Four year old dd has badly broken arm - hints and advice for helping her cope?

[eemie]

She fell on the stairs on Monday and had a horribly displaced fracture of the humerus, just above the elbow, which needed surgery. She's now in a full arm backslab. She is a very brave little girl but has had a terrible fright and is in a lot of discomfort. We'd be grateful for help and advice from anyone who's had something similar to cope with. I know there have been previous threads about this but in a quick search I've failed to find them and I can't spend long at the computer. Please help if you can, TIA

Sotrry no practical advice - but till someone posts some..Poor you two!

poor you eemie, and poor dd! went through a slightly similar thing with my ds when he was 18 months - bad fracture of his right arm below the elbow which needed resetting under general anaesthetic and a good few weeks in plaster. I don't know that there is very much advice I can give you, but at least at her age you can talk to her and find out if she is in pain etc and don't hesitate to give her whatever painkillers she needs - doctors can be a bit lackadaisical about children's pain in my opinion and that isn't really on.
The other thing that my son hated was the repeated x-raying and taking on and off of casts to check setting, healing etc. There isn't very much that you can do about that, apart from explaining to them what has happened/why they need the cast or x-ray/what is going to happen as much as possible. Even if you think she won't understand it all, I think they do pick up more than you think. Obviously your daughter is older so she'll understand a lot more than my ds did.

Finally, if you can find any books about broken arms etc I think that is a really helpful way for children to see that this is something that doesn't just happen to them, and to raise questions and concerns etc. There is a good book called Topsy and Tim go to hospital (I can't remember why Tim is there, may be a bumped head rather than a broken arm) which should be very easy to get hold of and is perfect age-wise for a 4 year old.

Best of luck with it all!

it is tims head. (sotrry they Love t and T)

Ahh, eemie, sorry to hear about your little 'un, I sure with a great thoughtfil Mum like you she'll be just fine. I always wanted abroken arm when I was a kid so everyone could sign it!!

my dd broke her leg last year and after she had the backslab on for week they put her in a barbie pink plaster-Im sure your dd will love this part when she has her proper plaster on. Other than that just keep her topped up with painkillers and Im sure she'll be fine.

Thank you all. She loves taking paracetamol syrup but hates the tast of ibuprofen - does anyone know of a palatable formulation? (ours is 'Nurofen' by Crookes Healthcare, in an orange box) .

The thought of a pink plaster is bound to cheer her up!

I've had 2 dd that have done this... I used to mix up medicine with juice. You can get long plastic bags with sticky tape at the opening to make a waterproff seal, from the chemist (measuse circumference of arm, and you might be better going for a leg one as they are a lot longer. Remember to keep wiggling those fingers!
All the best

Poor little sweetie. And poor you too. It sounds like you're doing everything right to me though, eemie so she's lucky in her mam.

hope your little one feels better soon, eemie.

In case anyone else needs to know - the makers of Calpol do a strawberry flavoured ibuprofen as well which goes down a treat.

eemie, no advice here either but I just wanted to say that I hope your dd recovers very quickly, poor girl, sounds really painful.

eemie, how is she doing today? So sorry to hear of your mishap and sadly lacking in hints for coping, as we've no experience of this sort of thing (as yet).

Marina, thanks for thinking of us. She's had a better day with only the odd bout of crankiness. As I type I can hear her singing to herself.

Spoke too soon about the ibuprofen - though it's the same flavour as Calpol it isn't pink so she still behaves as though I'm trying to poison her. Bribery it is, then.

She's worried about her t-shirts being cut up and that she won't be able to make a 'crocodile mouth' with her arms...not what I'd anticipated! But cried miserably when I wouldn't let her go on the climbing frame/walk along the wall as usual.

Took her to nursery to see her friends today and to my surprise she wanted to stay till after tea (several hours) She really enjoyed it, even had a sleep there, so she must be feeling more settled.

Her usual babysitter is coming tonight and if she's happy to let us leave, we'll go to choir and try to cheer up.

Believe me, we do know how lucky we are.

Love,