DD broke her leg today.... any tips on keeping a hyper 4 year old from losing her mind with boredom being stuck on the couch til she gets a heel on monday?

[PinkTulips]

She snapped straight through the bone in her lower leg being pulled off a wall by her friend at another friends birthday party.

She's been such a trooper, i honestly didn't think there was much wrong with her but brought her to be x-rayed (50 miles in dp's old banger of a car) just to be safe. I almost turned back in the hospital car park as she was so lively and perky and her usual cheeky self. I think even the hospital staff were doubtful there was much wrong with her until the x ray came back and showed her bone was broken diagonally and slightly seperated

She's in a thigh high cast and was almost admitted, only her perkiness prevented them keeping her in overnight but we're back on monday for fracture clinic and hopefully a heel and crutches.

She's normally incredibly active and lively though, even if she's watching tv she's normally up and moving while it's on so i have no idea how she'll cope being stuck on the couch.... she was trying to climb out of the buggy i had her in at the hospital before she had the cast on!

Help! Advice! A stiff drink!

Hi. My thoughts are with you and your poor DC. It is hard especially at first. My DS broke his tibia when he was 5 1/2 and at first it was pretty tough.

He had a thigh length cast for 3 weeks and then a below knee cast for 2 weeks. He was not given any frame or crutches by fracture clinic so I rang the physios and they gave him a frame (a bit big and cumbersome but he was quite stable with it) and a pair of little crutches. They warned us he was unlikely to manage with these but were happy to let us have a go. In the end he took the frame into school and left it there for use when he went to toilet etc... He used the crutches really well in the end and they were very useful. He did start to walk on his cast after 10 days or so but when it was changed to a smaller cast he went back a bit and reverted to crutches for a bit. He was unsettled for a bit after the cast came off too. Wouldn't walk at all for a day and then limped for quite a few weeks. Even after that walking any significant distance caused his leg to ache (although who knows how much the excuse "My leg was broken, please carry me" was used unneccesarily!

Hope your limbo arrives soon. They are fantastic.

Don't let the school tell you she can't go. I was worried our school would raise health and safety issues but in fact they were great. The deputy said "Of course he can't miss 5 weeks of school. That would be ridiculous". I took him in the buggy to school and once we arrived he bottom shuffled/crutched/limped his way around. He had to miss some activities obviously and at play time he was allowed to chose a friend to stay in and play with him. He thought this was great and his friends were queueing up to be chosen. I did go and collect him 10 minutes early as it was more practical. Be persistant. I think it is best if life goes on as normally as possible.

All the best

GW

You are NOT being self-absorbed and miserable - I found it really difficult (physically and emotionally) when DS broke his leg and he is the youngest of two, DD was at school most of the time AND my DH is good around the house. The first few weeks are TOUGH Venting is to be encouraged and I can second the offer of shoulder for crying and hugs if required

DS actually moved very little early on and I'd forgotten about him refusing to put his leg down straight as it hurt.
I took the lead very much from him about what he wanted to do and when as he doesn't milk things at all (unlike DD who would have still been on the sofa complaining about her sore leg even now, 6 months later )
Once the pain had subsided he was off and things did get a lot easier but he was pretty dosed up for the first week and we all struggled.

AF - that's the frame DS had, he was very pleased as it matched the green teddy they gave him in A&E
I'm not a physio, just a stroppy woman who had a lot of support and info from a friend who is a children's physio. I just blag it and pretend I know what I'm talking about!!

Hope tomorrow is better PinkTulips

they gave him a teddy in A+E, feet ?

wow

MUCH better than an 'I've been a brave boy' sticker

I'm well impressed at your A&E feetheart, dd didn't even get a sticker in ours! Although the nurse did do some colouring with her while i went to the car park and got the car up to the pick up zone.

I'm also incredibly lucky it was dd as opposed to ds1.... he's still be wailing if it had been him and the whining and whinging he'd be forcing us to endure would have been unbearable!

She's started scooting around on her bum now which is great as it not only makes her feel a bit more cheerful and independent but also wears her out a bit so she's not as restless and irritable, she and 7 month old ds2 can entertain each other on the floor now

So far today we've gone through 26 pages of a maths book i bought her, 5 pages of writing books, she's scooted all over downstairs making sure nothings changed while she's been glued to the couch and now she's busy colouring. We've got a friend coming after school so she'll have some company then as well. I have no idea how myself and dp spawned such a busy child... we're utter couch potatoes and ds1 seems to have inherited that but dd is all go 24/7.

dp is upstairs cleaning all of upstairs; the house is a pit as i was doing the bare minimum all summer with the aim to scouring the place once they were back at school and i had a bit of time to get it done, which of course hasn't happened this week! I explained in no uncertain terms that if the mother of the little boy who's visiting later sees the state of the place she's not going to let him come again (her house is pristine, mine is cluttered but clean on it's very best day and is far from that now!) and that it's not fair on dd if her friends parents don't want to bring them here due to the state of the place so he seems to be making an effort to help out today... hope it lasts!

i'm feeling a bit better today, i think having a good sob yesterday relaxed the tension a bit... i found her new school shoes chucked in the hall where she flung them friday... they're her first ever pair of proper fitted shoes and she was so excited all summer about getting them and so pleased to wear them last week.... now they'll probably be too small by the time she can wear them again (school shoes and crutches don't mix well ime, she'll be in trainers for the foreseeable future i think) and she only got 4 days out of them I think me crying about that shocked dp into realising how emotionally wrecked i am though

aww, have another hug

thanks

the day went downhill after i posted, her little friend wasn't here 10 mins and she had a screaming tantrum which lasted til he was leaving and then cried when he was gone Don't think that mother will be rushing back

bringing her to toddler group tomorrow with the boys to get her out of the house, she'll enjoy being fussed over by her old playschol teacher and all her friends mothers so it might improve the mood

Oh dear
Sounds about right though, she's been through a lot over the past few days (as have you all). Hope tomorrow goes a bit better.

Glad she is starting to move about (and at her checking that nothing has changed!) She sounds so similar to my VERY active DS that I doubt much will stop her now.

I was impressed with the idea of the teddy too. Thought it was some sort of charity thing and went to check him today - he was actually provided by the Masons and I'm now slightly ambivilant towards him, too many visions of dodgy handshakes I think

pmsl at being suspicious of the masonic teddy.

Have you inspected him thoroughly in case he's the tool of some sort of plot to induct fragile young minds into the masonic conspiracy?

she tried to go down the stairs at bedtime and can get off the couch and bed by herself now I think this is where things get really interesting.....

How's it going PinkTuplips?

Oh poor you and your dd! Ds2 broke his leg when he was not quite two and it was difficult for a few days but then he got used to the cast and just did everything he normally did.

BTW - I bought him one of those waterproof cast covers that you seal with a vacuum so they can go swimming - it worked perfectly and we took him swimming several times and to the beach with it on. The one we have is up for 4 years old and down, I think, (the smallest they do) - do you want it?

I am assuming that the lack of posting is because you are spending your time keeping all eyes (including the ones in the back of your head) on your scarily active daughter who has realised that life can still be lived at full pelt even with a full-leg cast

Really hope that's the case.

sorry for lack opf response, between ds2 learning to crawl, dd driving us bonkers and visitors etc i keep forgetting to come back and give an update.

sadly it's bad news, she was x-rayed yesterday and there was pretty much no improvement

they're not even x-raying again til oct 19th, she's not allowed to weightbear so no heel and she'll probably be in plaster til after hallowe'en

am off to start a thread looking for bone growing superfoods that dd might actually eat and isn't intolerant to..... small list i think!

Sorry to hear that PT, have they suggested anything useful?
How is DD with it all, apart from driving you bonkers , and how are you?

Here to offer virtual support and stiff drinks if required.

She's ok, moving around alot but getting a bit sick of it all i think.

Am fighting with the school on a daily basis, have brought her in for an hour the last two days and the teacher is causing problem after problem... she told me this morning that it was 'very upsetting for her to see a young child being carried into school like that but if this is what you want that's your responsibilty'

ffs, i had to go to the hospital yesterday to get a letter from her doctor to say she's allowed to go to school... the hospital had never had anything like it before and the doctor was perplexed as to why they're causing such issues.

That more than anything is wearing me out, the teacher is trying to get her statemented now so they can get a teaching assistant in the classroom because clearly a broken leg is right up there in terms of difficulties with SN kids....

her teacher is the headmistress unfortunately.

one of the other mothers has suggested i go to the DOE about it all though and i'm sorely tempted.

there's a link up the page for a limbo, it's fantastic as it's made bathing so much easier. before we got it though we were using a bin bag taped around her leg and her leg sticking out the shower door while i hose down the rest of her which worked well enough, although it was a bit fiddly

i hope your poor dd is on the mend soon, how did she break hers?

ouch the poor thing, talk about a nasty way to break it... hope she's over the shock.

good luck with the x-ray, our last one didn't go so well, no sign of the bone healing at all yet which is a bit panic inducing as it's almost 3 weeks now.

no, dd didn't break hers at school, she was at a classmates birthday party and broke it jumping of a wall. i've since seen the wall and honestly it's only 4 blocks high, how she broke her leg from that height is anyones guess!

PinkTulips - I can't believe the school are being so difficult. As you say that really adds to the stress levels. I posted earlier on about my DS who broke his leg 4 months ago. His school were fantastic. There really is no excuse for the heads behaviour. Do you think she is worried about health and safety?
I would definately speak to the DOE and possibly also other local schools to get an idea if her attitudes are typical of your area. Whether she finds it "upsetting" is of no relevance. What is important is allowing your DD to get on with as much of normal life as she can while she waits for her leg to heal. Be strong and don't give up.
Have they said why it isn't healing yet? Is it broken near the growth plate? I think that can cause some problems with healing. If you are not getting answers from the hospital you could always see your GP and ask if he/she could find out what the situation is.
HTH

ginger, my guess as to the lack of healing would be dd's food habits, she's a nightmare eater, always has been so i doubt her body has much in the way of reserves to build bone. Not much i can do though, food is offered to her but short of force feeding i've run out of ideas for encouraging her to eat.

The teacher claims it's H&S and keeps banging on about the toilet but i can't understand how an hour to an hour and a half each day affects either of those things, she's sat in her chair the whole time she's there and i bring her to the toilet when i bring her in. I live across the road from the school so even if there was a problem during the short time she's there i can be there practically before they've hung up the phone from ringing me fgs!

that's pretty much what i've been doing.

told the teacher on tuesday 'She'll be coming in tomorrow and i'll collect her at 11' and that's what i did wed, thurs and fri.

it's sad though as the other kids are there for 5 hours but she's only there for 1.5 hours, that could easily be stetched by me popping in at breaks to help her with the loo and check on her if the school were more helpful but i get so stressed dealing with the teacher as it is i chicken out of suggesting it every day.

we're pretty unforgiving about food, i make dinner for everyone and put it in front of her and she either eats it or not, i refuse to offer alternativesor make too many allowances.

she's in great form today, hopping on her good leg and even attempted the crutches so things are alot easier as she's far more mobile now.

well she hopped into class this morning to shouts of 'look! [dd]'s almost walking!' from the other kids and it was the first time i've seen the battleaxe teacher smile so hopefully things will get better this week.

hope your dd2's day goes well... if she's a drama queen she'll be in her element prepare for the cast to be a manky black lump by the end of the day though if she's getting it signed, my dad took a permanent marker to dd's last night so now the idea is in her head... not sure 4/5 year olds will be as aristic as my dad though!