2 year old with broken arm - any tips?

beks

Just returned from a 3 day stay in hospital with our two year old daughter. She badly fractured two bones in her arm on Saturday and has had it pinned and nailed together. She has a full length POP which will stay on for up to 8 weeks. Tried using just a plastic bag this morning in the shower but just not secure enough and not well tolerated by a 2 year old!
Anyone have any tips on bathing/dressing etc as tonight was even a struggle getting her ready for bed! Cannot imagine how we can cope with washing hair etc! Is there anything we can use or anything we can buy to help?!
Had to literally beg the hospital to even give her a sling when we left :rolleyes: (the cast is so heavy that it pulls her down to the floor if it is left hanging). They didnt even supply us with pain relief and said to go and buy some - they needed the bed! :mad: . We didnt leave on a good note so forgot to ask about practicalities before leaving!

snapping_crocodile

Hi, sorry you had a bad experience. Some hospitals don't give out clapol and ibuprofen any more, certianly the ward i worked on didn't. It costs so much for the trust to purchase that we weren't allowed to prescribe it, and had to advise the parents to buy it on the way home, or go to their GP for the prescription, though many GPs nowadays dont like prescribing it either :rolleyes:! Keep giving her the painkillers regularly as per the bottle instructions to keep on top if the pain, and hopefully the sling will helpease some discomfort as well.

You can get waterproof covers to go over casts nowadays, have a little look at this link

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2543.aspx?CategoryID=72&SubCategoryID=721

If you can find any ask the staff in fracture clinic when your LO has her next appointment. Hope that helps

PS You will amazed at how quickly she will adapt to the cast, she will up to mischief again in no time!!

nearlyrich

Aw poor little love hope she is OK...

beks

snapping_crocodile wrote: »

Hi, sorry you had a bad experience. Some hospitals don't give out clapol and ibuprofen any more, certianly the ward i worked on didn't. It costs so much for the trust to purchase that we weren't allowed to prescribe it, and had to advise the parents to buy it on the way home, or go to their GP for the prescription, though many GPs nowadays dont like prescribing it either :rolleyes:! Keep giving her the painkillers regularly as per the bottle instructions to keep on top if the pain, and hopefully the sling will help ease some discomfort as well.

You can get waterproof covers to go over casts nowadays, have a little look at this link

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2543.aspx?CategoryID=72&SubCategoryID=721

If you can find any ask the staff in fracture clinic when your LO has her next appointment. Hope that helps

PS You will amazed at how quickly she will adapt to the cast, she will up to mischief again in no time!!

Mmmm, thats what they said about analgesia too!! I can understand (used to work in hospital) but when you have a two year old, discharged 17 hours post op (a 4 hours op at that) still in a lot of pain and your drive home is a 45 minute drive and she is due more in an hour, it is not easy to get to the shops on your own! Ironically, when she did it, I was shopping and had picked up some calpol as we had run out while OH was looking after her! He phoned and I dropped my shopping and ran - so we had none at home (which is a rareity - typical!)

Poor mite not got to sleep yet, she sleeps on her front and can't turn over.
Thanks for the link, I will check it out! I know they are available but not sure with tiny ones! Have # clinic appt next week so will check with them if not got one before. Thanks again.

Sorry just realised I posted this in wrong place - asked for it to be moved!!!

Fluffi

Clingfilm can be good for wrapping up plaster casts -it can be tucked round the edges so it feels secure and you can always back it up with a plastic bag for double protection.

Hope your little one feels better soon. Broken bones only normally hurt for the first day or so after its immobilised and correctly set before you know it they'll be running around again!

debidoodle

Beks I hope your DD is okay and it will get easier, I totally understand as I am 5 weeks post broken ankle.

You may find it easier not to use the bath or shower and just strip wash her, not ideal but I found it easier as I could not access my shower as it has a huge step up to it, hair washing was a pain and I found it quite uncomfortable as hubby washed it over the bath so this was done weekly.

You could also try a pillow for support for her cast while she is sleeping and sitting on the sofa if that is possible, also pain relief is important as I found the first couple of days quite painful while I adjusted to the cast.

Very loose clothing or clothes with buttons much easier for dressing, cannot think of anything else at the moment.

Agree with snapping_crocodile DD will adapt to the cast quickly.

ceebeeby

Can I just say you will be astounded at how quickly she adapts to the cast in no time at all.

You could make a bin bag sling jumper yourself - you only have to faff once, and use lots of tape etc.

Position child sitting in bath with arm forward (better if you've got one of those baby bath support things that toddlers sit in), support arm in bag / clingfilm with a 'get wet' towel. Lean child backwards over plughole and shower hair to wash backwards - avoiding soap etc. in eyes.

To wash, wrap damp hair in bale, put get wet towel in base of bath. Child stands up with poorly arm raised as high as poss. Mum / Dad, soaps and rinses rest of body quickly.

You might only want to do this once per week, reverting to tops / tails for the rest of the time!!!

My biggest hint will be that when she goes to get pins removed, make sure shes had calpol AND nurofen about half an hour before they come out!!!! Sometimes they come out easily - othertimes not!

The best pain relief ever is mum / dad / gran / grandpa hugs though x

ceebeeby

debidoodle wrote: »

not ideal but I found it easier as I could not access my shower as it has a huge step up to it,

Ditto!!

I had to sit on the base of the shower, with leg hanging out, resting on the metal bin, poorly leg wrapped in a towel, then direct the water from the shower constantly so it wouldn't squoosh out. Had to keep the water on constantly as couldn't reach to switch it on / off. Getting out of this, I tied the towel protecting cast in a noose above knee joint, and then wiggled, soaking wet until I was upright (drips caught in noose towel), and then quickly fling a dressing gown around me.

Took about 3 weeks to get the hang of it, but couldn't bear the ickiness of not doing it iyswim?? :rotfl:

Quackers

My daughter has been in cast since 5th Nov now...

As she's disabled anyhow it's been a right pain:o

Bed baths for the first 6-8 weeks was all we could manage. And hair washed over a bowl at the dining table.

We have a steep step down to our kitchen which leads to the bathroom (terraced house) and we also had to move her bed downstairs as she could not put any weight on it at all.

She's been in a lighter weight cast since 22nd dec and is now allowed to walk on it. Our shower is an over the bath electric one so I have a plastic chair in the bath which she sits on with her leg wedged on the side of bath covered in a bin bag.:rotfl:

Love the cling film idea

I'd echo the extra pillows to rest/wedge it in the bed...my daughter has a bed of pillows:D

Your daughter will adjust really quicky...hope she's better soon

Rolandtheroadie

We used one of the custom plaster covers (snapping_crocodiles link)for our son when he broke his elbow. Excellent.

beks

Thanks all.

Will try bags and clingfilm later this week I think, bag on its own really difficult with her but was rather large!!! I will give her pain time to ease and try again. She screams if we touch her arm at all at the moment, picking her up is a nightmare so I hope you're all right and it improves!! An hours sleep would be nice lol (she was a star in hospital and even though her arm was totally deformed for 24 hours, she didnt complain once so fingers crossed we will get back to that point!)
Sending OH out after work to get some large tops - hopefully good time to do it with the sales on!!!
She is having pins out under a general anaesthetic anyway so think I will be lucky there. Not looking forward to fracture clinic but will bribe her with choosing the colour of her cast!
Thanks everyone, feel a little reassured now! It is so different when it is your own child!