dd fallen off sofa - advice please!

[fairycakes]

dp had dd on his knee on the sofa and she slipped off and fell on the floor. i know accidents happen, but i am really upset that he was so careless. she is only 19 weeks old and the fall is hardly anything as it is a very low sofa - she seems absolutely fine, cried a bit when she fell, but only for 5 minutes - shjould i take her to the hospital or am i over reacting?

[beansprout]

Ouch - poor thing! I think she would let you know if she were hurt. Did she bump her head? Have you noticed any changes in her? I'm sure she is ok.

[fairycakes]

dp says she didnt bump her head, but i cant see how she wouldnt have done if she fell on the floor as she cant hold her own weight yet. she seems fine, im just worried about concussion or something!!

[Carameli]

Hi Fairycakes, I know exactly how you feel. My dd had a few falls when she was really little. I once dropped her from the moses basket in the middle of the night when she was only 6wks old. She has also made a jump from our bed wen dh was not looking.
The first time I panicked but my hv and friends mum who is a paed, reassured me that babies are made of tough stuff and will have falls. The thing you need to check is if they get drowsy when they are usually awake and alert. She also said about looking out for any major changes in her behaviour. I think you can also check with a torch if her eyes dilate.

I think if she is behaving normally then just put it down to another lesson learnt as a parent.

Will be around for some of this evening if you want to ask anything else. Try not to worry though, hard as that is.

My hv told me of another mum she visited whose baby rolled all the way down a flight of stairs and was fine apart from a little bruise. We hurt ourselves more as we know to tense up as we fall, babies haven;t learnt that when they are tiny.

[tillykins]

Hi fairycakes - this happened with my baby at a similar age so I know how horrible it is

I rang NHS direct in an utter panic and they went through some questions with me and concluded there was no reason to be concerned. I know we can criticise them but they were really good and really thorough about it - I would ring them if only to set your mind at rest

[Lonelymum]

Bad signs to look out for are vomiting and excessively sleepy/hard to rouse. But, if I dare to say this, by the time we got to baby No. 4, we became quite blase about him falling off things. He fell off our bed a couple of times. He was fine afterwards. Have you carpet on the floor? I think that makes a big difference if they fall onto carpet rather than a hard floor. Hope she is OK and I am sure your dp will be more careful next time.

[Amanda3266]

Hi fairycakes,

Don't worry - you're not alone. My DS rolled off the sofa when he was 8 weeks and then when he was about 18 weeks I dropped him (from sitting on the sofa ). It really worried me at the time but he was fine. Carameli is right - just keep an eye on her - if she seems fine then she probably is. My experienced mother friend put it well when she told me that "babies bounce". And I think they do as they don't tense up as we would.

Mandy