hiding an injury?

rosesandpeonies · February 2013

My 3.5 year old has been doing this new thing for the past few months. Any time she gets hurt she won't tell us. She got this strange burn on her arm in Nov. and my Mom and I could not get out of her how she got the burn.

Then yesterday she hurt her wrist playing and she wouldn't show me. I told her that it was okay, etc. and I try to reassure her that its okay to tell Mommy anything.

Then this morning she didn't want to go to school because she didn't want to show her teacher her wrist that she hurt yesterday (very minor scrape).

The teacher has also told me that when she got hurt on the playground one day, my daughter wouldn't tell her, one of her classmates did and that she was just concerned as to why she wouldn't tell her.

she is with me all of the time and I just can't figure this out at all. I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but its making mommy bells go off in my head, but I can't put my finger on why she would be reacting this way.

My Mom who is a nurse said that some kids do do this and that it can be completely normal but just keep an eye on the behavior.

She is very quiet, etc. so I don't know if its just her personality.

Any thoughts?

jerseygirl81 · February 2013

Maybe she just doesn't want any attention on her? I was very much the same way when I was little, though maybe not with my parents. I remember playing soccer when I was 5 and I got bumped in the nose and had a nosebleed - if you got hurt, you were supposed to sit down on the ground and they would stop play. I didn't want to do that because I didn't want people to pay that much attention to me, so I just ran around with blood streaming from my nose until someone noticed.

LoveEeyore · February 2013

I can imagine the Mommy hackles- that is strange. But a few things, like pp noted, she may not want it checked out? I have one who wants the whole fanfare- clianing, neosporin, bandaid, etc... I have one who got several splinters last summer, so hides EVERY injury because he doesn't want the tweezers, and then my third who wants you to know there was a perceived injury, but won't let me look because she wants me to be proud how tough she is.

Also, kids collect weird stigmas from hearing and misinterpreting them. I worked with a child like 20 years ago and was his emergency contact. I got a call from the school to go get him because his mother told him his teeth would rot out of his head if he didn't brush and he said "fine," and she didn't make him brush. He got to preschool, crawled under the table and wouldn't open his mouth. I took him home and turns out he thought his teeth were going to fall out. Maybe your DD overheard someone say something like, "If you fall off those monkey bars you'll have to go to the hospital," or something.

The "I don't want to show the teacher," makes me think the teacher might have commented/told her or another child to not be a baby, or some negative (even if gently or just exasperated) comment about making a big deal over injuries or tattling...

brettsmama · February 2013

My DS is 3 and realized if he was sick or hurt he wasn't allowed to do certain things that were fun. So now he doesn't ever want to admit if he doesn't feel good. Trust those red flags bells though. I would try to Keep an eye on the behavior without making too big of a deal though

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