You know, I don't think of myself as an abusive mother. I don't try to hurt my children. But today, as Gertie and I were finishing up our shopping trip to the local thrift store ($3 a bag sale), I was holding her hand, and we were walking out. She decided she wasn't into leaving like I was. So she did what toddlers do: She just went limp and dangled by her arm. She wasn't crying or upset, and a lady behind us was even laughing at her antics. I let her hang there for a second, and then I picked her up. That's the best reconstruction I can create, considering I wasn't focusing on the details.
Anyway, she starts crying as we're leaving, crying hard. I don't know if she's just mad because we're leaving, or if she's hurt or what, so I ask her. She tells me, "Ouchie. Elbow." Then she continues to sob. We drive home, I bring her into the house and I do notice that she won't move her left arm. She is still crying. Hard.
I load her in the car again and take her to Urgent Care. By now she'll just barely move her arm, and I'm starting to wonder if I really need to be here, but when I hand her pink bunny to her, she only grabs it with her right hand. The left one stays stationary. Uh-oh.
Well, I am somewhat wise to this situation, because I am also responsible for doing the same thing to Ethan when he was about this very age. It is called nursemaid's elbow. With Ethan I was lifting him up by both his hands at the same time, and setting him down, lifting him again, and setting him down. He was loving it, until he started crying. John happened to be out of town, so I loaded Grace and Ethan into the van and headed for the emergency room. I'll never forget that as we were driving along, Grace said, "I know you didn't mean to hurt Ethan, Mommy." I was ready to be hauled in to jail, but the doctor didn't seem at all concerned. I guess this is fairly common. They just snapped his elbow back in place, and he was ready to go.
And that's what they did for Gertie today. She screamed while the "provider" pulled and tugged on her arm, but once it snapped into place, the pain seemed to have disappeared entirely. She grabbed her bunny with both hands again, and we made our exit.
I haven't received any notice that I'm under investigation by Child Protective Services yet.
1 comment:
It is VERY common! I had many kids in my toddler preschool class that had to have their elbow "popped back in". Thankfully, it was never me who popped it out in the first place! I did have one little girl who's elbow did it about once a month. It happened once with my co-teacher. She felt horrible, but the mom (who worked on campus at the hospital we serviced) just came down to our center, popped it back in and went back on her with barely batting an eye. haha!
Frankly, I'm surprised my kids haven't ended up with a nursemaid's elbow yet. Makes me a little nervous!
I remember it happening to me when I was about 5. Big enough deal that I remember it, but really it wasn't bad.
Glad Gertie is back to her precocious toddler self!
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