DS hitting head on hardwood floor

[curlymam]

Hi everyone, long time lurker but first time poster. I'm looking for some advice, and just the chance to get something off my chest.
Our house has hardwood floors through the bottom floor. When my 21m DS was learning to walk I watched him 24/7 but unfortunately while I caught him 50 times a day I might miss him the 51st time and he'd hit his head on the floor. Once he got more stable that stopped, but now he's older he's throwing himself around, throwing himself off couches etc and hitting his head again. He had a fall yesterday and ended up with a big bump, so me and DH have decided we need to try and find the money to have carpet put down. However, the amount of times he's hit his head already is starting to keep me up at night.

When I've spoken to people they say "oh it's normal, they're tough" etc but with all the news coming out about what health problems sports people are experiencing, especially children being banned from heading footballs, I can't stop worrying about what damage he's done. There's also this part of me which feels guilty like... I'll let my son down if I put carpet down after he's already hit his head. We're talking about trying for baby number 2 and I even feel guilty that if we do get carpet then that baby won't be hitting their head like he's had to.
I suppose my question is, does anyone with any more knowledge than me know if there's any information about the effects of babies/toddlers hitting their heads? If it's just once every few days is that completely different than the football thing?
Thanks if anyone read this.

I don't know the answer but have the same guilt. Tile floors here - like you I catch him more often than not but that's still a lot of falls.

I think you have to remember that all toddlers as they learn to walk etc bump and hurt themselves. It's a developmental stage that's virtually universal.
Not everyone as older children/adults regularly get knocked or punched in the face or tackled or head balls like boxers/rugby players/football players do.
These are extra injuries in a specific group that accumulate over time, compared to a group that doesn't tend to have repetitive head trauma (other adults that don't play those sports).

There are millions of toddlers round the world bumping their heads on hard floors as they learn to mobilise (including in my house - flagstone floors, yikes). So these injuries aren't out of the ordinary. Injuries from sports are out of the ordinary which is why they're more worrisome.

Put carpet down if it worries you and release any guilt!!! We all learn and make changes to our home/parenting style as we go, we can't know everything in advance.

It might give you a lot of peace of mind as when baby number 2 comes you won't be able to catch number 1 as much.

@Kudupoo I didn't think of it that way actually, if we do have a 2nd he's probably going to throw himself off even more stuff to get our attention! So it would be good if I can at least keep him safe in the future.

I am a nursery manager. I don’t know a single baby or toddler, in my entire 25 year career, who has been badly injured due to a ‘normal’ fall on hardwood or tile falls (ie weren’t pushed or didn’t fall from a height). I also don’t know a single nursery that has carpetted floors in any of the baby or toddler areas. You need to focus on getting your child competant going up and down stairs by themselves and understanding some limited concept of danger that applies to your house. I should point out that the only child I know who died from a fall did so when he fell down carpetted stairs and onto a carpetted corridor. I also know of babies who have needed skin grafts due to carpet burns from falls

@Ozanj wow I'm both reassured and terrified!
We are working on the safety thing. He knows how to use stairs safely, he knows not to climb on the couches or the chairs, he just chooses to ignore that. He knows he's doing something he shouldn't because as soon as we move towards him he's laughing his head off.

Try pushing all the cushions on the floor if possible before he gets to them - that tends to be how I put my dc off climbing. You could also start to ignore it when he climbs up - so don’t react or give him attention, just silently lift him down and get on with what you were doing. Do that often enough and it will eventually stick. Or send him to a local nursery / childminder for part of the week and someone like me will just encourage and supervise him to climb all he wants and that might mean he’s too tired to do it at home

@Ozanj Haha yes, I'm currently looking into sending him to nursery a couple of mornings a week!

Rugs would be a less permanent solution if you prefer wooden floors to carpet.

Climbing is for climbing frames not furniture. But we were lucky enough to have a small toddler park at the end of the road, so if they climbed the furniture they were taken off, and told we'd take them to the park later (and tried our hardest to make it soon).

I wouldn't waste money on carpeting. Normal falls are...normal. everyone goes through this. It's not like it's a concrete floor.

Don’t forget that with sports people there’s likely to be more force involved - they aren’t just stumbling over at a walk, they’re great big heavy rugby players hitting each other at speed, or footballers jumping and heading a heavy, fast-moving football (for example). The impacts are going to be bigger.