Did My Toddler Break His Leg?

A few weeks ago when the boys were playing together in the office Gabriel fell on Nathaniel’s leg.  This really isn’t that unusual, but the amount of crying Nathaniel did was.  He wouldn’t stand up, so we took him to the bathroom for better lighting and took all of his clothes off.  His leg was red, but nothing seemed to be out of place.  He finally calmed down and we gave him some Tylenol, and since it was bedtime, we went ahead and put him down.  

The next day, and the following two days, he wouldn’t walk on it.  I called the nurse at our doctor’s office on day 1 and she said to give him some Motrin, which is apparently better for pain relief in children, and to watch him.  He was still in a little pain, so we went ahead and took him to the doctor.  The doctor felt around on his leg, which Nathaniel wasn’t too excited about, but didn’t find anything.  Let me also say that there was no bruising or swelling, or anything on the outside to even know there was an injury.  But, if you moved his leg just right when you were changing his diaper, he would complain.

The next day he finally started walking on it.  So we thought he getting better.  Then a good friend told me a very similar story to Nathaniel’s, only the little girl had ended up in a cast because her leg was fractured.  That kind of freaked us out, to say the least.  So we watched him a few more days.  I personally thought he was pretty much fine.  He was playing outside and walking all over the house.  Johnny noticed that he was limping sometimes.  And then the night that I had pretty much ruled out that anything was wrong, I squeezed his leg and he cried.  That did it for us and we decided that he needed to go in for an x-ray.

The next day we did just that and the tech said they would give us a call in a few days.  The very next day after lunch our doctor called and said that Nathaniel had fractured both of his leg bones, and that he would need to be put in a cast.  So a few hours later we found ourselves getting a full leg cast – mid-thigh down to the toes – that would have to be worn for 3 weeks.

Nathaniel has done super.  He’s never complained, not even while getting the cast.  He hasn’t even had trouble sleeping, which is a huge blessing for all of us!  I wanted to post this story for anyone out there who is having second thoughts about an injury their child may have.  When in doubt, maybe you should go ahead and do the x-ray, just to be sure.  Now the only thing I’m really worried about is getting the darn thing off.  I hear cast saws are kinda scary.