What do you think I should do? A&E?

[Bfisher98]

This afternoon I took both my kids out with my friend and her baby to the park.

Whilst we were there my son who’s 3 1/2 was playing on the climbing frame, I looked away for 2 seconds to sort my baby out and he’d fallen off, he was by the steps on his front but landed on his arm I ran over to him and checked he was ok as he was moaning and he just ran off like nothing had happened. for the next 5-10 mins after that he carried on playing but kept on holding onto his arm. This happened about 5 hours ago and obviously as I didn’t have my eye on him I’m not sure what height he’s fallen from.

since being home he’s had a bath to see if it would bring out any swelling which I can’t tell if it had yet but he has said to me every now and then that his arm hurts, he won’t let me look at it either but this is normal for him. He’s in the process of getting assessed for ADHD/ASD so I’m not sure if this is playing a part with the pain tolerance or not. I’m not really sure if I should take him to A&E to get it checked or not, what do you think I should do?

Take him. Without an X-ray it’s impossible to know whether it’s broken.

It happens in a split second to every parent!

Better to be safe than sorry, id go just go to get checked over if you are worried.

X

Take him. Lack of pain recognition is common with ASD. My son had a fractured ankle and rated it 2 out of 10 for pain 🤦‍♀️ When he had a problem with his knee a few years later and rated it 5 I pointed out to them that on his scale that was really bloody serious 😂

Can you play some games to see if he’s using it properly? Otherwise At and E
or minor injuries in the morning!

Aww poor thing. If he’s not actually in pain / can sleep and you can’t see any visible swelling personally i would attempt to avoid Saturday night A&E mayhem! Early tomorrow morning could be better xx

Minor injuries not a and e. But check what time X ray is open as you'll have to wait til morning/go elsewhere if it's not.

Take him. I fell onto a concrete floor. Two weeks later I had a bruise and thought hmm, that's a break. Yep, broke my wrist and elbow. No real pain and carried on doing everything for the two weeks.

He has been using it and also putting some weight on it but I don’t know if he knows what pain is if you get what I mean?

My child broke their arm in a playground. It immediately swelled they were screaming, guarding it. Even so I'd still take yours as a precaution.

My son had a fall moaned a bit, was quiet. Decided to take him, he had a fractured collar bone.

Let him sleep, if he's still guarding it in the morning take him first thing to minor injuries/walk in. You might be able to 'book' a slot through 111 to reduce waiting time for him.

If he's holding his arm, it could be a broken collar bone.

I’d let him sleep on it and go in the morning if it still hurts, can he squeeze your finger? Can he lift his arm (from shoulder), can he straighten/bend the arm?

Is he awake now?
If yes I'd take him, if no check him in the morning and consider taking him.

Saturday nights in A&E are not the nicest of places.

If he can sleep then it can wait until morning.
Take him to A&E then if he doesn't seem to be using it normally.

My then 3 year old screamed for a good 45 minutes when he broke his leg. It only stopped when the strong pain medication the doctor at a&e gave him started working. It was a very bad break, but no swelling at all. So I wouldn't discount it because of a lack of swelling. He is Autistic. Id say 2 of my kids are very aware of pain and the 3rd I think doesn't feel it so clearly, all Autistic. Id probably wait till morning if he wasn't distressed by it, but if you think he doesn't recognise pain properly that makes it harder as the normal cues might be lacking from his behaviour.

If it doesn’t look obviously deformed and he’s not distressed plus circulation to the hand looks ok I would give him some calpol. Still painful in the morning or not using then he needs an xray.
I’ve worked in A&E for 25+ years and this is exactly what I did with my own dd the other week ( hers was broken when it was x-rayed the next day!)