Let’s talk about dislocations and breaks and what can happen in children. This is also something we teach and go through quite extensively in our first aid classes. We will discuss what to expect, what to do, what first-aid to give and the difference between a dislocation and a break.
Dislocation
A dislocation is when a joint falls out of the socket.
The most common part of the body to get dislocated is the elbow. This can occur when we are swinging our children around by the arms (this actually happened to me when I was a child!), or when you are standing on the side of the road and pull your child back quickly by their arm.
If dislocation happens often, the joint can become weak, which is something we need to be aware of.
Treatment for a dislocation:
Support the arm with a simple triangular bandage. You can use a large square muslin or sheet, make it into a triangle and pop the point of the triangle underneath the elbow. Both ends of the triangle go over the shoulders, to tie at the back behind the neck.
A dislocation does need treatment relatively quickly because it will be very uncomfortable. The most likely scenario is that your doctor or the emergency department will be able to pop that joint in quickly and quite easily.
There are usually no long-term effects with dislocation.
If dislocation happens often, the joint can become weak, which is something we need to be aware of.
Breaks / fractures
With any child under the age of one that is brought into the hospital with a fracture – there is usually some questions around it because babies’ bones tend to be quite flexible up to the age of 18 months because they are made of a lot of cartilage which makes them a bit more tricky to break.
This is something our medical professionals must do to protect children on that odd occasion when it isn’t an accidental injury.
Older children will always be able to tell you when there is some sort of injury and explain what has happened to cause the injury which can help you to assess the injury.
It can be difficult to identify a fracture in toddlers and infants – they might cry, you might not see the affected area and there may be no obvious injury either. Babies and, toddlers especially, will mask an injury, by just thinking ‘my left arm is really sore, so I’ll just not use it, I’ll go play with my right arm’.
Especially in a multi-child household, these things are not noticed that quickly and it happens often that a child comes in and the fracture happened a day or two earlier.
If you think your child has a fracture, they may have the following symptoms:
Pain or tenderness around the injury;
Swelling or redness around the injury (with swelling comes pain which is why we like to elevate the arm);
Deformity or an unusual shape of the injured area (you can ask your child to put both legs out or both arms to compare the difference);
Not wanting to move or use the injured area.
First aid treatment for a fracture is to provide comfort for the child, help to reduce the swelling and provide the child with some pain relief until the fracture is treated which should be relatively quickly.
You can apply the following first aid for a suspected fracture, and then seek medical help:
Give some pain relief in the form of paracetamol, ibuprofen or both;
Reduce movement of the affected area, you can apply a splint or a sling to an arm, putting on the triangular bandage to support the arm and keep it in one place. If it is a leg, you need to be very careful about moving the child. If it is comfortable enough to elevate the leg it may be ok to elevate, but usually, with a leg fracture, you need to call the ambulance, because moving the child will be very difficult.
Apply an ice pack to the affected area. Remember to always make sure that the ice pack is wrapped in something so it is not directly on the skin.
Elevate – you can elevate the arm on route to the hospital. If you don’t feel comfortable, if you think the break is very obviously deformed and you can’t move your child then you can call an ambulance.
With an open fracture or a compound fracture (when there is bone sticking through the skin) we don’t know what ligaments, muscles, nerves or tendons are involved. DO NOT move this child, call an ambulance. You can still give some pain relief and perhaps cover the injury with a very light muslin if the child is getting distressed looking at it. The ambulance can assess the damage on arrival and also give stronger pain medication.
We hope you enjoyed this! Our mission to to help parents cut through the clutter of anxiety and worry when it comes to their child’s health and wellbeing.
We want you to trust yourself, know that you have all the tools in your nest to keep your child safe and well, so you can stop googling, and coming away more confused than when you started, you have landed in our well feathered nest and we’ve got your back, every step of the way!
Here are some further resources you might enjoy!
{FREE} Your Virtual First Aid Kit – https://thenestcpr.kartra.com/page/firstaid
Book a baby & child first aid class – https://www.thenestcpr.com/book
The Nest CPR & Allergy Flock FB Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/thenestcpr
The Nest Allergy Membership – https://www.thenestcpr.com/allergy-membership
Online Baby & Child First Aid – https://thenestcpr.com/product/online/
Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thenestcpr and
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thenestcpr
Keep in touch and email us with any queries!
I hope that’s been helpful for you today. If you want more from The Nest, then we’ve got lots of other resources for you. We’ve got our FREE Virtual First Aid Kit for all mums, dads and grandparents and anyone that looks after your child. It’s a PDF that you can download to your phone or computer, you can print it out and bind it. It’s got lots of different first aid situations in it, including choking and CPR. You can find it at the bottom of every page on our website.
Allergy mum? We have the Allergy & Anaphylaxis masterclass for you or if you want even more support, join us inside The Nest Allergy Membership where you have specialists in your pocket 24/7 for the price of a coffee a week — oh and an AWESOME community!
If you want more than that, we have our classes. We have online classes, home classes, private couples classes. We do classes in clinics in New South Wales, we do home classes in Canberra & Sydney.
Keep in touch and email us with any queries!
We hope you enjoyed this! Our mission to to help parents cut through the clutter of anxiety and worry when it comes to their child’s health and wellbeing.
We want you to trust yourself, know that you have all the tools in your nest to keep your child safe and well, so you can stop googling, and coming away more confused than when you started, you have landed in our well feathered nest and we’ve got your back, every step of the way!
Here are some further resources you might enjoy!
{FREE} Your Virtual First Aid Kit – https://thenestcpr.kartra.com/page/firstaid
Book a baby & child first aid class – https://www.thenestcpr.com/book
The Nest CPR & Allergy Flock FB Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/thenestcpr
The Nest Allergy Membership – https://www.thenestcpr.com/allergy-membership
Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thenestcpr and
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thenestcpr
Keep in touch and email us with any queries!
Leave a Reply