Sleeping with a cast on

[Threeminis]

My ds broke his arm this morning.
He's asleep next to me just now but has a full cast on his arm.

Should I be trying to elevate the arm? He seems comfortable just now and desperately needs to sleep, also I don't want to hurt him.
That aside, I have a bit of a fear of things being tight (hair bobbles round wrist etc) and I'm worried his arm will swell if it's not elevated.

I've never broken a bone myself, I'm just looking for advice. I'm struggling to sleep because all I see when I close my eyes is his wee arm all bent out of shape

Anyone? I realise it midnight and probably most are in bed..

Hi OP. I've had a couple of broken arms as a kid and spent 6 months in cast with a badly broken leg last year. My advice would be to just help DS to get as comfy as possible so he can sleep. The limb doesn't necessarily need to be elevated but you don't want it to hang down as he will end up with awful pins and needles and in the worst case scenario - circulatory problems. I used to sleep with 5 or 6 pillows around me so I could change my position and get comfy at any time through the night. Hope DS manages to get some decent rest

cat x

Agree getting comfortable enough to sleep is a start. As long as not hanging down I'd say all is OK (have broken arm and all my kids have broken something)

Thank you both, he's in my bed with me. Arm on the bed not hanging down.

Also I presume as the injury was today he is in a heavy back slab cast???? They are so cumbersome

Hopefully when he gets a lightweight fibreglass cast he will be able to get comfy x

My dd broke both her arms last year (Separately) she used to sleep hugging a pillow or used a u shaped maternity pillow. Also she found the cast scratched her so I bought a cheap long sleeved tShirt cut the sleeves off and used them as cast covers. Dd also complained about the slings from the hospital so I bought a proper sling from amazon which was much more comfortable.

DS was happy with his on the duvet. As pp said, make sure it doesn't hang off the side of the bed.
Be careful if he's in with you that the doesn't roll over, bring his arm around and thump you in the face with it. It hurts! Andyou won't see it coming to get out of the way.

My 2yo DD broke her leg on Friday and they put the back slab cast on yesterday. We had an awful night! Glad to hear the fibreglass one will be lighter, roll on Tuesday.

@Super my three year old broke his leg last year - it gets better much quicker than you think it will!

@UnalliterativeGeorge thanks, that's so good to hear! How long did he have his cast on? A&E said 6 weeks but I keep hearing other people say their experience was more like 4ish weeks?

Thanks everyone hope your dc recover quickly @SuperDuperJezebel
He actually slept ok, but his fingers are a bit puffy this morning, I'm sure it's to be expected? He's now got it elevated and wiggling his fingers.
He has mentioned it's a bit scratchy so I might give that a go @MumUnderTheMoon

I have a broken leg. I had a back slab on the first week on my lower leg. It made my thigh muscles tremble - they said partly it was the inactivity when normally I’d be walking, the unnatural position and the weight of the heavy cast. I had to keep it elevated anyway, as the blood struggled to get past the swelling around the fracture to my foot; but even so, my guess is that a heavy cast will similarly put a strain on muscles in the shoulder and back of DC! I imagine supporting the weight of the cast in bed, would go some way to relieving the strain on the other muscles, not normally used in that way?

I also time the painkillers all day, so that I can take them at bedtime to ensure I get to sleep - I was told to take paracetamol as a baseline regularly to stop the pain building up, until it was unbearable. I also have codeine to take on top, which sends me to sleep, but I am not sure if they give that to children?

Agree very much with MontStMichael about not letting the pain get built up. I'm 7.5 weeks into a broken knee and the first cast is the worst, after 4 days I got into a fibreglass cast which was much easier then 4 weeks in a full leg brace (non weight bearing) which is hell on Earth. My aunt broke her wrist and had 5 weeks in the fibreglass cast (so more like 5.5 weeks total in cast) then some sort of arm brace for 2 weeks.
Keeping slightly elevated will help the circulation

@super he had it for six weeks. It was looking really grim by the time they took it off! The worst bit was when he started feeling better and could only wear pyjama bottoms as no trousers would fit over it - he was not happy

Placing his whole arm on a pillow or two would help him feel more comfortable and ease puffy fingers
He will feel much better with the lighter cast
Children's ibuprofen will help him
Waterproof cast cover available on ebay\Amazon
Hope he feels better soon

Thanks @Threeminis... Hope he's on the mend soon. I second the recommendation for a cast cover, we got the LimbO one on Amazon, same day delivery. Thank god cos she did a huge unexpected poonami today and REALLY needed a wash.

@Threeminis how is DS?

@SuperDuperJezebel how is DD?

I hope they are both managing with their casts okay

My DD broke her foot recently. I found the accesible range of clothes in M and S good. They have some jogging bottoms that have poppers going all the way up so easy to fit over cast.

@catinboots99
He's getting there, we got him a Simpsons sling which is so much comfier than the hospital one.
I kept him in my bed for the first two nights, but borrowed a bed guard much to his disgust so he's now back in his own bed.

He's gutted as he can't do anything he wants to - over the last few weeks he's been going round to the park round the corner (right in front of a friend's house) and has been loving the freedom.

Fairy luckily we've not had many issues clothes wise, he is ds2 so he's borrowed a couple of hoodies from ds1.

@catinboots99 she's doing okay thanks, after a 2.5h wait at the fracture clinic they decided that they would try her with a moon boot for a week and then x-ray her again next Tuesday if she's still not walking on it, as they weren't sure where or if the break was, apparently toddler breaks are hard to spot She couldn't be less keen to walk on it and is finding the moon boot a bit tricky, so it looks like another long wait next week to see if they want to put a cast on it or not.