to worry about my son's bruises?

[MamaLazarou]

I feel a bit daft for asking this, but would appreciate some reassurance that this is normal. Please feel free to point and laugh if you must.

My son is 20 months old and is always completely covered in bruises from head to toe. He seems to be accident-prone at the moment and also bruises very easily (as do I. My mum says I was just the same as a kid). For instance: he currently has a bruised bridge of the nose from knocking it on a swing, one on his jaw from falling off a chair, one on his forehead from slipping off a leafy kerb onto a (stationary) car bumper and a big bruise/carpet burn from falling down the stairs this morning.

His legs and arms have about 20 or so bruises each, from the hundred or so times a day he falls over or knocks into things.

Should I be worried that: a) he is so accident-prone and b) bruises so easily?

No-one could be hurting my little boy without my knowledge - we spend all our time together and I am always present when he has his tumbles.

For peace of mind you could take him to your GP or talk to health visitor. That does sound like an excessive amount of bruisong for a LO. TBH I would do one or the other before someone else picks up on it and contacts HV or someone else to 'report' it.

At least if you are raising the issue yourself he can be checked out just to make sure there isn't something going on ( maybe needs a little vitamin K or something?)

Hugs xx

I would be a bit concerned that he's having so many accidents. My DS is nearly the same age and does have quite a few bruises (all of his own making!) but the accidents you listed are pretty preventable. If you're there, how is he knocking his nose on a swing, falling off a kerb or falling down the stairs? Maybe a bit closer supervision?

Thanks Shaz298, will call the HVs. Good idea.

AKMD - however closely I watch him, he always seems to manage to have an accident! Fair enough, letting him go upstairs was slack of me. I should have been watching but I thought he was in the front room watching TV (I was washing up). I accept full responsibility for that one. But he banged his nose on the swing whilst actually IN the swing! It was one of those baby ones and he bashed it on the bar (no idea how he managed that - I was behind him at the time, pushing him). I was holding his hand when he slipped on the leaves and his hand slipped out of mine.

Oh ok, I see what you mean about the swing. Reins maybe?

Sounds normal to me. Recently DD2 (29 months) has had a nasty graze on her back where she fell onto the rockery (!) a cut near the eye where DD1 accidentally poked her with a stick, and scratch on her head from when she fell off her scooter, skinned knees and multiple small bruises on her lower legs.

AKMD - my husband has been out to buy some reins today!

Sounds like a good idea!

Just to give you an example, DS's bruises are on his shins because he likes to kick them against the table while he's in his highchair , on his chin because he tripped over his own feet at nursery and fell onto a bookcase, on his cheek where SIL failed to catch him after encouraging him to jump off her bed and on his forehead from when he was running in the park and fell over without putting his hands down. Apart from the cheek one, I would see that as wear and tear.

my son is the same but my neice was really bad and it got so bad SS was involved as every one thought some one must be hurting her. In the end the doctor realised that there was something wrong with her ears and it affected her balance.

Why not go doctors and get checked out.

Sounds normal to me - my two are constantly black and blue as well! DTS1 has a black eye from the roundabout at the park the other day...that one's fun to explain!

If you are concerned, get him checked at the GP, for inner ear balance issues or anaemia, which can cause bruises.

But I genuinely think it is totally normal.

Some children also bruise very easily.

does he have very flexible joints?
do you?
do the beighton test
www.hypermobility.org/beighton.php

he may have inheritied hypermobility and easy bruising - condition called ehlers danlos syndrome which is hereditary and either you or Dh would ikely have symptoms

My boys are covered in bruises too, but if you are worried do get it checked. DS2 actually walked into a door last week - twice! "How did he get that bruise? Oh he walked into a door....."

I'd get it checked, but it's probably nothing. When I was small my mum permanently had a tube of witch hazel gel in her bag because I was accident prone, and I bruised really easily.

I still bruise easily, in fact. Nothing wrong with me (according to GP), but my mum and I both bruise easily and they stay. My boyfriend asks me to change my outfits sometimes because it looks like he's been thumping me.

DD1 gets horribly clumsy when she goes through a growth spurt. She's 7 so it's slowed down a bit, but for a while she was constantly falling over!

Maybe it's a combination of not long learning to walk and a growth spurt?

Would still get it checked out by the GP though, just to rule everything out.

I'd get it checked out. I'd say that my kids bruise easily and are fairly clumsy, but they've probably each got no more than two or three bruises per limb at any given time! 20 sounds like an awful lot to me.

Hope it all works out and turns out to be just a clumsy little fella :) x

Another one here that bruises easily, I've always been the same ever since I was a small child. I can just lean on something too much and I'll have a bruise, or carry a heavy shopping bag on my wrist and come up with a bruise. Even when I played my new Wii game the other day, I was wearing the monitor on my fore-arm and it gave me a bruise. Most of the time I don't know where it came from.

As a child I was quite clumsy (fell when trying to run fast/ playing games in the yard/ on my bike/ skates etc), but grew out of it as I reached teens/ adulthood. Nothing wrong with me. My mother got me checked out when I was about 8/9 and it involved a blood test, everything came back fine. I always looked like I'd been battered.

My daughter is nearly three and she seems to bruise easily too. So perhaps it's hereditary, we both are the same colouring (red hair and pale skin).

Do get your little boy checked out, but hopefully it's nothing to worry about.

Get it checked out. My sis was so bruised that we received a visit from a social worker when I was a kid. Turned out she was anaemic and was prone to bruise from just bumping against something.

Also, invest in some Arnica cream.

You sound like a caring mum but it does concern me that at 20 months he isn't supervised infront of swings, near roads so he can get to the kerb and fall downstairs . At that age he should be holding your hand near roads, have you close enough to him to pull him away from swings and someone next to him on stairs

Bruises are very normal and so is banging into tables/ chairs/ people. It is highly unlikely he is being harmed by someone. If the bruising is mostly over bone then it will usually be accidental and will not be in a set pattern i.e. mark from being hit. HTH

I had to take ds to the dr whilst bruised about the face. one from the camera swinging round and hitting him on the corner of the eye as I bent down to comfort him thankfully, there was a room full of witnesses to that one.

he had done something to the other cheek, can't remember now. and he narrowly missed another bruise when falling on the icy pub car park because h did not have hold of him.

I am another red head that bruises easily. though sometimes I am in agony after bumping something on a door frame and there is nothing to show for it, other times I have bruises that I don't know where they came from.

dd is hypermobile and falls a lot so is covered with bruises.

ds runs around like a complete loony and throws himself on the floor... and is bruised. he is slightly red haired as well.