Child stubbed little toe, now red and painful, need NHS X-ray?

[CrazyBananna29]

DS was sliding around in the kitchen today in his socks when he ran in crying. He had stubbed his right 5th toe on a chair. Since then I’ve been applying ice but the toe has turned very red and he’s complaining of pain when he walks. I have always been told there is nothing NHS will do for toes but I’m unsure. To make matters worth it is his birthday tomorrow! Is it worth a trip for an X-ray or can it be treated at home?

Maybe use 111 first, realistically, even if they did do an X-ray, there’s not much in the way of treatment other than pain relief

I don’t think they’d do anything I’m sorry I’m sure it will feel better soon, maybe wear socks in bed tonight. Hope it feels better soon x

Yes thought as much, will just keep an eye on it. There’s a bruise starting to show up now but hopefully socks to bed tonight and a chilled birthday tomorrow will do the trick

If it’s an end toe he should get it checked in case he’s broken his foot

I wouldn’t do A and E but if you have a minor injuries with an Xray tomorrow if he’s still in a lot of pain/struggling to walk on it. Poor boy with his birthday tomorrow!

If it is broken, all you do is use medical tape to tape it to the toe next to it.
I would be keeping an eye out for signs of infection and that can happen in a toe even if there was no cut.

They’ll just tape it to the next one.

My local MIU refused to xray my son's toe, despite it being bruised. To be fair, they could tell it was broken due to his pain response during manipulation; despite this we were told to carry on as normal but rest if it hurt.

That was 3 years ago and it was fine, has healed and looks normal. No complaints.

Just rest and calpol if he's in pain. Kids heal quickly.

Hi all thanks for your replies, unfortunately after a fun but limp-filled birthday we decided to take DS for an X-ray today which has diagnosed a broken pinky toe. As expected very little can be done except from strapping it and consuming copious amounts of ice cream

I did that last year, surprisingly painful! Get well soon Bananna Junior.

Ice cream is a wonderful tonic to lots of childhood illnesses/bumps. As is crappy TV and snuggles.