Sick with worry - baby bounced on bed

[Ak627]

My husband was playing with our 11 month old this morning, rocking her backwards and forwards, as he swung her forward he dropped her (from standing) onto our bed and she landed in our duvet which was bunched up in the middle of the bed.

She landed on her back, bounced up and then rolled over, all whilst smiling and giggling.

My husband did it a second time before I told
him to stop because it was too high.

I didn’t think much of it, but it’s now playing on my mind and I’ve scared myself about shaken baby syndrome. Her head/neck didn’t flip back and forward (she has strong neck control anyway) but I’m worried about the force and impact of her head hitting the mattress and bouncing up, especially as he was rocking her back and forward beforehand, it was almost like a throw. Even though the duvet was there for her to land in, it’s not a particularly thick duvet.

She seemed ok for the rest of the day, but I’m obsessively googling the symptoms of SBS and wondering if she was more irritable or sleepy this afternoon. She has eaten well today and is now sleeping. I’m debating whether to get her up and take her to A&E for them to examine.

Needless to say we will NOT ever be playing that game again! I am absolutely mortified and sick with worry that we could have hurt her in any way. Despite what I’ve said above my OH is a brilliant dad and they adore each other.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Doesn't sound like an issue in term of injury to your baby, but think about your reaction to this and whether it is objective. You may do more harm to your child by helicoptering over removing all the risk from every situation. Good luck.

In the nicest possible way, you are way over-thinking this. A baby giggling about being playfully dropped on a duvet will not cause shaken baby syndrome.

I was worried about SBS once and asked my midwife. She told me that you literally have to shake your baby hard and long for it to happen, hence it being a crime. I don’t know if this helps reassure you, but I would keep an eye on your baby just to be sure, and worry only if there are signs of the baby being unwell.

OP, at 11 months some babies are walking, and tumbling onto much harder things. Of course she’s fine.

I understand the fear of shaken baby syndrome. I was terrified with my first. If shes eating fine and being her normal self then shes fine. Babys are made to bounce.

Shaken baby syndrome is much more common with much younger babies who have no head control at all so when shaken their heads fly all over the place. By 11 months baby will have pretty good head control usually. So I wouldn’t worry, especially now if kid seems fine and alert.

Don't worry about it, honestly. My daughter (now a teenager who is bigger than me) rolled off a bed and fell on the floor when she was six months old. We were staying in a hotel and it was a high bed and we set her there for a second never thinking she'd be quick enough to roll to the edge in the second that we were setting down our bags. We were horrified and felt so guilty but she was absolute fine. The impact of falling on a bouncy mattress and duvet would be no different to going down a slide or something.

Thanks for your messages. I’ve got myself into a
panic so it’s reassuring to hear some calmer voices.
I don’t worry too much if she bumps her head (she’s learning to walk at the moment) but the force and the back and forth motion of her hitting the mattress has sent me into a spin that we’ve caused an internal head injury.
I’m going to keep an eye on her and try and calm down a bit.

As a technical answer: you want her to bounce back, that’s a good thing. It means lots of the kinetic energy was retained in the ‘impact’ part where she touched the bed and allowed her to bounce back up. This means it wasn’t dissipated by her body.

If she’d have slammed onto a completely incompressible surface all of the kinetic energy would have to be dissipated by her frame that would have done irreparable damage to her tiny frame.

In short don’t worry

I would be more concerned about your reaction

Stop looking at Google and scaring yourself silly. Baby is fine she giggled and rolled over dp could see how happy she was an done it again. No harm done I think alot of people have done this sort of thing to their children. I know I did and the giggling out of them made me do it again an again just like when you throw them above your head an catch them.You will wake up tmz and realise you where worrying over nothing.

Your reaction here is pretty concerning. Youve worked yourself into a frenzy over a completely innocuous incident. Do you find yourself this anxious often? Do you generally find yourself worrying and obsessing about minor things like this? I think you might benefit from a chat with your HV or GP about your anxiety.

Nothing to be worried about in the slightest

In the 90’s, my mum got so cross with my 18month old brother that she threw him down so hard on the bed that he bounced. He’s now 27, very intelligent and holds a senior management position. Did nothing to his body or brain cells, except he can be a bit of an arsehole at times 😂 I’m sure your LO will be fine x