3 year old can’t walk on leg

[Chris2315]

Hi guys, I have a 3 (nearly 4) year old who suddenly started complaining his leg was hurting yesterday and was limping - I didn’t see him hit it but he was jumping around a lot before. Specifically he’s said it’s around his shin. Since then he’s avoided walking completely and has been crawling around, and I’ve had to carry him up and downstairs, plus to the toilet. He woke up overnight (he’s been doing it often lately) and crawled to my door bless him :(

He can stand on it if I ask him too so he can bear weight, but the fact he isn't walking around has me worried but then I do think it's likely a sprain. Should I see a doctor or wait another day or so to see if it settles?

oh i would get him seen
bless him

Take him for a scan

my ds was the same at 4
but ran along the corridor when demosntrating to the doctor. who was lovely and understanding.

Likely or at least possible to be a toddler's fracture of the tibia.

If he's not willingly weightbearing on it since yesterday, I'd be getting it looked at today in either a walk-in centre, or minor injuries if possible, Paeds A&E if not...

Kids this age have a wide range of differentials, and sometimes an injury / activity can be a red herring - when are they ever not jumping around!

DOI - orthopaedic surgeon, and two of my kids have had toddler's fractures, but I also see other things like transient synovitis, or joint infections present as a limp...

You could take him to a minor injuries to get it checked.

Has he been ill with a virus recently? If so it could be synovitis? My child had it when they were 3 after being ill on and off for months, it was fluid on the hip joint and caused pain and a limp when walking, it eventually cleared up by itself.

Get it checked, but I was also going to ask if they've had a virus recently. Not an uncommon effect afterwards to affect the hips.

How is he OP? X

Thanks everyone for your replies, he seemed a bit better after I posted although not quite walking, so I thought I’d give him the day to see if it improves - and 1 hour ago he was running around the house chasing his brother 😄 and he said it doesn’t hurt at all now, so hopefully it was just a small muscle strain

oh that's good to know op

That's a relief!
Our child at that age went down a slide and complained about a bad leg, me FIL (GP) on the phone said see how it is in the morning, if she's forgotten about it and seems ok ... she wasn't. Went to see our GP who said he thought it probably wasn't broken but he'd give it another day, which was fine even if it is broken, and take her to get an x-ray if it's no better, it wasn't. A&E said it was probably fine but they'd take an x-ray just in case, and low and behold she had a hairline fracture