Quick - head injury guidance?

[NotQuiteCockney]

DS2 fell off the back of the sofa onto the wooden floor.

He was floppy for a few minutes, but not actually passed out. He didn't throw up. He was lucid, but quite upset.

I asked, and he didn't see stars after his fall. He was complaining of a sore head.

He's now fallen asleep in my bed, quite soon after the fall.

He was tired and warm all day, anyway, and had been up since 6:30.

What am I meant to do? Am I meant to check he's able to be woken, on a regular basis?

His sleep seems normal to me, he was stirring and so on, not 'wrong'.

My instincts tell me he's fine, but he's never banged his head like this, and my mom was really twitchy about concussion, so ...

You're supposed to wake him after an hour. The other signs sound positive though.

Do I need to wake him up all the way? Or just rouse him enough so that I know he's sleeping normally?

Actually, given he woke me at 6:30 because he'd peed in his pj bottoms (but not enough to wet the bed ) I'll want to lift him, and also move him to his own bed, I think.

I am not a doctor, but he does sound fine - just rouse him enough to check he is rousable and nothing funny is going on. If you really can't rouse him, or if he is very confused or headachy or vomiting or anything obvious that makes you seriously worried then take him to A&E.

Saturday night is not a good night to spend in A&E with a perfectly healthy but stroppy and tired DS.

Yeah, I hate A+E. We have a special children's one, but still.

His head was hurting. I got 1.5ml of iboprofen down him earlier. No vomiting.

Just check he is rousable, no need to wake him completely.

Do it hourly for 6-8 hours.

No I was advised to rouse-ie by touching them or moving their limbs-if they fuss but don't wake that's fine-sounds like he is fine to me.

Do I have to do it for 6 hours? I don't think he has a concussion. I'm pretty sure he doesn't.

That was the advice we got with DS (that would be DS 1 & 2, on more than 1 occasion ) but to be honest I only do it for a couple of hours and trust my instincts.

He was pretty awake at 9 or so. Will do him before I go to bed, at least.

Poor thing, he was so upset and hurt, I've never seen him that badly off, I don't think.

NQC - is there any way you can keep him in bed with you just for tonight?

We had a full-on "rush to hospital in an ambulance/facial surgeon called in for emergency repair" head injury with DS (he's 6) about 4 months ago.

He was allowed out at about 1am but we were told to keep an eye on him overnight. Their advice was to keep him in bed with us so that we could just prod at him periodically. They said co-s;eeping with him was the easiest way to check his breathing was regularly/normal and that he was not fitting etc.

I sent DS into the spare room, kept the lights on very low and woke up about every 1.5 hours to give DS a little nudge. (He was fine, by the way)

BTW, they gave us a head injury doc at the hospital, and your DS sounds fine from all the warning things that were on it.

Yeah, I'm pretty fine on the warning signs, having checked them the first time I banged DS1's head (now, I realise, I barely banged it, but any tap on a PFB feels catastrophic).

I don't really want him in our bed - I've already moved him. But will prod him, anyway.

My gut instinct is that he is fine ... I will check him if I'm up in the night, though.

To be fair, our Dc's bedrooms are on a different floor to ours, so it is easier to have them in with us when they are poorly than trot up a flight of stairs.

It's annoying because when you hear the first retching sounds on the monitor, you can't get up in time with the sick bowl!

I think I have DS in bed with me that night as much for my own peace of mind - had seen more of his naked skull that night than I needed to!

I know its scary, but your DS does sound ok. My gut instinct would be the same as yours. I bet he'll have a cracking headache.

Ah, DS2's room is next to us. And my kids don't generally puke - if they do, they shout first. (We don't use monitors )

Oh, and he's fine this morning. Thank goodness.