When LO hits their head...

Magenta728

At what point, do you get concerned? If LO fell down and hit their head, when would you call the doctor/911/go to the hospital? I am just wondering what everyone's cut-off would be.

 

jcsumm0

If she cut herself and I thought she needed stiches.

If she lost conciousness or threw up.

Maybe if the welt looked really bad?  I'd probably call the nurse at my dr's office in that case.

That's all I can think of.

ETA:  Maybe if she was acting differently or seemed really, really upset and I couldn't calm her down.

butterfly62682

jcsumm0:

If she cut herself and I thought she needed stitches.

If she lost consciousness or threw up.

Maybe if the welt looked really bad?  I'd probably call the nurse at my dr's office in that case.

That's all I can think of.

All of this. 

Avery has a huge bruise on her head from running into the corner of our entertainment center. 

Syncronicity09

butterfly62682:

jcsumm0:

If she cut herself and I thought she needed stitches.

If she lost consciousness or threw up.

Maybe if the welt looked really bad?  I'd probably call the nurse at my dr's office in that case.

That's all I can think of.

All of this. 

Avery has a huge bruise on her head from running into the corner of our entertainment center. 

Ditto this. Ash is such a daredevil he hits his head multiple times daily.

I keep an eye out for changes in behavior, bleeding that might require stitches and bumps that look large or excessively colorful. Otherwise its business as usual.

Syncronicity09

butterfly62682:

jcsumm0:

If she cut herself and I thought she needed stitches.

If she lost consciousness or threw up.

Maybe if the welt looked really bad?  I'd probably call the nurse at my dr's office in that case.

That's all I can think of.

All of this. 

Avery has a huge bruise on her head from running into the corner of our entertainment center. 

Ditto this. Ash is such a daredevil he hits his head multiple times daily.

I keep an eye out for changes in behavior, bleeding that might require stitches and bumps that look large or excessively colorful. Otherwise its business as usual.

MommaG123

I agree with everyone else.  If she was cut & bleeding badly, throwing up, pupils abnormal, acting differently etc.

She gets hurt at least once a day.  She is a wild child and always climbing and jumping  off of everything.  She's currently sporting a fat lip and goose egg on her head.

waterfall11

Syncronicity09:

butterfly62682:

jcsumm0:

If she cut herself and I thought she needed stitches.

If she lost consciousness or threw up.

Maybe if the welt looked really bad?  I'd probably call the nurse at my dr's office in that case.

That's all I can think of.

All of this. 

Avery has a huge bruise on her head from running into the corner of our entertainment center. 

Ditto this. Ash is such a daredevil he hits his head multiple times daily.

I keep an eye out for changes in behavior, bleeding that might require stitches and bumps that look large or excessively colorful. Otherwise its business as usual.

All of this or if her eyes were dilating differently or not tracking well.  I accidentally dropped DD on her head at 4 1/2 months, fallen off the back of her play slide and hit her head a couple times and just randomly running into things and is very resilient.   

DreamChaser246

Syncronicity09:

butterfly62682:

jcsumm0:

If she cut herself and I thought she needed stitches.

If she lost consciousness or threw up.

Maybe if the welt looked really bad?  I'd probably call the nurse at my dr's office in that case.

That's all I can think of.

All of this. 

Avery has a huge bruise on her head from running into the corner of our entertainment center. 

Ditto this. Ash is such a daredevil he hits his head multiple times daily.

I keep an eye out for changes in behavior, bleeding that might require stitches and bumps that look large or excessively colorful. Otherwise its business as usual.

Ditto, definatly watch the changes in behavior part. This is when I'm thankful that DH is a nurse, and I can with his help feel like we made a good judgement call.

Diver0214

I agree with what everyone else said. LO pulled the toaster on her head when she was about 10 mo and she had a huge egg on her head. I called and they pretty much said just to watch her.

She hits her head at least once a day on something.

Turtle143

When Liv fell off the bed before she was 1, I called the Peds office just to ease my mind. She was okay and all they said was to watch for any changes, especially in behavior.

JuneBug0611

I agree with all of this.  When DD fell backwards and hit her head on the cement, stopped breathing, eyes rolled back, and lost consciousness, we called 911.  (She is fine, thank God, but that was the scariest moment of my life and calling 911 was not even a debate, it was clear that this was an emergency.  Even though she came to 10 or 20 seconds later, she was screaming and was not herself -- we couldn't get a smile from her for hours.  The doctors were concerned enough that they did a CT scan.  It was clear that was serious.)

When she bumps her head against a piece of furniture and cries for a few seconds, we chalk that up to toddlerhood and keep going.

I think your instincts (and their behavior) are pretty good at telling you when they are ok and when they're not. If they get back up and keep going and are themselves, they're probably fine.  Otherwise, get them checked out.

OpheliaChem

I'm more of a "are bones sticking out?" kinda girl so it would have to be pretty severe for me to consider a trip to the ER. DD tripped while walking and slammed into the door frame and had a HUGE bruised lump on her head. She hit so hard that it cut her head too (just a little cut, no drips of blood). I held her until she calmed down and tried to put a cold cloth on it but she hated that. So we did what we always do when she is upset...distract her with toys and/or take her outside.

babyduejune

I wouldn't take my child to the Dr. after they hit their head unless they vomited several times, they seemed "off balance", they're eyes didn't track properly or pupils didn't react to light properly, their behavoir seemed abnormal following the fall Eg: unable to be soothed, very lethargic etc. An exception to this would be a blow to the temporal area of the head, the middle meningeal artery runs through this area and can bleed very easily with trauma, temporal area trauma=automatic ER trip and INSISTING on MRI of head with stat read. Otherwise, I would avoid ER run without symptoms as they are likely to do an unnecessary CT and that increases risk of brain cancer and is usually completely unnecessary.