pulled arm

[Philippat]

dd (18 months) loves playing row row the boat (sitting opposite each other, holding hands and rocking backwards and forwards) and being jumped up the stairs. However, once in a while, this seems to 'pull' and hurt her arm - she yells then cradles it and won't move it for a time.

We've taken her to the GP and he looked at her arm and said she just needed to get stronger.

anyone come across this and got any ideas?

I know you need to be particularly careful of their arms/wrists between 12 and 24 months. Doesn't sound like you were being overly vigorous though.

yep, really common around this age. the DD of a friend of mine put her arm out just by trapping it under the table of her high chair and pulling it out - she had to go to A&E and they 'popped' it back it, pretty painful I think. The hospital told my friend it's really common for them to dislocate their shoulders around this age and that you do need to be careful picking them up by their arms etc.

it's odd isn't it because it's such a common thing for people to do with toddlers you'd think HV's / doctors etc would warn you.

DH dislocated DS1s elbow at 18 months old pulling him out of the path of a speeding car. He was fine once the doctor had popped it back in again. He said that it is very common as their joints are so flexible but very easy to put them back in again for the same reason. It seemed to be very painful before it was put back but wasn't painful to have it done and the pain went away as soon as it was back - quite remarkable!

I think he said you should hold toddlers around the wrist, not the hand, as this minimises any twisting movement if you have to pull on them and it's the twist that makes them pop out. That was my understanding anyway.

I'm pretty certain dd's not dislocating her elbow/shoulder - I can't have you all thinking I'm letting her hang around with a dislocated arm on a regular basis! When she does it, I feel carefully up her arm and shoulder and all is normal - and this was echo-ed by the doctor, and she doesn't cry which surely is a fair sign.

No one else seen this?

We recently had a similar thing after dp picked ds up from the floor by the wrists - ds seemed in slight pain, but not serious. We put him to bed, but he still wasn't using the arm in the morning, so we took him in to A&E. The doctor had a look and said it was pulled elbow syndrome - very common. She pulled it back into place very easily - ds looked a bit shocked but didn't cry. Its not the same as dislocation - not as serious, and she did say that often parents/kids put it right without realising what they're doing - sounds like you might have done this when feeling up her arm.

my arm was forever popping out when I was little -gave a nanny a dreadful shock when she tried to grab me!

My best friend - a GP - has always been strongly against kiddies' wrist straps for this very reason - she says she sees so many pulled shoulder and elbow joints as a result of them (much better to use a harness).

For the same reason, she advises that you DON'T swing children around using just one arm. If you want to give them some fun (and get dizzy at the same time!) (and I don't just mean the kids!), hold BOTH hands as you swing them around.

Phillipat, it could be that your DDs arm is not completely dislocating but pops right back straight away so it just feels sore until she forgets about it. I'd say simply be aware of it and wait for her to grow out of it.

We've had this as well. Twice DS1 has had it without the elbow popping out (perhaps in these instances it popped out and went back in of it's own accord) and once when the elbow has popped out. Twice out of the three times he has ended up with casualty, I was horrified the last time when he needed his elbow popped back in but the Dr reassured us that it is perfectly normal and some children have a tendancy towards it.

I've had this with DS1 and DD too. DS1 was about 6 months old and the staff in casualty didn't know what was wrong with him, they couldn't find anything and x-rayed him but nothing showed up. They decided to x-ray him in a different position and by doing so his arm popped back in and he was fine. When I took DD, they knew immediately what was wrong and we were straight out again.

It is so distressing to see your child just letting their arm swing, I don't think they are in pain but they are distressed because they can't use the arm.

I am the mother who dragged her DS to school (to drop elder sibling off) and back (having quickly dressed him first) and then decided that as he was still crying from an earlier fall we should go to A & E. It turned out that he had a broken collar bone - oops!