Head Injuries 101

     As the mother of a young preschool girl, our playing usually consists of reading books, playing with dolls, playing dress up, and coloring. She likes to build towers, put puzzles together, play in her kitchen, and even shoot baskets on her Little Tikes basketball goal. But overall, her play is very safe and controlled, which has left us with few to no major injuries to speak of.

     Until last week.

     She was attending a summer play day (where she will be attending preschool 2 days a week at in the fall) a couple weeks ago for the first time. She wore her backpack into "school" and was ready to "play with some kids" as she put it. A great 1 to 5 ratio with a total of 10 children (and 2 teachers) is a perfect size classroom for her. It's not too big where she will get lost in the shuffle, but it's big enough where she's learning to wait her turn and be part of a group.

     About 3 hours into her first summer play day, I received a phone call that Ava had fallen and hit her head on the corner of a bookshelf. She was okay - playing fine, ate her lunch well - but she had a pretty good goose egg on her forehead. I asked some questions and discovered that Ava had also "passed out" (the words they used) for a couple seconds, but came right back. During that "passing out" period, her body went limp, and she also had an accident.

     I immediately called my doctor to set an appointment up with her to get checked out. After seeing Ava and speaking with me, the doctor determined that Ava had experienced a "breath holding spell." She had cried so hard from the initial hit and had held her breath from it that it caused her to "pass out" for a couple of seconds.

     After this experience and speaking with the doctor, I feel more educated on head injuries, what to look for, and how to treat them. We were able to rule out a seizure or a concussion based on what were were and were not seeing. Ava was not nauseous, she was never extra sleepy or drowsy post injury, her pupils dilated just fine, and thankfully the bump on her head was protruding outward rather than inward. While the goose egg looks bad on your little one's forehead, be thankful for it. It means there is no swelling of blood on the inside of the brain. We also had to wake Ava twice in the night to make sure she was responsive, which she was.

     After the injury, the doctor asked us to limit her physical playing to avoid another type of head injury for 2 weeks. Considering that my child hit her head on a bookshelf, rather than jumping from a swing set (or something wild like that) meant extra caution on my part. Ava has been doing fine ever since, we had a follow up phone call with the doctor, and all is well. 

     If your child does get any kind of head injury, he or she should be seen by a doctor for a thorough evaluation. Do not take head injuries lightly, and follow the advice of your doctor. We want to do all that we can to keep our kids safe and healthy!