Get checked or an overreaction?

[Somuchgoo]

My 4yo went to a party yesterday and ended up falling backwards off a bench onto a hard floor. She has a balance disorder and so trips and falls are very frequent. Usually after a hug she's fine.

6 weeks ago she had a fall that clearly caused her finger a lot of pain - we ended up in A&E with a broken finger, and got it fixed under GA 2 days later. She was clearly in significant pain with that, although still ate at the party, napped etc before we went to the hospital.

This time her elbow is nowhere near as painful, but she is holding it up to her chest and had been since she banged it (yesterday afternoon). She's using the arm, albiet not straightened, and says it hurts to straighten it.

If it were my eldest I'd definitely give it a bit longer before getting it checked because she complains about things hurting a lot more (she'll complain for days about a paper cut 😂), but my youngest has been through a LOT medically and is a bit more stoic about things.

It's very rare of her to complain of pain the following day, but she's not distressed - just not using it. Equally, I know if several people who broke bones who didn't get it checked out for days...

What does everyone think? I find it really hard knowing where the line in getting things checked out is.

Ps: we don't have a minor injuries unit. We do have a very good and pretty efficient A&E so shouldn't be stuck there the whole day is we did go. But I don't want to waste their time

I'd definitely go and get it checked out

No harm getting it checked?

Take her.

Hmnn, she's just started playing with her sister and threw a ball to her with her arm stretched out without a hint of pain, but if otherwise still holding it up and days it hurts.

I've managed to usage a look at her elbow and it seems to have what looks like friction burns on it, so I expect it's that being a bit sore. As she had been holding it closer to her I hadn't looked at it properly before.

I asked her and she said it hurts in the outside and on the inside I think I'll see how she is later this morning rather than rushing up immediately.

I would get it checked still. What's her normal pain threshold like?

Ds aged 8yo spent a week with a broken wrist doing normal things and occasionally swapping hands, but not really noticable, before I took him to play tennis and he refused to use his hand. He'd been at a kids camp and the medics had checked him over and he'd said he was fine.

I would get it checked.

I didn't get it checked in the end. She played fine all afternoon and was on her scooter. She still says it hurts to fully extend it and avoids doing so, but she's using her arm, including crawling around pretending to be a cheetah. If I notice her starting to hold it oddly again I'll reassess, but I think she's basically fine.

The thing is, she does fall over and injure herself a LOT (several times a day). It's just sorting out the minor ones from the ones to get checked out. This one does seem to have caused a friction burn which would be painful when extending her arm, so it makes sense, but her lack of difficulty moving/putting weight on it makes me think it's probably nothing more.