This morning, out in the street, I was startled by a bone chilling No NO NOOO!!! I swiveled my head around and I saw a guy and a baby on the floor. Not good.
The poor chap*, somehow, dropped the baby (less than a year old) on his head, maybe from about 1 meter, I´m not sure. He was a little panicky and asked me to check the baby, and that was one of those times that I regret not having taken the time to do a first aid course.
I just checked the point of impact, no apparent brusing, the baby eyes, they where rolling back a little but appeared normal. The liitle guy seemed to be stunned but nothing more, but what should I have done in a case like this?
The father hopped on a taxi to the nearest hospital, hopefully the baby is OK.
So, in case I face a situation like this again, what and how should I check on the baby?
I was dropped too (actually, boinked right out of the stroller at a crack in the sidewalk). But I’m ok. In fact, I’m of above average intelligence if I do say so myself, hurrr huuurrrrr :p:D
It was a friend’s kid, and she was about a year old. I was holding her in the kitchen, and she was playing with a toy. She dropped the toy, and i bent over to pick it up. I didn’t have a secure enough hold on the kid with my other arm, and she slid straight out and did a face-plant on the linoleum of the kitchen floor.
She only fell a couple of feet, i guess, but it was pretty scary for a minute.
There was much screaming and crying, and she had a lovely cross-hatch pattern on her cheek and forehead from the linoleum, but she was fine.
My sister was one of those sorts of kids! She’s fallen tens of times onto the floor from cribs, tables, chairs, anything we’d put her near from the ages of 1-2…
She’s perfectly fine though now, if not a bit cynical and snarky as a teenager.
But yes- if it is always good to be safe and go to the hospital. Better safe than sorry in those cases, especially if it was outside.
When I was about 2, I fell off the top step of a free-standing stairway, onto the cement basement floor, right on my head. It pretty much explains my entire subsequent life.
Oh, poor guy! Yes, you guys did everything right, I think. The only thing I’m not sure about is if it’s recommended to leave the baby down and wait for a backboard, like you would with an older person who falls. Frankly, I wouldn’t have the heart to do it, I’d have to pick the poppet up and cuddle it. It’s not likely to lay still anyhow.
Eyes rolling or trembling (nastigmus) is common after a fall, but it should be checked out anyhow, as it can be a sign of concussion or neurological damage, but usually it’s just a sign of shock.
Lots of babies fall, but almost all of them are just fine. Their skulls aren’t even entirely bone yet, so the plates are more likely to slide around temporarily and then move back into place than to break. Really, an infant can take a fall more safely than anyone else.
In the house where I grew up we had bannisters that continued in the upstairs hallway and were the only thing separating the hall from the stairs. It’s hard to explain, but basically the bannisters came up diagonally parellel to the stairs and then turned in the opposite direction and continued parallel to the floor, with a floor plan like I’ve drawn below.
___________
Stairs
____________
Hallway
My parents were responsible parents and had a stairgate which was always shut if my toddler brother was upstairs. These bannisters were three planks of wood arranged on top of each other horizontally. No space to squeeze between them, but apparently if you’re an adventurous toddler you can use them as a ladder. Which he did, climbing to the top, then launching himself off and falling the full height of the stairs. He sat up at the bottom and laughed.
He lived to adulthood, completely fine though he has never lost his love for danger and now works as a tree surgeon, one of the most dangerous careers available.
I know a limited amount of first aid and it seems to me like you did the right thing. I agree with Whynot that keeping the baby still isn’t realistic so you may as well reassure it by cuddling and checking the eyes is a good thing. Pupils not reacting to changes in light or uneven pupils would be a bad sign, as would any kind of seizure, and should be a cue to call an ambulance speedily. In any case, the baby needs to be checked out by a doctor, which it sounds like he would have been.
When my now 21 year old daughter was only a month or so old, I fell asleep with her in my arms. She apparently pushed away from my chest and rolled off my lap onto a cement floor. I woke up when she screamed.
I remember calling the doctor and hearing him tell me that “babies really do bounce”.
Although we tease her about being dropped on her head as a child, she is a brilliant girl. No ill effects.
I’ve been told by child development professors that every mother has dropped her baby. Many are just ashamed to admit it. The little buggers are astonishingly malleable. If it were my child, I likely wouldn’t even have bothered with an ER. I would have just taken him to the nearest urgent care for a cursory check.
The role of a bystander in such a situation is minimal, other than to assist in calling for help, should such a request be made by the guardian or obviously needed from the situation.
Babies do surprisingly well when dropped, and are pretty elastic. That’s not to say they can’t be seriously hurt. But the expertise of a layperson in evaluating injury and assisting in care is pretty limited. Even serious blunt head injuries seldom require intervention before expert help arrives. As for the potential for neck or or other injury–it’s there, but much less common in babies. Everything, including the cervical spine, is so elastic that spinal cord injury without radiologic (bony) abnormality is common (well, it’s rare overall, but much more common than in adults). This is a different situation from adults, where bony injury mandates more rigorous stabilization to prevent exacerbation of spinal cord injury. Keep the baby as quiet as possible initially; let help get there if it’s requested.
In the land before carseats, my cousin’s husband (seated in the front seat) was passing their infant overhead to her in the back seat. He thought she had him. She didn’t think he would let go. Kerflump. Baby head down on the back seat floorboard.
I have never seen anyone as scared as Mrs P when she dropped our youngest off the bed. Eyes like saucers, hyperventilating like a steam train on speed, barely able to speak, poor thing. Bub was fine, of course.
Seeing as this thread is likely to attract knowledgeable medical people, I’d like to add in a question I’ve been wondering about for a while.
If a toddler falls on their head onto a hard surface (say, to take a completely random example down a flight of stairs onto a hardwood floor) they’re likely to walk away with a massive bruise. If the surface is carpeted, not so much. None the less, internally, is the same amount of actual damage (or lack of damage) being done? Or does a softer surface really mitigate it completely? If you don’t end up with a bruise, can you be confident no damage was done?