got her feet against the lip of the table and pushed herself over backwards and broke the back of the chair! (People joke about us having a boy, and I tell them 'Oh we don't need a boy, we have Eowyn.' They think I'm joking, but I couldn't be more serious. Somehow she's managed to eat a smiley face sticker- that was a funny diaper change, and a Barbie shoe... her sister wasn't happy about that one.
A few months ago, she fell out of her toddler sized chair and smacked her mouth against the coffee table, and knocked one of her front teeth lose- we had blood everywhere, and we took her to the ER- we have a 7 yr old and that was out first trip to the ER with either of our kids. The next day, she was carrying toys around in her mouth, and it just terrified me that her tooth would fall out b/c she wouldn't leave it alone and let it tighten back up.
I tried to find her one of those foam karate sparring full head helmet things, but they don't make them that small. My friends still tease me about it, but when she goes outside, even if she's just in the grass, she wears a bicycle helmet. Doesn't protect her face, but at least it covers her head.
In an 1.5 hrs this AM, she hit her head twice, and fell over trying to take her shoe off.
Like you said, yours is fearless, reckless. I think that's pretty normal for toddlers. Deep down, do you want a child that scared of everything, never does anything and clings to you 24/7?
I'm expecting my 3rd child right now, and I seriously seriously am worried about what lengths I'm going to have to go to, to protect the baby from it's older sister, and how much I'm not going to get to sit around and hold the last baby I'm going to have b/c I'm busy chasing the big one....
You aren't alone. She'll survive ;-) And so will you.
Good luck!

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