Do all toddlers get bumps and bruises??? HELP! I feel awful!

[eenybeeny]

My 17 month old tripped and landed with his face on the corner of a table. He has a bruise going from his cheek to his eye and it looks awful. Is this a normal thing?? I am so upset!

yes it is - these things usually look a lot worse than they are

My DS had a huge lump/bruise on his head for a week after he fell and hit his head

part of the joys of toddlerhood

I just feel so bad about it. His perfect little face has this awful bruise. What if people think I hit him?

i could bruise to bruise dot to dot when mine were tots!
My 4 year old is sporting a humongous bruise on his chin at the mo because he was jumping like a frog with his hands through his underpants, fell forward onto my laminate flooring. Couldnt put his hands out to stop himself!!! Was constrained by his power ranger underpants!!!! LOL
try explaining that to the teacher!
I couldnt cuddle him i was laughing so much, it was very commical but now this bruise is actually the whole of his chin.

I'm afraid you have a lot more of that to come, and there is no reason why anyone would think you hit him.
dt2 is nearly always covered in bumps and bruises. He currently has a large scratch down the side of his face - that happened at night no idea how. He has a black eye (well yellow now) from his brother. And grazed ankle from holiday.
Some are worse that others, dt2 is especially bad, he once jumped out of a first floor window, and he also nearly sliced the top of his finger off, so you really shouldn't feel bad about a bump from a table!

alright. thanks for making me feel better! I'm glad to know its normal.

Absolutely normal.

In fact, when I took DD to her check up with the paediatrician at this age I asked about this as I was feeling terrible that she had bruises everywhere.

He said that if they see a child WITHOUT bruises at this age, then they worry. Bruises are a sign that the child is developing normally, crawling, taking first steps and occassionally falling down. No bruises suggests that the child is sitting around, not moving about, not active.

It's perfectly normal. Nobody is going to think you have hit your child unless he is always covered in bruises which he won't be.

DS2 managed to fall over in Mothercare the first time I let him out of the pushchair when we were out. I turned my back for a nanosecond, he fell over, blood everywhere and the biggest fat lip you have ever seen. Poor little thing. Nobody came to help and there we were, sitting on the floor, both of us crying.

Horrible but has happened and it will happen again, especially with boys. They have to learn about their bodies in relation to the rest of the world and sometimes they get it wrong.

Hell, sometimes I get it wrong and hurt myself and I'm 41 and DH has had a lump on his head for the last week after he banged it on the wall!

He will be fine.

Oh yes.

And the occasions we had to take DS to A&E would alwyas come at the end of a particularly bad week, accident-wise, so that he'd be covered in bruises plus whatever we'd brought him in for. And then you have to explain how they did the A&E-worthy injury about a dozen times (which given that the first time the tale was "he fell and hit his head on a giant snail" does not add to general aura of being sane and competent parent).

I know A&E-worthy accidents are not funny but am trying very hard not to laugh at "he fell and hit his head on a giant snail".

If it makes you feel any better, ds is also 17 months and fell onto his head on a tarmac surface this morning. He has a huge lump and horrible looking graze. Mind you, since he fell down the entire flight of stairs at 13 months most subsequent accidents have seemed quite minor.

I'm mostly quite a good mother, honestly!

If its any consolation , I have a toddler sporting a bruise exactly the same shape as the dumper truck he landed on face first yesterday.

Message withdrawn

BUMP!

pun intended

pretty normal, in fact my sisters on first name terms with the receptionist at A&E....also part of the joys of parenthood.

one of the advantages of sending a toddler to nursery is the reassurance that they bump and bruise themselves while in other peoples' care too.

BRUISE!!!

ds1 tripped in his pediatrician's office and fell against the corner of his desk. The most enormous lump started to come up, after about a minute of screaming the paediatrician peered over his glasses and aid 'oh it's fine, it's the one's without a lump that you have to worry about' then went back to writing notes. Dreadful bedside manner but he was right (and all 3 of mine are always covered in bruises).

is it mainly boys who get the bumps and bruises?

DD2 = honourary boy. 'tis very embarrassing - every day I have taken her into nursery for the past 5 weeks I have had to make an entry in the incident book about big bruises and cuts she has come into nursery with. She currently has some fantstic ones up her legs which look like I have pinned her down by her legs while changing her nappy (god only knows I've been tempted - but I didn't honest!!!).

Absolutely normal.

Spent one holiday with DD1 in a French gite with tiled floors just after she started walking. She had more bruises than normal skin by the end. Photos are great