Toddler twisting in pain when lifted

[MsShopper]

Does anyone recognise what this is? I've tried Dr Google but am having no luck.

I picked up 14-month-old DS out of his high chair this evening in the usual way by lifting from under his armpits. Immediately he twisted and tensed up the right side of his body and cried out. He was then very whimpery and hesitant to let go of me when I tried to sit him on the floor. I observed him crawling around for a while then and he did seem to be kind of 'limping' a bit, in the crawling sense (if that makes any sense!).

He did the same twist and cry thing when lifting him in and out of the bath. On the changing table afterwards, he was doing his usual trick of trying to roll to the left so he could sit up but he wasn't able to roll properly at all.

Nursery said he was quite subdued and tearful at times today but I put that down to teething (he's cutting a molar). He seemed to brighten up a bit at home but was still quite subdued.

I'll take him to the GP tomorrow if he's no better in the morning, but in the meantime I have all sorts of worries running round my head. I've checked him over and there's no signs of bruising or anything anywhere. Could it just be a pulled muscle or something like that? A hernia even?

Definitely get him checked over. That doesn't sound right at all, especially being unable to roll.

My concern would be that he's had an injury at nursery and they either didn't notice or didn't tell you.

Has someone lifted him by both his arms rather than under armpits?

HeyRoly, that's my worry too, though nursery is usually very good like that. Crumbs, I wondered that and was reading up about pulled elbow, but the symptoms don't seem to fit. He's using and bending both arms fine, and can do his usual pulling himself up to standing. Though he does seem to be a little bit more hesitant in his movements.

I'll see what the doc says tomorrow and will update. (And try not to Google any more!)

My son had a broken collar bone and reacted like this. Fell off a slide at nursery and landed on shoulder. Triage nurse diagnosed it it seconds as said would be agony to be picked up under arms.

You can easily check for a broken collarbone. Definitely do get him checked over if he still seems in pain.

Broken collar bone or ribs would be my guess. Although at 14 months he should still have fairly soft bones so it would take some significant fall to break them.

I would call 111 at the very least and see what they say but honest I would be into A&E ASAP

Oh no, that sounds awful! Was he in any pain aside from when being picked up? (DS has been sleeping peacefully in his cot for the past 2 hours.)

No but it was summer so didn't have to worry about jumpers etc over his head which would have hurt. Bones were soft so Calpol and Nurofen and was fine in a couple of weeks but don't lift him under the arms till you get him checked out as will be agony

I undressed him no problem (t-shirt over long-sleeve vest, and both a bit snug) and when I was checking him over he was fine letting me lift both arms up and down. No sign of any discomfort, no lumps or bruising that I could see. But thank you - I really appreciate it. I will ring 111 and get some advice.

Hope he is ok. Maybe pulled something while playing.

Hope he's ok is there any update ??

Sorry! It's been one of those days... Update is we ended up taking him to A&E at our local children's hospital first thing this morning. (Made a judgement call not to last night based on seeing on the video monitor that he was rolling fine in his sleep.)

It took several hours but eventually they were able to rule out a broken bone. They diagnosed pulled elbow, though suggested the twisting thing wasn't typical. They couldn't really explain that, other than it was likely just his tensing up at having his arms extended. So we're home, he's dosed up on Ibuprofen, and we're hoping that the elbow manipulation the doc did will do the trick!

Thanks all for your wisdom and good wishes.