If your DC broke their leg, when were they able to go back to school?

[ThisCatCanHop]

Posting here for traffic - DS (5) broke his leg 5 weeks ago. Plaster is now off but he has proved very reluctant to try to put weight on it, even though he was weight bearing while standing for the last week of the cast (which the nurses had said he could do and which would help with recovery). It’s as though his mobility has gone backwards since the cast came off - he was crawling before and now won’t.

If your child was non-weight-bearing for a similar period, how long did it take after the cast came off before they were able to bear weight, and walk? And when did they go back to school? And did anything help with recovery?

I can’t offer advice on when he’ll be able to bear weight unfortunately, but I can’t see why he’s missed/should continue to miss school?

I’ve been a Nursery and Reception teacher and have had children with all kinds of broken bones! The school just need to complete a risk assessment with your help ☺️

The last child who broke her leg at the nursery I’m involved with was back after about 5 days. We risk assessed the setting, both inside and outside and once parents were confident that she was pain-free, then she came back.

Has your son been on crutches? In a wheelchair? Like a previous poster, I’m not clear why your son has been off school for so long.

The risk assessment template I’ve seen asks if they can weight bear. If they can, it’s more straight forward. If they can’t then in my experience a specialist health & safety officer from the LA comes in to assess them as part of the risk assessment process. The classroom environment plays a part (obviously easier for an 11 year old than a 5 year old as they’re more likely to be at desks all day rather than moving around early years provision), as do stairs & how confident they are on their crutches. And ability to toilet unaided.

So the question is better answered by someone medical if this & the school environment are preventing a return: how long until he’s able to weight bear?

My dc went the next day to nursery.No crutches, he was too little

My DC broke his leg when he was 6 and went back to school (in his cast) after about 2 weeks, however once he had his cast off he didn’t weight bear for about a month; we tried everything including all sorts of bribery, but it turned out that his ankle muscles had weakened significantly and he needed a few sessions of physio to get sorted. He still attended school but used his zimmer frame to get about until he was back on 2 feet.

This is really interesting - thank you to all who’ve replied. I have actually managed to get him on his feet this evening but it’s going to be a while before he’s fully mobile.

As he’s 5, we were told he wouldn’t be given crutches as he was too young. He missed the last week of term (which I think was right as he was in pain at first and quite shocked by being suddenly immobile), then it was Easter holidays. We have been liaising with school ever since to try to get him back in. I think a combination of timing and age has meant they’ve been quite relaxed about it; he also had 100% attendance before this.

He is in a pushchair or wheelchair but requires an adult to push him and requires full support toileting as he can’t manage getting on and off the loo unaided, much less clothes. School have not explicitly said he can’t come back until he can weight bear, but that’s been implied, and all the driving to get him in has been from us. They have cited risk assessments and potential issues with other children, including those with additional needs (implying they may knock him/not be careful around him - but I would expect this from 5 year olds regardless of SEN). It’s certainly been implied that he can’t be in for the whole day if he can’t toilet independently. So he missed the first week back while they came up with a plan and is now in for the first 1.5 hours of the day.

It’s difficult because I can see they won’t be resourced to manage this easily but, at the same time, he is well enough, physically and mentally, to be in. I’m concerned the longer he is out, the harder it will be to adjust. And not top priority, but we are struggling to juggle a part-time timetable with work (although we are lucky to have flexible employers and I work part-time anyway).

It's a long time ago now, but DD broke her leg when she was 5. I do remember that there was quite a long period (from memory 2-3 weeks) after the cast came off when she was very wary of putting any weight on the leg. She had some physio sessions which I think helped a bit. There was then a day when her walking suddenly improved dramatically when she went to a birthday party and wanted to join in with the games!

@Zxcvbnlkjhgf that sounds about right! The only clear advice we got from the hospital was “kids don’t need physio” - and it may well be that he doesn’t but I would have liked more guidance around what to expect mobility-wise.

It feels weird weigh bearing after a break and can actually be quite painful in places you don’t expect (heels, for example) because the tendons and ligaments haven’t been used for so long. My recent leg break found far more pain in my heel when I started weigh bearing than the break site.
He might be noticing it feels strange and ‘tight’ and is avoiding that.

Can you and his dad (or another adult) get either side of him and allow him to use you both to help walk and take the weight off it a bit? You could try and turn it into a game- maybe buy him a treat and say you’ve hidden it in the garden somewhere and he’s got to walk with you to find it?

DS went back after a week but was in a wheelchair (and luckily a newly built very accessible school. Using the toilet was the main problem but I went in and practiced the handrails with him. He was in a full leg cast for a month and couldn’t weight bear at all. Then a half leg which he could hobble about a bit on for another month. Finally he had a “boot” for a couple of weeks to build his confidence.

He definitely needed physio. I think the hardest problem to fix was getting him to loosen up as he’d got used to swinging his whole leg with the cast/boot on. It took another 6-9 months before he was running completely normally.

@Pricelessadvice , you’re right - it is the heel he complains of pain in. We’re no further forward and ended up going back to the fracture clinic yesterday (after ringing for advice; GP told us to go to A&E 🙄). They re-X-rayed him and everything has healed nicely. So it is presumably a mixture of muscles/tendons/ligaments being tight and psychological. We have managed to get him putting the tip of his toes to the floor but it is a real struggle.

We have managed to get school to have him in for the morning but I don’t think they’re willing to take him for the whole day until he’s more mobile, which I can understand from a logistical point of view but he’s quite enjoying being at home more….so is not really helpful as this may be contributing to motivation to walk again….

The heel pain is really awful. It feels like the worst plantar fasciitis but right on the bottom of the heel. Unfortunately it’s just time and walking/stretching that helps. What I would advise is to get a small ball or tennis ball and tell him to sit (watching TV or something) and roll the ball around under his heel and foot. Or put his foot on the ball and roll it around. It activates the ligaments and soft tissue without the weight of the body on it.
Other than that it’s just pushing through the pain a bit. The pain does eventually disappear, but it’s quite intense initially.

I was surprised how much pain came from that area. I had pretty much zero pain at the site of the actual breaks!