Toddler has injured her leg and can’t walk

[ProssecoParent]

Was at a friend’s house yesterday who hired a bouncy castle for the kids. My 2 year old managed to injure her leg, I didn’t see what happened but one of the mums said she landed on her leg awkwardly. She was crying and in pain. She can’t stand on it or walk, she cried all through the night constantly in pain. Her leg isn’t swollen or hot and doesn’t hurt her when touching it. This morning we took her to a&e she had an x ray the doctor said no broken bones but will have an expert examine it Monday. He said he thinks it’s a sprain and give her calpol but she is in sooo much pain she hasn’t walked all day we’re carrying her everywhere and she can’t get to sleep she’s so uncomfortable. Could this really just be a sprain?! I’m so stressed out. I put her to bed at 7pm and she’s still awake screaming in pain. Someone please give me some advice I don’t want to take her to a&e again as she’s sooo tired right now and what if it just a sprain

Give ibuprofen as well until appt tomorrow

There is no appt tomorrow he said will call if anything shows up on the x ray

It’ll be ok till tomorrow. Keep on with the Calpol. But does sound like more than a sprain.

This happened to my DS at 2.5 ish after his younger brother got hold of their older sister's squash racket and whacked him on the leg with it. The doctors in a&e eventually concluded it was a soft tissue injury but he was in so much pain he couldn't walk for days. So yes I do think they can be that badly hurt without breaking anything. Hope your DC is feeling better soon.

Dd had as much pain when she had a bad ankle sprain (boot for 3 weeks) as DS did with his fractured leg (cast for 3 weeks)
Sprains are painful. Either way all the cast does it keep the leg in one position for the bone to knit and protect it

both are painful and uncomfortable and for her age completely out of her context to understand what is going on.

give neurofen - she needs the anti inflammatory and that will help and let her rest

remember ACL ligament damage particularly a tear is worse for an athlete than a simple break

You know your child....is she usually stoic or a bit of a winger with minor injury? With mine they'd winge if they were focussed on it but could easily be distracted from it. If I couldnt distract them I knew I needed to step up intervention.

If you think in genuine pain, I think I'd try a dose of ibuprofen and see if it settles her. If not I'd pop back to a&e as you are unable to manage the pain at home and not sleeping anyway. If it settles her I'd keep up alternating calpol/ibuprofen for a day or two and if no better see the GP for further advice.

A sprain can be genuinely debilitating. Some sprains can be far worse than actual bone breaks in terms of pain but that doesn't mean you shouldn't seek further medical input if you can't manage her pain.

Fractures in toddlers can sometimes take 7-10 days to become more obvious (on X-rays). My daughter was sent home from A&E, diagnosed with a sprain, almost 2 weeks later she had a follow up appointment where they said they thought they had spotted a line on her X-ray which may indicate a fracture. An X-ray confirmed this. She ended up in a hip spica for 3 weeks. I’d be chasing it up tomorrow if I were you!