When your child gets injured, it can be heartbreaking to see them in pain, and you will more than likely feel completely helpless. This is a completely natural thing, and while you will want to do everything you can to ensure they are comfortable, you need to understand that you canāt do everything to help them.
But that doesnāt mean you need to sit on the sidelines while they are in pain. There are still options for you to take to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible and can get back to excellent health as quickly and with as few complications as possible.
Understanding how you can help your child as soon as the tears come will ease a lot of the stress that the both of you will feel should an injury occur. Acting quickly will mitigate any further issues that might arise and get your child back on the road to recovery.
DIAGNOSE
When you first find your child injured, you want to discover what is wrong as soon as possible. Sometimes, this can be as simple as finding a cut and so you can take steps to disinfect it and wrap the wound in bandages which will need to be cleaned and changed every day.
However, sometimes it is not that simple. With more serious injuries such as broken bones, you will need to take them to a doctor to discover the severity of the accident. During this time, ensure that your child is comfortable and calm, as further stressors could lead to more significant complications later on.
FIND TREATMENT
Broken bones in children need to be treated differently to adults, as the child is still growing and it can affect their development. Failure to adequately address this kind of issue can lead to growth plate injury and cause further complications later in life.
Attending the accident and emergency ward at the hospital will give you the chance to be seen as quickly as possible, and in some cases, the most serious injuries will be seen first as a matter of urgency. From here, you can discover how much treatment will cost (if anything) as well as receive advice from the doctor about time-frames for recovery and other factors.
SUPPORT
When your child is on the shelf, they will no doubt feel depressed and in a considerable amount of pain. Because of this, you need to ensure that you remain supportive of them as well as trying to keep their spirits up.
While things such as broken arms and noses donāt interfere too much with their life and they will still be able to get around, make some food and hang out with friends, other injuries like broken legs can be a lot more isolating. This can be the worst thing for a child, so remaining supportive, and making sure they are comfortable and happy will ease their sorrow and make the problem just a bit more manageable.
DONāT RUSH IN
It can be easy that your child will want to get out there and throw caution to the wind once they start feeling better. However, the short time after serious injuries still needs to be treated with care to avoid exasperating the injury before it is fully healed.
While there is no need to cover them in bubble wrap, it is smart to remind them to remain careful when out and about. This includes doing too strenuous activities on the recently-healed areas such as sports as well as perhaps doing what they did before the injury occurred.
Taking their time to let the injury heal properly will save any repeat injuries and allow them to do whatever they loved doing before getting hurt. Furthermore, engaging in physical therapy will help their limbs get back to full strength, so they neednāt miss a beat when everything is fully healed.
COPING
Seeing your child in pain can be horrible for any parent, but you can make their life and your life easier by taking the correct measures towards ensuring they are comfortable and in a position to recover peacefully. As much as they might want to get back out into the world and hang out with their friends, reminding them that they need lots of rest and must take care when out and about should get through to them.
They donāt need to hole themselves up in their room while recovering; they still have the chance to live a life outside of the four walls of your house. Making sure that they remain careful and that their friends take care of them when out will ease both your mind and theirs of something bad happening again.
Top photo by Ben Hershey, via Unsplash.
How to cope when your child gets injured call 999
Sound and practical ideas, Christy.
Hope this post is out of concern for others and not your own experience!
Nice post!
Thank you very much dear Kristy fir great advices
Kissed
Wonderful article Christy. As a kid my son played POp Warner football š his dad a coach. He went in to be quarterback in high school. He sustained two concussions. knowing what we do now I would not allow him
To participate in tackle football. Not to go off point, I think your advice is right on.
Hi Christy,
that is difficult situation,and it is hard to control emotions in that moment. But as you said,we must be calm,because of our children.
Hi Christy…
No one likes to see anyone in pain. As a child I did some pretty crazy things, my parents were great at finding that balance where my pain did not become the center of life. Often they would dust me off and send me on my way to another adventure.
They were always there for the serious things like when my gun went off and struck my right hand. Even though it was a low calibre .22 it caused a great deal of pain. They stopped everything and rushed me to hospital, then of course there were all the broken bones which I suppose could be another book.
I am very grateful for the love and care they gave me but will say that life never stopped because I had hurt myself. I still had to pump and carry water, get the daily supply of coal and wood and do all my daily chores I was assigned.
Hugs as always.
Hi Christy,
I hope that you are well.
Take care of you.
Your friend Tony, of France.
Good post. Especially like your advice on don’t rush in. As a high school athlete I repeated had problems with my hamstrings. So it is great advice.