Toddler broke his arm and is in a cast - going on holiday in a week!

Kynthia

I'd suggest still getting a doctor's note confirming he's safe to fly and that the cast doesn't need splitting. It will cover you against airline staff who are overly zealous or not following their guidelines. Plus a pilot can refuse to fly anyone they like if they're in anyway concerned.

LilElvis

From personal experience:

The cast will get hot and itchy and he'll possibly get quite fractious as he won't be able to scratch.

Try not to let him eat finger food with that hand - bits will go inside the cast and it will end up absolutely stinking and there won't be anything you can do about it!

Savvy_Sue

GlasweJen wrote: »

You'll probably need to have his cast cut, when I took my nieces to London someone from the airline physically checked that her cast had been divided down the centre to allow for the material swelling. We were only away for 48 hours so the fracture clinic allowed her to just wrap it tight in a bandage until she got home then replastered her arm but if it's a longer holiday you'll need to arrange him to be replastered at your destination. There was no way that plane was taking off with her on it had that cast not been cut, we needed a hospital letter plus the visual inspection of the cast before the plane taxied.

That was my friend's experience too, when they sustained a very nasty fracture while on holiday.

If it had been a simple fracture, the clinic wouldn't have minded cutting the cast, but as it wasn't simple and they'd had to have surgery, the advice was not to fly. So they sent the rest of the family home by air and took the train a couple of weeks later. It helped that they had family they could stay with during that time.

If you have to get the cast off quickly because of swelling, then you've got to get it off quickly. That's the worry, and I don't see how it can make a difference when the cast was applied!

vitaminz

Thanks again all - we've just got back from the trauma clinic and the doctor is very happy with how the bones are looking. We have to go back Tuesday and he says he may need to split it, but also may not (not what what'll dictate that!)

What is actually involved with splitting a cast? Is it physically divided then strapped together with bandages or something? The doctor has said if it does need splitting he'll give us some elastic plasters to keep it together from when we land until we get home...? Seems a bit confusing! Does the cast come off during the flight or something?

With the heat he's fine in our sweaty heatwave over where at the moment so we're not worried

GlasweJen

They saw through the mesh part of the cast until the bandage underneath is exposed, they leave a little at the ends so the cast doesn't just fall off but you could cut that bit off with scissors if you had to.

vitaminz

Ahh I see that's fine, we should have asked the doctor but I imagine when we come back he'll need it 'recast'? He'll be 3 weeks in to the 6 weeks by then

GlasweJen

My niece was replastered, they arranged the follow up when she went in to have it cut.

vitaminz

GlasweJen wrote: »

My niece was replastered, they arranged the follow up when she went in to have it cut.

Oh dear, not sure my toddler will like that lol. Hoping he won't need it cut but we'll see!

Alias_Omega

We had a cast on, had it cut down the inner side then bandaged. Came in quite handy, as we could remove it to go swimming, shower etc.

vitaminz

Hi all, well we got back from holiday yesterday and it went fantastically well !!!128522; the cast didn’t need to be split, and his cast stayed bone dry with the great-but-ugly Bloccs cast protector, which we nicknamed his ‘flipper’! Thanks for everyones advice !!!128522;