6 month baby fell out of car seat onto road

[Brokenpearl]

This for those of you who have ever accidentally dropped your babies (under 9 months) on the floor, or had your babies fall onto concrete ground/tarmac ground and/or hit their heads on tiled or hard floor..
The night before last, my 6 month old baby was in his car seat.. he is usually strapped up but this time i didnt realise i forgot to buckle the straps into the strap slot & didn’t notice as i had put a blanket over his body whilst he was in his car seat… Husband picked up the car seat and was turning the car seat around so he can have it facing the rear of the car before putting it into the car, but as it wasnt fully strapped, my baby fell straight out the seat, and landed face down on the tarmac road just beside the the car from the car seat he was holding at a height the sams height as the seats of a car (about 2.5 feet). I screamed and I am really heartbroken. He hurt his chin and grazed & bruised his chin & jaw and face. I don’t know how much of his head he hurt as he had a hat on so there are no visible grazes on the head. We took him to the A&E straightaway as we were just a stones throw away from the hospital. They checked him quickly (no scans), and said he is ok. But looking at the way he fell & the height fallen from and the hard surface he landed on.. I am concerned he might have got some internal head injury which is not visible. I know the signs to watch out for, but he’s too small to tell me if he has a headache but has been unsettled since. I want to know if any of you have had your babies fall in similar ways, or had babies with head injuries from hitting their heads especially at such young age. And for those of you whose babies are now older, has it had any effects on their cognitive ability, memory, thinking, social skills or in any other mental ability (please please be honest, don’t just say they are fine to make me feel better), I would rather know now and so can prepare myself mentally than to think it will be fine and then learn otherwise, years later. I have read of such injuries causes brain damage that impair cognitive and reasoning function and have heard it causing the babies to grow up with issues with short term memory loss. Detailed answers will be appreciated. Thank you

My son fell down an entire flight of stairs around 7/8 months and is now a straight A student!

DS was about 14 months when he was bouncing on his GM's bed, fell off and hit his head with a whack on the corner of the bedside drawer unit. Awful lump and mark.
He was screaming his head off and we took him to A&E where within a fairly short time he was running about, laughing and generally having a good time. A&E was rammed, bedlam, and he was contributing to the mayhem so in the end they sent us back home with a leaflet telling us what to look out for and to bring him straight back if any issues. He was clearly OK and we were quite happy.
He's an adult now and really quite bright.

My DD hit her head twice as a baby. Once she climbed out of a high chair I hadn't strapped her into properly and fell onto a radiator (my fault entirely, I still feel awful when I think about this one) and once I tripped while holding her and hit her head off a brick wall. Both times we had her checked and had to wake her every hour through the night to make sure she was responsive. She is now a thriving 5 year old. It's normal to feel awful about these things but unlikely there is any lasting damage.

I understand why you are scared. You won't be the only parents who had accidents like this. DC2 fell off the stairs at home because DC1 opened the stair gate while DC2 was holding onto the gate. Luckily for us, DC2 rolled down side ways, like a log down the stairs. It was really scary.

You know what signs to look out for, so keep an eye on that. You'll learn from your mistakes and be much more careful next time.

We still hassle DC1 for pushing DC2 down the stairs now!

It was an accident, yes it could have been worse but it wasn’t, he’s been checked over so stop googling.
Mine fell out of her high chair, she’d unbuckled the straps, little escape artist that she was. She also tripped over a toy at nursery, another bang to the head, another visit to A&E. Apsrt from bruising and a big keggy as big as an egg on her head she was ok.
My friends pram tipped over on uneven ground, her dd fell out, fractured her skull. She was a bit unsettled she’s now mum herself.
Be kind to yourself, you’ll never make that mistake again.

My baby broke my nose, so I feel like we are even! 😂

This is a long and crazy story but the jist is that as an infant on holiday a twelve year old boy kicked and bashed the back of my head hard with a huge metal bar and I lost consciouness and was pretty ill for about 24 hours.

Like a pp with a Phd, I'm a lecturer if that makes you feel better. Neurodiverse (got it genetically from my Dad not the incident above) but otherwise fine!

I fell asleep feeding my baby and he ended up falling from the arm chair to the marble floor. I know how you feel! I felt so guilty for weeks. Even now if I think about what could have happened it makes me feel awful. Another time he was strapped in to his pushchair, Input the brake on not realising the paving slab was loose and uneven. Pushchair tipped right over - another bang to the head. He is a very intelligent grown up now. No damage.

All is ok so try to get over it. I'm sure the baby is fine - you are just super focused on looking for symptoms.

I tripped and fell with 10 wk old baby in sling. He hit his head hard on the pavement but I managed to stop myself landing on top of him. Blue lighted to hospital and he lost consciousness in ambulance but perked up with oxygen. Kept in overnight on hourly obs. Now 21 years old, at uni, perfectly normal.

Don't worry unduly but it's horribly frightening, I know.

Soft tissue of the face probably absorbed some of the impact. But skin heals. Hospital were obviously not overly concerned if they didn't do a scan. Have you scared yourself by reading journal articles on the internet? The overwhelming likelihood is that he will he absolutely fine. Try and stop thinking about the very tiny chance that he won't be.

I whacked my toddler's head against a very solid door frame. I was carrying him clumsily because he had a dirty nappy. The thud sound just echoed round the hallway. He giggled. The healthline I called was concerned about the giggle thinking it sounded like something was very wrong neurologically. The doctors at A & E said he was fine. The next week he fell backwards on vinyl flooring and hit his head slightly and again he chuckled. I decided I was going to ignore the chuckle.

Yes, I did feel dreadful but he doesn't remember the door incident. Never happened again and he is graduating university this year.

As a child I once tried to swing right round on the railing of the convent on the way to school. I hit my head on concrete at speed. I came up with a huge lump like an egg on my head and I carried on to school because I thought my mother would be annoyed that I'd done something so stupid. I have two university degrees and a professional job so I don't think it affected my brain overmuch. (I have to say I likely am descended from several lines of mercenary soldiers so we probably have a hard headed tendency in our genes. I do have very dense bones according to tests - like nearly two standard deviations above the mean.)

There are some sanctimonious people who say they've never had an accident - I just think they may have had very placid children. My eldest used to get up to all sorts. They had been warned about a dreadful accident about noxious gases in some cave system in our area which had claimed the lives of several young teenage boys many years before where the other boys had died going in to try and save their friend. The site had been sealed off. My husband grew up in the area and once talked about it. Anyway, my eldest and his school friends at primary school found some cave near their school grounds while supposedly being supervised in after school care. At least my oldest insisted they rope the one going into the cave so they could yank him out if he was overcome by gas. He's a fourth year medical student now.

Both my sons fell and whacked their heads as babies; one tumbled off the bed and the other was trying to be nosy and crashed out of his high chair. It’s a heart-stopping moment but all was fine. X

@Jonas25 Hi i have been reading alot about the long term effects of even mild concussions & they are very worrying. Here are 3 of the many similar ones i have read:

denveruppercervical.com/long-term-effects-of-concussions/

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-08-24-childhood-head-injuries-linked-increased-risk-adult-mental-illness-and-poorer-life

www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/the-long-lasting-effects-of-concussion

@Brokenpearl

I fell down the stairs with my 8 month old in my arms. His head bashed against the wall several times on the way down - hard! Straight to A&E. I was hysterical and couldn't stop shaking. They checked him over and said he was fine but for at least a year I was still looking for signs of brain injury/delayed development. He's all grown up now and is an intelligent, handsome young man - even though I say so myself.

The articles are referring to traumatic brain injuries and concussion. There does not seem to be any evidence that your baby suffered either of these. Try not to panic.

OP, take him to your GP in the morning, and explain how anxious you are feeling.

They will be able to check him over again and they should offer support to help with the anxious thoughts.

Please put the phone down and watch some TV/read a book/do a jigsaw/make some dinner. Don't read up about terrible rare complications all night.

Someone I worked with years ago dropped his 6 week old down the stairs. Fractured skull and colleague was terrified of carrying him for about a year. 16 years on and the baby is now a lovely, smart young man who is particularly good at archery and javelin. No lasting effect and that was far worse than your tumble.

I forgot to strap my 4 month old in at the shops the other week. Got distracted with her brother. Tortured myself with what ifs for a few days. She’s fine and now I double check. Forgive yourself x

Babies/small children are pretty resilient. Wait til you see what they get up to on their own in the toddler years! One of my sons seemed intent on bashing his head into anything available. If the hospital wasn’t worried then you don’t need to be worried either, if they thought there was cause for concern they’d have performed further testing.

Asphalt actually has a bit of give in it so you are better off falling on a road than on a pavement or concrete surface. Runners know this, you can feel the difference between different surfaces.

Sadly some children do suffer serious injuries from very minor falls while others while others manage to fall from second floor windows and walk away. So it doesn't really matter whether other children have been affected by similar falls, just keep an eye and if you think your baby isn't right get help.

I can understand how awful and traumatic it must have been to see your baby have an accident.

However and I am trying to be diplomatic here, your baby has been seen by medical professionals who have reassured you he will be fine, several posters on here have given you their examples and you seem to be dismissing these and have practically told yourself that your baby is going to be brain damaged. I haven't read the studies but I can guess they relate to people who have very serious accidents. While your baby had a nasty shock, he isn't in this category.

If I were you I'd be more concerned about your own anxiety over this than the long term effects to your son. I've suffered from anxiety myself so I say this from a place of my own experience. Please speak to your health visitor or someone for support.

Going down a Google rabbit hole isn't doing you or your baby any favours nor is constantly crying and apologising to him in front of him. Please try and relax tonight and has someone said, phone the doctor tomorrow and explain your anxieties.

Cant stop crying, cannot forgive yourself etc... sounds like a healthy reaction to a frightening first injury to your baby.
Here's some other great things you did:
React quickly.
Got baby to the right place (not the GP/pharmacy for a sticky plaster)
Hide child and hope it all goes away.
Took on board the discharge advice for head injury watch for.

You're doing an ace job!
Skintoskin is another good one, keep smelling your baby's head and it will support your bond and baby healing.

They bounce. They are meant to break your heart though so not so long round the corner some trip or bump will happen again. You just have to be proud of how hard you worked to get them well.

I can understand why you're worried. It seems like it's a very common occurrence going by the responses you've had so I hope that has reassured you. If you are still concerned about your baby then take them back to be checked out, there is no harm in doing that. Don't beat yourself up, you've handled the accident the right way. I'd be the exact same as you I think it's very normal to feel how you feel from an accident like that.

It sounds like a really scary fall so I don't blame you for being shaken up.

My ds (at ten months) learnt to crawl on the Tuesday and the very next day he somehow managed to crawl right across the top floor of the house and fall top to bottom down the stairs.
I was absolutely horrified but apart from a small graze on his head and a few tears he was fine.
I have a set of photos of him from later that day (taken in Morhercare where I ran to get baby gates!!) where he's beaming, laughing and throwing a hat around.

It's always awful when a baby has an accident but sadly accident do happen and the best you can do now is keep a close eye on your little one and take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Hi OP, family member fell from 6foot+ fathers shoulders onto hard concrete floor at around 9 months old - they're in high school now and no lasting problems, just bad bruising at the time! Try not to worry too much xx