How do you stop yourself fretting when your baby hits their head?

[Writerwannabe83]

At 16.30 my just turned one year old was walking around the kitchen when he tripped, fell forward and hit his head on the lower part of the oven door. The door isn't rock hard, it can be depressed if you press on it hard enough but it would have been quite painful for him.

He started crying immediately and continued to grizzle when DH picked him up but within about a minute he was laughing again.

He was fine for the rest of the evening, ate all his dinner, played around with his toys and generally enjoyed running round the living room. I then took him upstairs for his bedtime bath which he enjoyed as normal then we did bedtime feed and story time as we always do.

He took ages to go to sleep, lots of grizzling and crying (but he has nights like that sometimes) and I eventually rocked him to sleep.

He was asleep by 20.00pm, so 3.5 hours after he had bashed his head.

I'm now obsessively looking at the baby monitor where my sleeping DS is lying extremely still and all I can think is, "what if he has concussion or is unconscious?"

I asked DH to go upstairs and check on him but he said I was worrying about nothing and he didn't want to risk waking DS by going into his room.

I keep looking at the monitor in the hope he may have moved a little just so I know he's ok.

DS said that if the bash to the head was severe or serious then DS would have been far more upset when it happened and he wouldn't have been his normal self all evening.

Am I being seriously OTT by fretting so much??

Please tell me stories where your babies have had bumps to the head and been fine!!!

It's normal to worry! I used to sleep in the same room as my baby if I was concerned about anything.

My children have all had loads of bumps and bruises but apart from a couple of small scars, have nothing to show for it.

The bump doesn't sound bad...... but I still go to check my kids are still breathing at night, for no reason whatsoever, and the oldest is 7. Sorry sometimes you just have to put your mind at ease.

My DD was forever banging her head at that age and beyond. I could have papered a wall with Head Injuries Advice leaflets from A&E. It's such a worry but just need to be aware of symptoms to watch out for. They do get more steady then it's just skint hands and knees
www.patient.co.uk/health/head-injury-instructions

As long as they cry straight away they're generally ok. He probably has a slight headache if anything. Mines always hitting his head, part of being a toddler. They're made of sturdy stuff thankfully.

He'll be fine .

I must have the most accident-prone 1 year old out there and he's still alive. If toddlers broke that easily the human race would have died out long ago or maybe I'm just a negligent mother.

I couldn't stop myself from going in to check he was breathing! Then I tried to rouse him and after tickling his ear his legs went all squirmy and he rolled away from me.

So although I'm not panicking about concussion or death but after looking at that link I'm now fretting about a subdural bleed that can take weeks to present

As a parent of an 18 year old, I can confirm that it's really hard to damage your child.
Both my girls are rugby players and seeing some of the crunching tackles they go for, a knock to the head when learning to walk is nothing.

Trust your instincts, and look out for behaviour out of the ordinary but they are tough little cookies.

Oh sorry!! DD has survived to 7 years old after many A&E visits as a toddler so please don't worry

I'm with you OP there is something in particular about a knock to the head!

About 4 weeks ago DS1 whis 2.8yo fell backwards in a booster seat on a chair and whacked his head. He cried immediately but was fine almost straight away. It was the first time he'd hit his head and I was suddenly sure I'd read somewhere that you need to take them to a&e for all head injuries.... I didn't as he seemed very normal but I did check on him a bit more that night
He's since had a couple more and each time I think "is this the nasty one? " So far no trips to a&e and I think what someone else said is true, beware of no crying/drowsy/sleepy etc.

There was something on the radio about concussion today, and they mentioned a hit to the side of the head was more worrying as important veins run there.

If there is a dent or change to behaviour, then it's something to note.

My DS (15months) whacked his head the other night just before bed. He cried straight away but was fine within minutes. About 45 mins late he was "asking" for bed (it was nearly bedtime ). I put him to bed but then panicked about concussion. The advice i found only said to let him sleep but rouse him every couple of hours through the night to make sure he COULD be rouse. I did that and he seemed fine bit next morning he was v drowsy and kept crying. So i took him to A&E. He was fine -Dr said i did exactly the right thing checking him at night and said to remember that a whack to the head does make them tired. It's ok to let them sleep as long as you check on them. He also said that if they hit their head really hard they could well have a headache for a couple of days so it's a good idea to give them Calpol but not immediately after hitting their head in case it masks a serious injury.