Dropped my 3 week old today :(

[MummyIsMagic79]

Am so gutted.

Was carrying him in the Moses basket from one room to another. One of the handles slipped from my hand so the basket dropped down sideways IYSWIM. He landed on the floor and yelled his head off. I grabbed him straightaway and he settled fine in minutes.
No bruises or anything, and has fed, slept etc normally all day, but I'm worried. Should I have gone to A and E?
I'm mortified and so sad for him.
One patch of his forehead was red for a while but only about half an hour.
Any advice?

It's fine....we all do that...just keep an eye on him x

My husband dropped our 9 day old baby down half the stairs carrying him in his Moses basket for his night feed. So I understand how scared you feel! We rang 999 and were told to carry on with the feed and to see what he did (as he was crying) well he stopped crying and had his feed. Happy as anything afterwards. We got him checked over and he was fine. He turns 13 next week. We've all done it. But we didn't carry him in his Moses again after that!

Keep an eye on him :)

I think we've all done it at some point, but a warning about Moses Baskets, even though they have handles you are not meant to carry them with the baby inside (yes I know daft!)

I dropped my mobile phone on DS's head when he was 14 weeks. I was taking his photo and just slipped. It hit him on the side of his forehead & he SCREAMED. I felt awful, he had a little bruise & a bump. I rang DF who is a GP, he said just to keep an eye on him - he was fine. You just feel sick though don't you? I think most people do it at some point, don't beat yourself up too much.

we've all done it! honestly we have! its totally gutting when it happens though!

watch out for vomiting and/or unusual sleepiness

Wait til you bang his head walking through a doorway with him in your arms

yeah that one is the worst needathickerskin, did that when I underestimated how much longer DS had grown! his head didn't used to stick out that far in my arms! caught his face on the door handle!

he was fine - I was traumatised for weeks!

We stupidly put dd1 on a changing mat on a kitchen work top when she was tiny, less than 10wks I think. We looked away for a second and she pushed herself up and off the other side onto a concrete floor.

DH panicked (don't blame him), we went straight in the car to local GP as a massive (like a large orange) bump appeared instantly, then went to A+E, who checked her over quickly and told us to keep an eye on her. Dh and i were distraught, she had the most horrific bruising and huge lump for weeks and I ran through various scenarios thinking she might be brain damaged etc. I didn't want to tell anyone as I was so ashamed.

Fast forward 7 years later, she's top of the class and never shuts up (in a good way). But, even now I still feel sick to the stomach if I think about it and the noise she made as she landed - could cry now in fact and I am the most unemotional person ever.

So, in a long winded way, you're not alone, the trick is to make sure you never do it again! Just keep an eye out for the usual symptoms, did you get a leaflet from a+e?

Keep an eye but my ds1 sent my newborn flying at 6 days old in her pram to the ground - luckily strapped into car seat. Gp made me feel silly even having brought her. Wouldn't worry. They don't anticipate or brace themselves so they do bounce!

Please try not to beat yourself up about it. I dropped my DS off the bed onto the floor in hospital when he was just a few hours old. I cried for over a week about it and still wake up reliving it 9 weeks later. The best way I found to deal with it is to talk about it and don't feel ashamed - similar things have happened to so many people, try to accept its happened. I was sent flying across my room as a newborn baby by and over enthusiastic labrador trying to investigate the crying coming from my crib! I was fine, my DS is fine and your Bubs is too x

Lainey1234 have seen two children with skull fractures from similar episodes in the first days of life so people's experience will vary.

It's 5 days since this little one was dropped so it's likely that everything is fine but for future reference here are a few things to remember:

• lots of babies fall, very few babies are ever injured
• whilst the head is prone to being hit - it's disproportionally large/heavy in infants - they can injury themselves elsewhere too. Always look out for signs that a child is not moving an arm or a leg as much as normal after a fall. It doesn't hurt to press on the collar bone on each side to check it hasn't been damaged - it's a fragile bone and injuries are easily missed.
• lethargy and vomiting will present late in head injuries in babies - these are signs of raised pressure inside the head related to bleeding/swelling (in the context of injury). However, the soft spot provides a "release valve" which means that a sizeable bleed may be asymptomatic for some time. Watch for evidence of an elevated soft spot may be more useful.
• in the unlikely event that your child has got a significant injury it is always better that you were seen earlier, not just for health reasons. All clinicians are much more on the ball regarding child protection issues these days and delayed presentations are always treated with a degree of skepticism.

If you're worried that doctors never seem to do anything then the reason is simple - the investigation of choice for head injury is a CT scan (MRI is time consuming and poor for bones and Ultrasound imaging of babies brains is not good for looking around the edges where a bleed wold be), this carries a sizeable dose of radiation and, if enough babies are scanned, one would end up developing a tumour in later life as a result of that scan. Therefore doctors will use the NICE guidance on head injuries which is based on a series of studies, the biggest of which looked at over 20,000 cases. If you want to know what the doctors are thinking then google NICE head injury guidelines. There's a quick reference guide that will get you up to speed very easily.

I hope that's helpful, as I said, everyone has different experiences - parents will usually see their child fall once and have no problems whilst some of us will see lots of children who have fallen and only remember the ones who had problems!

Thank you for the information, 1234, and thank you everyone for sharing your experiences with me. DS is absolutely fine now and seems to have no after effects.
Still feel shit about it, but I guess it can't be helped.

Inmyopinion1- I hope you didn't think I was trivialising the potential injuries to the babies. Like the other posters I was assuring the op that it happens, but many of us have done the same.

In my experience, the nhs hospital went all out to check my DS was well. Including brain scans, full body X-rays and 24 hours in special care for observation. He had a nasty fall and I was lucky that all was well.

I'm so frustrated my 3weeks baby just fell off the bed.. After I breastfed her apparently I dozed off and she fell on the floor then I quickly grabbed her.. She was crieng so bad and I tried to breastfed her again and she she fed and stopped crieng but I can't stop feeling like a bad mother.. I tried to wake her up as she fell asleep just to check if she will respond and and opened her eyes and I've been rubbing her head and body just to check if she doesn't feel any pain somewhere but she seems fine.. I realy hate myself right now cos I dnt how this happened as I've been very careful since day 1 but I guess It was meant to happen.. Do u guys think I should take her to the doctor or she will be fine??

At that young age and due to being from high up bed I would get checked for reassurance did she loose unconscious? Did you wake up quickly when she fell and started crying right away ?

Yes I grabbed her from the floor immediately she fell down and she did not loose unconscious as I breastfed her and she fed and she did open her eyes and stopped crying..

I've dropped my newborn she's 7 weeks from her car seat onto the floor and she landed on her belly and has small bump on her head. She's been fine but I feel so awful i couldn't bear to be alone with her so my partner stayed of work has anyone else ever done this 😭

I'm after some advice because my baby is very unsettled and can't put him down very often to make a bottle. What are people's opinions on the pros and cons of reheating fresh bottles. I looked on line and it said how to reheat them and then at the end that you should never reheat formula bottles. Thanks

@TibbsBoo26 How old is your baby? I’d reheat a bottle once but not again. You can give them a bottle cold, my baby quite likes this in this heat. Don’t worry about putting the baby down for make a bottle. They cry but as long as they are safe it’s fine. It doesn’t take long to make a bottle and they’ll soon stop crying when you’ve made one and they are drinking it. I know it can be overwhelming when your baby won’t be put down and cries but they are fine as long as you put them in a safe place. Don’t worry it gets easier! X

@TibbsBoo26, just wanted to suggest that you'd be better making your own thread for advice about the subject, rather than posting on the end of this one about accidentally dropping babies, which was originally started in 2012 :)

I thought I had started my own thread but it posted it here instead and I can't work out how to delete it.

Hes 4 weeks. Thank you for the advice looking forward to it getting easier