Worst day ever...DS fell down stairs then later fell over in street and cut lip...worst mummy ever [sad]

[mimimilk]

I have had the worst day ever. have been ill for the last week hence have not been sleeping and am on painkillers.

Took DS 14mo upstairs this morning to do some tidying and for some reason DID NOT CLOSE THE DAMN STAIRGATE!!!!!

DS was toddling around then disappeared, suddenly it hit me that I had not closed the gate, rushed out to landing to witness my DS fall over edge of stairs and then all way down.

Honestly I nearly lost it, had images of DS seriously injured or worse, rushed to local A and E dept by which time he was absolutely back to normal and they said he was fine.

Then later thought I would take DS for a little walk up the road as he is really energetic at present, all was going well until he lunged for a pile of moss (!!) and fell face first into a load of dirt, then saw blood coming out of his mouth and panicked thinking Oh my god he had knocked one of his teeth out, thankfully he hadn't but had cut his little lip and swallowed a lot of dirt.......................

Feeling really overwhelmed today, guilty x 1000 about the bloody stairgate and CANNOT get the image of him falling over the edge like that, just dread to think what might have happened, have spent most of today in tears, worn out and doubting my safety as a mum .........................

Just felt the need to tell some fellow mums has this happened yo anyone else?

[brusselbeansprouts]

Ds cut his lip open on xmas day. Sooo much blood. Doesn't make me a bad mummy though!!

These things just happen sometimes, which is why no-one at A&E called social services when you went up there. It feels worse that you have had a double dose today but please don't give yourself such a hard time.

[dirtygertiefromnumber30]

oh mini, you just had a bad day. Dont beat yourself up.

Ds fell over and cut his head open against the fireplace last year. Had to go to hospital and have 6 stitches. The day we went to have the stiches out, we drove to the hospital, I lifted him out of the car and promptly shut his fingers in the door, breaking his bloody finger!!!

Im sure the hosiptal earmarked me for social services!

[NAB3wishesfor2008]

We have all had things like this. I have fallen twice while carrying Ds1 and DD up the stairs. (both were 7 months and I feel on the same step)

DS2 has cut his lip loads.

[funnypeCOOLYULEiar]

I had a week with dd at about the same age where:

• first she fell from the top of the climbing frame - got onto the slide and just toppled off sideways - I was on the wrong side and couldn't catch her
• about two days later, did the stairgate thing too - didn't close it one evening, and she managed to slide all the way down (luckily she slid down on her bum)

I didn't even have the excuse of no sleep and being ill.

Try not to worry too much. With dd I decided i made a conscious effort to say 'that was a bad week, it's over, move on', to avoid getting too worried by the whole thing.

[stockingfiller]

dont feel like a bad mommy dd 18mo has fell down stairs loads of times always falls when we are out its one of those things!
dd can walk down the stairs and had been doing so confidently and the day i left the gate open and turned my back dd fell, she was fine till the dog dived on her!
he wont even remember it tomoro!

[yogimum]

DS 17 months has fallen over twice and split his lip. Yesterday he pulled out the base of the blender out of a cupboard and it fell on his toe (he cried for ages). Today his grandad left a cup of tea in his sights and the whole cup went down his legs. Thankfully he had thick trousers on but it did land on his toes so we sat him in the sink under the cold tap. Now who's a bad mummy

[Janni]

On her third birthday, DD fell over her new birthday scooter and cut her forehead open on the side of a cabinet. We are in the process of adopting her and had invited her loving, clucking, over-protective, extended foster family, who'd looked after her for two years without any such incident. Don't get me started on the accidents my other two have had...You just have to pick yourself up and keep going.

[kindersurprise]

Poor you. What a horrible day.

Don't worry, we have all had days like this, especially when the DCs are this age. They always seem to be hurtling down stairs or falling off things.

If it helps, when my DD was that age, I was worried that our paediatrician would think that I was abusing our DD as her legs were covered in bruises. He said that it was completely normal at that age, and that he would be more worried if a child had no bruises. That would indicate that the child was not active.

[mimimilk]

Thank you all for making me feel like a slightly less bad Mum!
The worst of it is that I am always nagging and criticising my DP as I think he won't look after Ds as 'well' as me, well that concept can now be thrown out lol!!

Ds is fine today, just a grazed chin from the second incident of the day..........

Hope today is a better one

[shoshe]

Can i just give you a tip, carry a sachet of sugar in your bag, give to a child with a cut mouth and the bleeding stops straight away. Alot of the time its the blood that scares the child.

[edam]

interesting tip re. the sugar, shoshe, thanks.

Mimimilk, as everyone has said, these things happen. Don't beat yourself up. Would be worth showing ds how to come downstairs safely, though, probably best on his bum at this age.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

My friend with two now adult sons said to me (when ds2 arrived),
'mums of girls spend all saturday in Claire's accessories. Mums of boys spend all weekends in A&E'

Have had quite a few trips up there so far and ds1 only just 3 yet, so you can imagine there are lots of incidents at home with lots of blood and bruises but don't warrant a trip to A&E.

You are not a bad mother, just a normal mother of a very normal child!

[hannahsaunt]

Ds1's primary concern (after the initial screams of shock) was that I had used his ice-cream cone to staunch the bleeding from his horrifically cut lip. It was the closest thing to hand, we were dripping with sweat on our first full day in Hong Kong with dh in the hotel vomiting and ds2 in the stroller recovering from vomiting and completely unable to communicate/read the signs/find a bathroom. Dh reckoned the lip should have been stitched but by the time we got back to the hotel it was too late...we've all been there and they forget astonishingly quickly (meanwhile I still break out in sweat at the memory of the sight of the gushing blood)

[MegBusset]

I ended up in A&E with DS (10mo) in November, after I tripped coming downstairs and dropped him. He was fine after the initial shock but I felt absolutely awful and a terrible mother. I think from this thread that everyone has at least one of these incidents -- you were just unlucky to have two in one day!

[flamingtoaster]

minimilk I know exactly how you feel - the exact same thing happened to me when DS was a toddler. He was standing at the top of the stairs when I came back out of the bathroom and I started talking to him while edging closer to catch him but he fell. It was like everything was in slow motion - luckily when he got to the bottom gate he hit that and it made him straighten out so he actually landed flat on the hall floor which was luckily carpeted. There was a few seconds absolute quiet and then he screamed. Stupidly I rushed down and picked him up rather than check him over first - but he was absolutely fine.

Don't be hard on yourself - we cannot be perfect, we all do our best but accidents will happen.