A broken foot: A baby cries

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Our packed day:

Lady Chance takes the day off. Plans to laze around the house all day.

I have an afternoon job interview. Third call back. This one feels right.

7AM: Take Baby Kate to day care.

9:30AM: Maid service arrives early. Lady Chance still lounging in bubble bath. Shrieks…runs into bedroom.

10:30: Begin changing into suit. Banish maids from upstairs during this process.

RING RING RING

10:40: Day care. Baby Kate had a bookshelf fall on her foot. They want us to have a doctor look at it. Lady Chance has to go.

11:00AM I leave for interview.

4PM: Get back from interview. No Lady Chance nor Baby Kate. ‘uh oh’, thinks I.

Yes, when they get home Baby Kate is sporting a REALLY cute little soft cast on her right foot. She’s just barely broken one what, metacarpal?, in her foot. It’s a small break but a real one.

She’s proud of her new ‘shoe’ and wants to display it for me. My heart breaks.

Lady Chance collapses, having had to visit FOUR doctors in 5 hours to get this taken care of.

Get this: the doctor who applied the cast tells her that we must keep a two-and-one-half-year-old baby off her feet for TWO WEEKS!

How is ANYONE supposed to accomplish that? She’s 25 pounds of pure, unadulterated energy at this stage!

VOOM!

VROOM!

VAZOOM!

I’ll take sympathy, advice, and rants. Your choice.

2

Well, Nate, we’ve got the same problem, sort of.

Two and a half years old - check. Unlimited energy - check. Broken metacarpal - check. Twenty-five pounds? Make that fourteen. Female child? Nope, neutered male cat.

Happened just three days ago, too. Wilbur’s figured out how to get up and down stairs on three legs (the broken foot’s splinted and wrapped in cotton and an Ace bandage), and fortunately getting around tires him out, so he doesn’t bring all of his usual zip to everything. (Kinda restful for us, actually.) OTOH, in his initial frustration with his foot being bound up, he gashed my face pretty good with his front claws, which work just fine.

I have zero idea how to keep Baby Kate off her feet for two weeks, at an age where it’s tough to explain stuff like that to her, and her attention span is surely quite short anyway. Good luck with that. And with the job, too. I’ll look forward to seeing her new ‘shoe’ in a week and a half.

3

Sorry to hear about your daughter. I know it’s hard to keep them still.

She probably broke a metatarsal, metacarpals are in the hand. An easy way to remember is t for toes. Children don’t really have all of their tarsals yet, they kind of develop later. I do x-rays and was very surprised to learn this myself. The good news is children heal quickly. She’ll probably never know it happened later in life. Children have that great ability to bounce back. Kids heal very quickly, so good luck. The only advice I have is maybe tie her down and read her books!! I looked at the pictures, she is beautiful.

Just kidding, I don’t need a pit rant for all those that may mistakenly take me seriously.

4

Oh, my gosh! That’s awful! Poor Baby Kate! Poor Lady and Mistah Chance! That’s terrible!

5

I am glad that it is not bad an injury as it could be, but my heart goes out to the little one and her parents. It sucks to see your baby injured, as is the aftermath, telling them why they can’t do things, etc.

I think the first of many trips to the library is in order. Both books and movies will be your best friend for a little while. Lots of errands where you can carry her will keep her entertained and off her tootsie. Perhaps you can take her out to some theater movies. My kids are transfixed by the big movie screen, and don’t move for the whole 90 minute movie.

6

Well, I know how you feel. Last year our then just turned a year old son broke his ankle or foot, we couldn’t really tell. They put a cast on and told us to keep him off of his feet. Well, I tried but he had just learned to walk really well, and there was nothing that was short of tying him down that was going to keep him from chasing his sisters. When they took the cast off I was horrified to see dirt and leaves and small sticks stuck in the bottom of it. The guy said that was nothing, kids come in there with food stuck down the cast. And he said that 3 week old broccoli doesn’t look so good. :slight_smile:

We also got to try this again recently when he broke his left arm. Again, he was in a cast for three weeks, and the hardest part was that he would get mad because he couldn’t hold his glass to get a drink by himself.

Two year olds heal quickly. Don’t worry too much about keeping her off her feet. Children are more likely to stay down when hurt, unlike adults who just grin and bear it even when we shouldn’t.

Infact, last year when Ryan broke his foot, we thought he had just twisted it because he didn’t cry very much, so we didn’t take him to the doctor. He crawled around for a week before we decided to take him to the doctor. The doctor said that Ryan was just doing the smart thing and not putting any pressure on his foot by walking. Kids are smart, so don’t worry.

7

perhaps videos. she may be traumatized by books due to the bookshelf incident.

8

When my son was about 3, he suddenly stopped walking. Altogether. I could NOT get that child to take a single step! I bribed him with goodies, to no avail. So I’m freakin’ out and I take him to a doctor (who also tried to bribe him and couldn’t get him to take a step). So he sends us over to the hospital for x-rays (hips, knees, feet, the whole deal). They couldn’t find anything awry. They said that it is nearly impossible for little ones to break anything because they are just like cartilidge until the real bones develop. The x-ray showed little round circles where the bones were starting to grow.

Then a couple days later the kid starts walking again. Go figure.

9

I really want to thank everyone for the sympathy and stories.

Kate is the talk of her day care. Random parents come up to us asking about her. Apparently the other kids are telling their parents that ‘Katie got hurt!’.

She still displays her cast to all and sundry. And she rarely walks on it. Apparently soreness is a GREAT motivator. She’s just crawling all over the place.

The hardest part is giving her baths without getting the cast wet. We’ve put it in a plastic bag (which I did when I busted my arm at age 8) but it’s not an easy operation.

Tips?

10

Hold her by the broken leg and dip the rest of her in the water. No, wait, it didn’t work all that well for Achilles, did it?

11

An update…

Kate has been insisting that her foot is all better for about a week. I suppose those of you who attended the Dope-A-Ween last weekend can attest to her energy.

Fortunately, we go to get the cast off today. Kate’s stated plan is to walk and run and jump and hop when it’s off.

No foolin’. Wish us luck.