Does anyone else have an accident prone child?

[legalalien]

DS (2.8) is at A&E for the second time this week, being checked for a serious bump on head. First time tripped over running too fast; has now managed to exceed his climbing skills.

Apparently like his father at the same age, he knows no fear and is incredibly determined to be the one who runs the fastest, climbs the highest - you get the picture.

His Dad spent a lot of his childhood in A&E (to the point where social services became concerned that he was being ill-treated at home - which he wasn't).

I, on the other hand, have never broken a bone.

Does anyone else have accident-prone children? Doubt whether there's anything I can do (other than standard safety precautions, which I DO already take)? Care to complain?

Oh yes - Ds(4).

At nursery they have an accident book. There is a communal page on which they record the accidents that most children have and then ds has a page all of his own!

We have been to A&E several times with him.

Like your ds he knows no fear - he is also just plain unlucky. At a party several weeks ago, there was a tree in the garden which several children were climbing. I was stood at the bottom making sure he was firmly stood on the braches. However, he still managed to get hold of a rotten one which snapped and made him lose his balance and he fell flat on his back. I am still feeling guilty about it (and still have back ache as he insisted on being carried home!).

Not sure there is anything that you can do (or if there is I have yet to work it out)!

My brother spent half his life at A&E. His son is heading the same way. Poor thing already has a tooth knocked out at aged just over 2.

I don't think there is anything you can do but have lots of plasters available

Both my DD (16mths and 2yr11mth) have black and blue legs from bruises in their various stages, scratches from wherever they climb or fall etc. It is quite embarrasing, though thankfully no A+E visits recently - though we've had them! I was commenting to DH last night about it and we have decided there must be loads of kids out there like this who are so active - especially outdoors in the good weather. I think it is just a stage of growing up and hopefully they learn from it - and we keep doing our best to protect them without wrapping them in cotton wool and making life boring.

legalalien with my ds between the ages of 2 and 4 it seemed like we were never out of a + e, including a ride in an ambulance, we even had a visit off the health visitor due to the amount of times we went to hospital However touch wood he now nearly 6 and finally seems to have got some common sense

yes - DS also has black and blue legs (and currently a lovely scab on his knee, although he tells me it's "healing nicely". I suspect I might let him do a bit more climbing and running than some parents (I say this because my decision to let him climb on one of the walls at the pub on the weekend sparked a generational debate at the next table as to whether the DSs / DGSs (is that an allowable acronym) were being too protected by their parents. (the children in question, aged 5, were not too pleased that they weren't able to do what DS was doing).

My ds was and still is at 13 years old, accident prone. Funny story when we were decorating our house, we took the door surrounds off, ds asked if we would keep them off as he walks into them when they are on, god love him he is so clumbsy.

Yes DD is incredibly accident prone. She is always falling over, tripping up, bashing herself around. She's 5 and I've been to A&E with her three times so far and she's had an operation to ensure that she didn't get a scar where she bashed her mouth on a chair leg. Can't really do a lot about it except hope she lands safely...

Yes, dd1 who is now 14 and last year she fell of the curb and broke her leg. The year before I sent her to the shop to get bread, my next door neighbour brought her home as she had only got to the end of the road and clipped her handle bar on the post box - went over the handlebars and was flat out on the pavement, she broke her collar bone. Fell out of a trolley and broke her finger the year before that....

DS1 is my accident prone one. He started his injuries career at 14mths with several stitches in a cut over his eye. Next up was more stitches in his head when he fell in the post-natal ward the day after I had ds2. That was followed by the infamous trying-to-cut-an-apple-with-a-bread-knife incident, which led to a poisoned finger.

He progressed to numerous puncture wounds on his head after walking into a pebble-dashed wall, whilst trying to persuade ds2 he could see through the hat he was wearing over his face.

Then he had a broken toe and chipped his teeth and, as he got older, car accidents, in which, thankfully, only the cars were harmed. After that came the day he knocked himself out on a 'Mind your Head' sign in Waterstone's, the back injury he acquired when he fell over a wheelie bin and the shin splints from running on hard surfaces. Luckily for me, he's now his wife's problem and not mine!!

And I've just remembered the day he fell off a 6ft wall and another occasion when he fell into a bed of stinging nettles.....

I’m the same with my son he fell of the monkey bars in the park when he was 7 broke his elbow ,so in a cast for 6 weeks age 8 he snapped his femur bone on a skateboard was in hospital for 18 days in traction had to have operation with pins while walking on a crutches he fell over again then age 9 broke his wrist in a skate park ,3 weeks ago he was pushed by a boy down a grass hill and broke his toe this is just 8 weeks after having his pins out from his leg ,a week ago he hit his head on a kerb without wearing a helmet had a huge lump on his forehead and a black eye all hospital visits and always check if have a social worker always worried they may send for one as always having bumps and scrapes in between ,then two days ago he came in with about 300 nettle stings on his legs as he was playing tag and all his friends ran around but he ran through knee high nettles so they didn’t catch him then yesterday got the dreaded call my son had been hit by a car of his bike ,two broken toes on one foot(plus a broken toe from 3 weeks prior)broken hand ,glue on his forehead and cheek and covered in grazes and bruises from head to toe he just dosent see the danger I’m so terrified now as we are all so shocked but we can’t not let him play either