Saturday 6 September 2014

Toddlers Arm - Annular ligament Displacement

We had our first toddler accident the other day leading us in to A&E!

It was frightening, and heart-breaking for me as a parent.

LO had dislocated her elbow! And I didn't even know.

She had been playing with her cousin happily, kissing and running away, when she pulled away too quick whilst her cousin was still holding on to her hand. She started to say "ooh ooh" and tried to rub her arm better. She then came to me (in the kitchen.) and showed me, I gave it a kiss and a rub not knowing that it could of been dislocated at all.

(Also in mind that my LO hardly cries at anything when she's hurt herself, so it was really hard for me to understand if she'd truly hurt herself or she was just having a whinge!)

LO then proceeded to play with her toys as normal, but I slowly began to notice that she wasn't using her right arm at all, she didn't pick things up with it, she didn't put any weight on it and it seemed to be a bit floppy.

I went to her and gave it a feel, and if I turned her wrist she started to cry. I took her straight away to the doctors clinic walk in, but told it could be an hours wait and that I'd be better off in A&E. So her dad and I scrambled in to a taxi worriedly, by then LO was all quite and cuddly and didn't want her arm touched.




We were seen to straight away to explain what had happened, and the nurse took one look, took LO's arm and felt it and popped the ligament that had slotted in to the elbow joint back in place! And that was it! LO didn't have time to cry or get upset because it only took a second!

And you really saw the difference in her! As soon as it was back in, she was playing in the play area happy as larry like nothing had ever happened.






It was a real shock, and something I didn't even think could of happened.

What had actually happened is whilst the arm was pulled the gap in the elbow joint opened and the ligament slipped in, preventing the joint from closing again.

Because her arm has been dislocated it may be that she will now be prone to it, so I've got to be careful not to lift her by the arms, and when walking without the buggy as one tug could do it again. It's quite common in toddler as their bones and ligaments are very soft.

It can also quite easily happen, by swinging them by their hands, picking them up by their arms, if they fall on their arm etc

I wanted to write this post to help inform other parents what Toddler Arm is and how easily done it is too.

If this has happened or does (hopefully not) happen to your toddler then go and see your GP or A&E ASAP!

Lucy x





3 comments:

  1. Aw, bless her! At least it didn't cause her too much pain. x

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  2. Aww bless such a brave little girl! My son broke his arm a few months ago and he didn't cry yet he gets a paper cut and you'd think the world was ending!

    thanks for linking up to #sundaybest

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