Head injuries

My daughters hospital say that everytime she hits her head hard we have to go in and they do hourly obs overnight. I can't believe it that she has hit her head badly twice in the last week and a half. I got a bit of a telling off from the doctor and told about how serious it could be. He said we really need to be more careful. We tell our daughter no bouncy castles or trampolines with another child and for bikes and scooters she must always wear a helmet. Other than that we just stop her from doing anything we see her doing that is obviously going to end in an accident, but she is a very active 4 year old I'm not sure how else to prevent head injuries other than tie her to the sofa!! What does everyone else do or have you got any suggestions?

Hi,

We had Tommy (almost 4 now) walk around with a helmet for a few days, but decided this was unreasonable. This was during the same time that we didn't dare to stay more than a few feet from him, just in case. Initially, my wife spent a few nights in the hospital after he bumped his head (once his older brother slammed him with a floorboard we had lying around :blush:).

Our doctor told us that it would be quite obvious when it is an emergency. So our strategy for the last year and a half has been was to just let him be a normal boy, including bouncy castles. We don't rush to the hospital after a fall either; we just keep an eye on him. From our reading, there is an increased risk but the chances something serious happening are not that great. We do plan to see if it is possible to get some training in testing pupil reflexes ("obs").

I don't think there are any realistic options beyond to do what you're doing, saying "no" to every normal activity for a four-year old is not really going to work either.

Hope this somehow helps,
Daniel

Hi Grasshopper,

Dougie's doctor also told us that it would be pretty obvious if there were a head injury, just as it would be in someone without ITP. ITP doesn't make a head injury more likely, just more likely to be catastrophic. Dougie once walked straight into a door on the way out of the children's ward having been discharged with a count of 1 - enormous egg of a bruise and black eyes, but no damage otherwise. We went straight back into the ward and the doctor just gave us an ice pack and kept an eye on him for half an hour.

Dougie wears a helmet on his bike, and he is (theoretically) banned from heading the ball in football - he still does it "by accident" though. We tell him not to go on trampolines with other kids too, but I know he does that as well.

You must be spending days at the hospital!!!! I am quite glad that ours hasn't given us the same advice.

Alison

Thank you for your replies. Yes sometimes it's a huge pain that we have to keep going into hospital and stay overnight. My daughter loves it!! But both of us get no sleep and it mucks up the whole week and makes it very hard with working. However, it does put my mind at rest that she is ok and at least nothing should be missed. Hopefully she may hit her head less as she gets older!

I am with you. My daughter just turned 5. We make her wear a helmet for anything with wheels and we limit bouncy houses. She knows the rules. Not always likes it but knows that she can't always do it. I base it on numbers. If she is below 20K, no wheels , no bouncy. 20-30-safe bike and scooter with helmet. Above 30-almost normal, we just keep and eye. Above 50-free to do anything.

It is scary but you have to live. Good luck and you are not alone, my 5year old is clumsy and seems to be prone for injury.

I also base it on what my 5 year old daughter's count is, the counts jrosenfe is following are pretty spot on to what her hemo team recommends, they have also said climb on nothing taller than themselves. I try to manage playtime with more arts and crafts, board games, even extra computer time. I also step in earlier than I normally would with arguments between my daughter and her almost 3 year old brother. But they're kids, you can't prevent everything. Hang in there!

I suppose it makes sence to go by the count. Hannah's count has only ever been under 20 so I've never thought about what we would change at a higher count. It seems like you have been given clear guidelines which is nice, we haven't really. I feel like we have been almost left on our own to work that out.We weren't told anything about no wheels under 20 or only climb things her own height. We let her climb very high climbing frames, I always worry about this. She also goes very high on swings which worries me. I am wondering now whether I'm not being as careful as I should be?

I am not sure that you could set absolute rules because it would depend on things like how cautious and physically able your kid was. Personally, I would let Dougie on a bike at any count as long as he had a helmet on. The climbing thing seems sensible - I remember worrying one day when I found a video on Dougie's phone which clearly showed him about 30ft up in a conker tree!

This seems quite sensible advice to me - www.itpkids.org/content/itp_sports.html

Since the hospital are giving you a hard time over her accidents, why don't you ask them for some guidelines they would consider sensible?

Ali

I think the answers you get from your hemo team or from your ER visit also have something to do with how you pose questions or situations to them. For me, I need guidelines so I ask for them, so I agree it would be a good idea to ask for them. Like what are normal things to expect, what requires a phone call, etc. The count guidelines are rough and I keep hearing treat the symptoms not the count which takes a little getting used to. Everyone is different, kids with the same count get different treatments. My husband kind of wishes there was something on my daughter's forehead that would read her platelet count so we could know how careful we have to be...wouldn't that be a wonderful invention!