Help! My 6 month old (3 months corrected) fell off the couch onto the floor! I'm a terrible mother.

[Gurke]

He can't yet roll, crawl or sit. I deposited him in the corner of the couch (tucked in between pillows) and ran to the loo. Heard an enormous thud, followed by a milk-curdling scream - he'd fallen off, and was now lying on the wooden floor on his back. He stopped crying after a few minutes (I didn't) and played as before, but got antsy about an hour later, so I brought bedtime forward a little and tucked him in. He's been asleep since. I can't see or feel a lump, bruise or external injury. And I still don't know how he did it - the couch is huge.

How likely is it that he's hurt himself badly? What should I look out for?

If you heard the crying directly after the thud, I would say you are fine. Not crying would be a problem. Don't worry, these things happen. Lesson learned I would say;)

Aw you poor thing. Have found this web page which might help you with what to look for: www.babycenter.com/0_falls_397.bc?page=1

Welcome to the club. We have all done it.

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Trufact.

Don't worry. He'll be fine. Feels awful though. Doesn't stop when they get to be toddlers jumping off the bed onto sharp objects either .

I think any mother who says their child has never fallen off something and hit their heads is lying! It happens to everyone.

DS1 pushed DS2 off the sofa last night - he landed on his head on a tiles floor, and was alseep 10 mins later. We went in every hour, and made sure we could disturb him - ie make him roll over, or move his arms.

He's fine this morning (not in the UK), but has 2 amazing lumps, and a "X" mark from the join in the tiles which he obviously hit!

If he throws up, or you can't rouse him, A&E, otherwise please don't worry

As monkeyfacegrace said, Welcome to the club!!

We really HAVE been there before. All of us.

My 5 mnth old fell off the bed twice in the space of 2 weeks.

He's 13 now & absolutely fine in every way.

Apart from his attitude, but as I said he's 13.

Oh the guilt when it happens

My dd was about 5-6 months old when she did this. I had put her on the bed whilst I was getting dressed and she managed to roll over (first time ever) and just kept on going! No damage done though, and is a normal (if you can call it that) teen.

Honestly, it really does happen to everyone sooner rather than later.

DS1 did it at 5 months. He barely rolled and was fast asleep on my bed, right in the middle. It usually took him a good 5 minutes and a lot of screaming to roll onto his front as he would always get his shoulders stuck. I surrounded him with pillows and tiptoed to the loo.

Thud, scream.

With DS2, I got stupidly smug by about 10 months that he hadn't ever done it. This time I had been hyper-vigilant (a bit OTT).

One day, he was climbing on the arms of our settee and sliding down them on his bum, into my waiting arms. Very funny, very cute...thud, scream.

I have no idea how he did it. I was literally RIGHT THERE. in fact, I stared at him with bafflement until he got up again, and then I picked him up and cuddled him.

It's kind of a rite of passage. Good to get the guilt going.

Guilt is how we know we love them; in our repressed English way.

Or is that just me?

The thing I have been most proud of lately, has been spotting my pfb being a spelling nazi on fb.

Thank you, everyone - this makes me feel a lot better. Oh, but the guilt! (And it's not as if I had a shortage of it before this...) Funnily enough we had just returned from 4 hrs at A&E to have his eye infection treated (hence my desperation for the loo).

The little monster has entertained me with a 2-hourly call for food throughout the night and seems full of beans this morning (unlike his jaded mother). So hopefully he's alright.

Wanda, you must be so proud

My 7mo currently has an impressive bruise on her forehead from falling forwards from sitting and head butting one of dd1's Happyland vans before hitting the wooden floor. She's too lazy to actually attempt rolling yet though so hasn't rolled off anything yet. Dd1 fell impressively off the sofa once at a few months older and she's a loon fine

Ds fell down an entire flight of stairs aged 13 months.

Dd fell head first off a fairly high chair onto a tiled floor aged 8 months.

Both were fine. I cried for longer than they did. Hope that makes you feel less guilty!

When my son was 3 weeks he fell out of my arms onto our wood floor.

He's nearly 4 now and perfectly normal!