School injury with photo

[Sam117]

DD is in year 1. A classmate pushed her in the playground, she fell over, scraped her cheek and nose. Not sure if visible from the image but her cheek and side of nose are a bit swollen too. She's saying it's very sore and is finding it uncomfortable to sleep on the side of her face. And she feels ugly. 😔

Am I to raise this with the school? Would this leave a scar? What would help it heal quickly?

She's very brave but admitted to crying a lot all afternoon. I feel so upset that I wasn't there to console her.

And she feels ugly??

I don't think my dc has even mentioned 'ugly' by the age of 5. I'd use this as an opportunity to talk about beauty being inside, not about how we look, and to emphasise that's it's just a scraper that will be gone in a few days.

No but of its the swelling is due to an infection, it could get worse. DH was recommended to do this by out of hours he ended up with antibiotics just for a small scratch.

Any injury can become infected, if its swollen and hot then and it's any better buy the morning or worse then it will need looking at.

@Sam117 try and relax. DS is 10 now and if he did it in the street playing football I doubt I would even know until he came in the house potentially hours later. If it was a knee or something I might find out days later if he asked for some cream for it. He does his own bath time etc so would need to wait to see it unless shown.

Our school only ring if it's a A&E job, he's year 5 and I wouldn't want to be called out of more for all the bumps and bruises he's had over the years.

I'm sorry your DC's experienced these injuries at school. I hope they're both OK.

I've not put anything on as DD was complaining it was very sore. Will see how she is in the morning.

Nope. No creams or anything. A bit of calpol for the pain and a lot of cuddles. Luckily, it happened on the way into school whilst she was with DH so he was able to bring her straight home again.

You are. It's never nice when a child is injured and worse when it is so visible.
I'm wondering where she got the opinion she was ugly, normally young children don't think such things.
Calpol if she's in pain, keep it clean and it will soon heal naturally.
She's very brave remember 😉

I'd be upset too OP, it's horrible seeing them upset or hurt. 💕 to you both

Ahh bless her, Sudocreme would cool it down a lot and take the stinging away.

I swear even if I broke my leg, a dab of Sudo would make it good again 😁

Maybe she actually wasn't very distressed! More likely that she was looked after while she cried, given an ice pack and settled down to her afternoon at school!

I think her face looks fine. These things happen on the playground - I have seen much worse!

We did have a chat about this last year after her classmate mocked her hairstyle and said it was ugly.

Keep smothering it in vaseline - this helps prevent it from drying out and forming a scab (which makes it take longer to heal). My daughter had an absolutely awful looking graze across a huge area of her face when she was little and vaseline worked miracles! No scars at all and it healed very fast. I hope she's better soon.

'DD said her classmate kept saying it was an accident and helped to take her to the teacher on duty.'

I think you know what happened then! I would leave it at that tbh - just mention she's feeling a bit sore, if it's still hurting in the morning.

Thank you so much everyone. I appreciate the reassurance. 💐

I may have overreacted and worried more than I should've.

I do feel saddened by the "I feel ugly" statement so will have another chat about this.

It's never nice when your child is hurt. I think you are right that the concern is more the ugly comment than anything else. I'd really try and address that and look at what is influencing dd. Have comments been made at school? She's only little but does she play any sports? Who are her role models.

Poor thing. Hopefully it will heal quickly.

Definitely have that chat with her about feeling ugly. Children are nasty and they don't realise how much their words can cut. More deeply than a graze that's for sure.
If it turns in to bullying then if course contact the school.
Hopefully she's sleeping now. Brave warrior!!

I think it's mostly her school friends. Yesterday she was told by a close friend in her class "your hair looks like scruffy beard".

DD has very curly hair which she sadly hates and is complexed by because of comments from her classmates. She dreams of having naturally straight hair.

I've been trying to teach her (not sure if this is the right expression) to love her hair but it's been so hard.

Oh bless her it does look sore.
She isn't anywhere near ugly: she's a lovely looking child with a bumped face. Tell her not to worry.
Hopefully with a spoon of Calpol overnight and something non-adherent to sleep on it will have scabbed by morning and ( although it will feel a bit tight) as long as she doesn't scratch it she'll be bump and scar free in a week. (While she's not at school and no one can see a smear of sudocrem might help.
It's better to have a great time running about and get the occasional bump that to never get to run about. I hope she feels better soon.

Forgive me if I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but is there possibly a race element to this? You mentioned another child criticising her curly hair and it just reminded me of some racist things that children sometimes say. If you think there might be something like that going on I'd definitely get on to the school. They need to address this with the class right away. Unfortunately, some children learn these behaviours at home, but school can help to educate them.

Just read your last post. All mine are grown and most are flown now:
2 have curly hair (of which one straightens it).
3 have blonde hair (of which 2 dye it).
3 have straight hair, of which 1 straightens it further and one curls it.

In short, disappointingly, lots of people don't like their own hair. Your DD is only 5, so she's picked it up somewhere ( and her friend must have picked her attitude up from somewhere too.) It's so sad that she and her peers have curly/straight preference at that age, but you can turn it around. Take a Saturday to do a style swap; comment on all the good things about looking like her, etc etc. You're already doing the love your hair thing so you're already building positivity.

I'd not be fussed over the graze but the curly hair / ugly comments would make me very angry. I'd be speaking to the teacher

I'd raise the comments about her hair with the teacher, that's unacceptable. At their age all it would take is a little chat about how everyone is different and that's a good thing etc.

Hopefully her face heals up quickly.

Dd at age 3 and 4 has had a lot worse than this. Twice had to come in and pick her up. Luckily she was at an age where she could tell me what happened. Came up with massive golf ball sized bumps on head and once a black eye. The black eye she was pushed and hit the side of a plant pot.
With kids it just happens. The boys in her class are rough. It’ll be much better tomorrow. Most of the kids have had some kind of falls like this at some point.

Accidents happen but if she’s fallen on concrete and hurt her face like that I’d want a phone call as it’s still a head injury. You should have been given the chance to collect her so she wasn’t upset and in pain at school all afternoon.

I’d also have a word with the teacher about the name calling. Name calling and being pushed over is bullying.

Go with your gut instinct, you need to advocate for your daughter. There isn’t the level of staff supervision needed anymore at schools to keep small children safe. Don’t feel embarrassed or too fussy to raise anything you’re concerned about as a parent.

Sorry that has happened.It may have been an accident.I would ask the teacher what happened.
You could put some arnica cream on it but not near the eye. If she is still complaining it might be worth getting it checked by a GP incase she has damaged her cheek bone. It depends how it happened really. Arnica cream helps to bring out the bruising. Some cold compresses to bring down swelling. I would mention the ugly statement and also reassure her that you love her just the way she is.It is young to be making such comments and there might be some discussion going on.I would gently mention it to the teacher. Hopefully it might lead to a class discussion.

Depends whether it was an accident or deliberate.

My dd was shoved hard when she was little, smashed several teeth, cut face etc. Nothing was done at all about it because it was an accident - the child that shoved her hard was running and not looking where he was going. She was shoved into a wall. Another child had to have some paper stitches on her head because of an impact with this same wall. I think the playground was a bit unsafe and supervision was very lacking. The school didn't do anything towards preventing it happening to someone else.

I wouldn't think your dd's injury would scar. Even if it did, it's honestly no big deal. I have a scar on my face from a childhood accident. I never even think about it. My mum was far more upset about it than I was.