I read a Reuters article yesterday about how there's been a big decrease in the number of U.S. children involved in fatal accidents since 1987.
Maybe this is one positive effect of the big increase in TV-watching -- screen activity may do other terrible things to kids, but they're probably less likely to have a deadly mishap vegging out in front of the Disney Channel than climbing trees and riding bikes.
As I was thinking this, my son started wrestling with the dog. That wouldn't be a big deal, except that the dog was squished up against a bookcase by my computer at the time, and wrestling with her quickly resulted in my son smashing his face against the corner of my desk.
No damage done that I could see, but it did send me flashing back to his younger years, when he seemed to smash into things with his face with alarming frequency. Some of it was due to bad motor skills, some to bad depth perception -- he would bonk into the side mirror of the car every time he walked past it, or slam his head in the door while perseverating on the opening and shutting of it. Once he walked too close to a swingset and got kicked in the face by his sister.
Another memorable time, we were vacationing in Florida when he pulled away from our towel-drying efforts and hit his eye against the side of the bathtub. We got to visit Emergency Room Land before we ever got to Disney World.
At least now he's tall enough that he's less likely to run into things with his face. I'm not noticing bruises anywhere else, so if he's still bumping he's at least not doing it at full velocity. But there's still the sense that he's an accident waiting to happen. He doesn't watch out for himself. He enjoys hard wrestling with dogs and friends. His obsessive interests get in the way of his common sense -- recently, he's been interested in cigarette butts, and will stare at them for long minutes, even if they are in the MIDDLE OF THE DANG STREET!
Sorry. My role in life is to watch him and nag him until he removes himself from accident range, and it is a job and a half. I don't know what's kept all those other kids away from bad accidents, but in our house, it's Constant Parental Vigilance. Not a perfect plan by any means, but for kids who can't self-monitor effectively, it's the best there is.
Is your child accident-prone? Share your experiences in the comments.
Our son is like this too. He was always running by the corner of the wall and bumping his head(finally tied swimming noogles to the walls) also diving off his bed he would hit a chair. Diving off everything. We have a video of him doing flips on his bed at 2 years old. Today he fell on the sidewalk and bumped his head again. He is almost 4 and this is still going on. My wife’s family are the dare devil/athletes. I have no experience with wanton risk taking behavior until now. It really scares me for him. We have been to the ER twice(once on vacation like you) and we are semi-joking about having him wear a helmet all the time. He always has bruises and owies. We have to tell him constantly he can’t jump off the counter, can’t stand on the chairs, can’t climb the refrig…we are really struggling to get him to look both ways, even though (thank God) we are in a cul-de-sac, there are teenagers. I am getting reflector stickers for his toys and we are getting him those blinking shoes again. It is CONSTANT vigilence and none of our friends has any idea how tough it is(especially parents of girls.) I think I will just have to be tougher on him like you are and hope and pray he grows out of it.
Actually I have a daughter this way. I do not know what to do. We went to the beach when she was 2 years old and she wanted to dive into the bay. She hits herself on everything. We took her to the park last week and she hit her eye on the merry-go-round. Last night she skinned her toe. Everyday or week its something. I watch her constantly I make sure the house is safe. I feel like a bad parent.
My daughter is five and has been accident prone since she started moving. She is covered in bruises, scratches, and scars all over her body. She runs headlong into walls, door frames or anything in her path all the time despite my constant vigilance. As a matter of fact yesterday she was just walking and fell and caught the floor with her face and busted her front tooth off. I also have a three year old son who is adventurous but not accident prone like her. My fear is that the reason for her accident proneness is that she inherited her father’s ADHD.
My son is like this. In the past year he has blowed into an empty coffee can & gotten the coffee grounds into his eyes, tried to open a small bottle of nail primer for acrylic nails (that he dug out of the trash) with his mouth and got a chemical burn on his face and leg, he was chasing his brother thru a tunnel and ran into my curio cabinet and busted his eyebrow open which the er glued back together, and yesterday he tried to pick up a endtable dropped it on his toe which cut 1/2 way thru his toe and broke it. Now his twin gets lil boo boos but nothing like the 4 er visits we have had this past year. I dont know of this is a stage but i pray it’s not permenant.
oh my that sounds like my 5 year old all the way. Its good to know that there are other kids out there. We have been to the er alot and also had police come to our house to help him get his foot out of the footrest of our lazyboy… dont ask how it happened..lol… Its crazy how he can be walking minding his buisness and fall or run and trip over his feet,hes really good about walking into car mirriors. sometimes you just have to sit back and chuckle over the little stuff otherwise you will go crazy…Thankgod we only had one major accident that really scared us was when his dresser fell and he walked out of the hospital with one scratch..That was the scariest day of my life…Now we have all the heavy stuff bolted to the walls… but yes my son has bandaids on everyday even if there is nothing there… Kids gotta love them..
Oh, thank you for this post.
My daughter is about to turn 2 and it seems lately that if it will harm her, she will be drawn to it. Goose eggs abound, scratches and bruises all over… I’m glad to hear the same sentiments echoed here in the comments. We’ll call it a phase, but I still feel like a horrible parent.
My daughter is still like this at 16! Just two minutes ago she accidently threw herself off the bed and split the back of her head on her bedside table. 2 months ago, she tripped over her own feet and hit her chin/jaw and mouth on the edge of a bookcase. She came downstairs ten minutes later with a bowl full of blood and 2 teeth floating in it. Luckily, being a dentist I put them straight back in and took her to the Emergency room. She had fractured her jaw and the 5 remaining teeth on the front. She is too energetic, and skips down the hall, forgetting the low doorway, and has had 2 concussions from that.
But surprisingly, bar the jaw, she’s never broken any bones or needed stitches, as she heals amazingly well, touch wood!
It is amazing to hear that other people have or are going through this… My son Ethan is 2 1/2 and we have had many trips to the ER already. Last year he was running tripped and fell face first into the hardwood floor in our living room and busted out his front tooth… there have been many head or face firsts into walls and doors… the latest incident a couple of days when he wanted to put a DVD in by himself and he climbed up the entertainment stand (about 80 lbs) and it fell on top of him, very scary, how he lived i will never know, left the ER with a bruise on his head and that’s it… It’s so scary, sometimes I feel like he will not live to be 5… It is always something with him, always falling and getting hurt… I have been thinking about making an appointment to get him checked out at Cincinnati Children’s to make sure there is nothing wrong with him.. I do hope that he grows out of this stage if it is a stage.
hkc
My 2 year old is an accident waiting to happen. When he was not even a year he grabbed a catctus in a restaurant that we were at. At a year he tripped into my parents coffee table and had to get 3 stitches right above his eye brow. He’s 2 and he knocked out a tooth. He runs around and trips over everything. He wont slow down for anything. I just thank goodness I have a strong stomach because otherwise I would not be able to stomach his mishaps. He always keeps me running and trying to keep up with him. Plus I have a 1 year old daughter. I don’t know how I am to survive until they are old enough to go to school.
My son had an accident a day before his second birthday,when we were abroad.he had 5 stitches next to his eye. I found it hard to accept. Four months later i got a phone call from my husband to go to accident and emergency at the hospital,because my son ran and fell on a concrete post.he had a facial surgery,something that i could not believe in at such an early ag of him.so he had 5 more sitches on his forhead. 10 altogether! I sometime wonder if he will survive until he is 3. My daughter is 4 and she was much more careful.dealing with two young kids is hard,and now this stress and fear for my son all the time.i always think if he is upstairs,sat on a windowcill and opened window to fall out.i hate this time,but as i can see,it is not only me.
My almost 5 yr old son has my husband an I living in fear now. He has had 3 bad falls which have caused fractures: fell off couch and broke colar bone, got his foot stuck I’m a scooter and ggot spiral fracture on his femur and just 3 days ago fell done my house steps and has a small fracture on his forearm. I feel sick to my stomach typing these incidents. I just really hope were done if not a nervous breakdown is I’m the horizon!