June 2013 Moms
momofcatan
member
Nursemaid's Elbow
momofcatan
member
TL;DR Don't lift up/swing your LO by their hands. It is really easy to dislocate their elbows this way.
We went to the park Sunday morning and DH was helping DD climb around. DH had been helping her up the steps by holding both her hand and just lifting her up by her hands. Out of nowhere DD starts screaming and crying. She could not calm down enough for us to figure out what was wrong so I picked her up and started carrying her home. DH thinks there's something wrong with one of her arms because the way he was lifting her (his parents always tell the story of him dislocating his elbow ["nursmaid's elbow"] as a toddler from pulling to run away from his mom while she was holding his hand). DD doesn't get so upset this often (she's more of a whiner than a screamer) especially without being able to get her to calm down, it was so sad to see. When we were most of the way home she was only whimpering so I asked if she wanted to go down and walk home. She said yes so I put her down as asked if she wanted to hold my hand. She tried to reach, but couldn't lift her left arm up and started crying again. DH had FIL (a radiologist) meet us at home. He remembered from when it happened to DH that its a very easy fix and doesn't need a cast or anything once its popped back into place. He had to try a couple of times but he finally got it back in. DD was still a little upset but started crawling around and manipulating things with her hands 5 mins later so we knew she was ok. It was not fun but I am very thankful it was not worse.
We went to the park Sunday morning and DH was helping DD climb around. DH had been helping her up the steps by holding both her hand and just lifting her up by her hands. Out of nowhere DD starts screaming and crying. She could not calm down enough for us to figure out what was wrong so I picked her up and started carrying her home. DH thinks there's something wrong with one of her arms because the way he was lifting her (his parents always tell the story of him dislocating his elbow ["nursmaid's elbow"] as a toddler from pulling to run away from his mom while she was holding his hand). DD doesn't get so upset this often (she's more of a whiner than a screamer) especially without being able to get her to calm down, it was so sad to see. When we were most of the way home she was only whimpering so I asked if she wanted to go down and walk home. She said yes so I put her down as asked if she wanted to hold my hand. She tried to reach, but couldn't lift her left arm up and started crying again. DH had FIL (a radiologist) meet us at home. He remembered from when it happened to DH that its a very easy fix and doesn't need a cast or anything once its popped back into place. He had to try a couple of times but he finally got it back in. DD was still a little upset but started crawling around and manipulating things with her hands 5 mins later so we knew she was ok. It was not fun but I am very thankful it was not worse.
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Re: Nursemaid's Elbow
BFP#2 9/28/12 EDD 6/5/13 J.B. born 6/6/13
Glad she's ok! Thanks for the warning - she likes to grab our hands and try to swing herself, so I do it now and then carefully, but I think I'll stop completely. Not worth the risk.
Relatedly, at what point are they able to swing by hands safely? I'm a former gymnast and I know I was pretty young when I started swinging around the bars, like 3ish I guess. Is it safe then? Earlier? I don't know!
DS born 6/2013
@nubmersgirl03 MIL makes it sound like DH was around 3 when this happened to him, but maybe he was younger.
B has started wanting to have 2 people hold his hand so he can swing. I try to limit it, but he's really cute. So I just try to stabilize his wrist so we don't also injure that.