Fractured! Dealing with Broken Bones in Children

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Dayton Children’s Hospital. We are pleased to partner with them to offer our readers the highest quality health information.

Your child isn’t in your sight, but you can hear her quietly playing and talking to herself. You resume what you were working on. A few minutes later, you hear a thump. And a more alarming series of thumps, followed by an ear-piercing cry.

You leap to your feet, heart hammering, and run towards your child. Upon reaching her, your pounding heart plummets towards your feet; she’s screaming in pain. Really screaming, not just “I’m scared” screaming. As you look her over and calm her down, you notice her arm looks a little strange. It’s not right. And she says it hurts.

Does your child have a broken bone?

This scenario – or one similar to it – happens to parents daily. And it is terrifying. Especially if you haven’t experienced a broken bone yourself, seeing your kiddo with this kind of injury is enough to break your heart. Here in Dayton, however, our friends at Dayton Children’s Hospital can handle not only our children’s illnesses but also their bumps, scrapes and yes, broken bones.

Contributor Kim Estess give us some insight into her family’s visit to Dayton Children’s Hospital.

 Kim says, “Because I’m lucky enough to have a wild and crazy toddler on my hands, my family has visited the Emergency Room at Dayton Children’s twice in the last six months. Our second visit this past October came after our wild girl, Abby, took a dive down the stairs at our home. We weren’t sure anything was wrong (because we’ve got carpeted stairs and nothing was visibly broken), but our visit to Dayton Children’s revealed a “buckle fracture” in our daughter’s arm.”

What kind of fractures exist?

Yikes. Parents know – as do the folks in the ER – that kids play hard. And when they play hard, they usually fall hard.  It sounds like that’s what Abby did. So, what exactly is a “buckle fracture”?

A buckle fracture is more of a bump in the bone, almost like a small ripple. Interestingly enough, there are many different ways we humans can break our bones (That figures!) and they range from a simple “closed” fracture (the bone is broken, but hasn’t moved out of place) to an “open”, also known as “compound” fracture, where the bone is sticking out of the skin. (Ow, Ow, Ow!!!) Depending on the type of fracture and the severity, certain breaks can require surgery to move the bones back into place or to put a pin in the bone.

In Abby’s case, however, she needed nothing more than a simple cast.

Kim continued, “The buckle fracture was just a tiny break, which we were told is fairly common in young kids because their bones are still so soft. The good news was that little bones heal just about as easily as they break. We were told Abby needed to wear a cast on her arm for three weeks, and then we would bring her back to have her arm checked out and she would likely be good as new at that time.

Our initial ER visit was on a Sunday afternoon. The staff at Dayton Children’s splinted Abby’s arm and told us to call back Monday morning to schedule an appointment with the orthopedic department to get a cast put on. We came back two days later for the cast, which was uneventful — it was slightly scary for Abby to have her arm wrapped up by strangers, but it wasn’t anything a little Baby Shark couldn’t fix — and the staff sang right along with me while the video played.”

When should we go to the Emergency Room?

So, how did Kim know to take Abby to Dayton Children’s Hospital if it wasn’t a dramatic break? With little ones, any serious fall is cause for a visit to the Emergency Room since it can be hard to tell if they have an injury. If you suspect your child has a fracture,  you can contact the orthopedics clinic directly or go immediately to the Emergency Room or Urgent Care. 

When it comes to determining whether any bones are broken, you can look for the classic signs of a fracture. Those include:

• Pain – Your child experiences pain to move, touch, or press on the area; if the leg is injured, it’s painful to bear weight on it.
• Swelling, bruising or tenderness
• Deformity (You might see a bump or change in shape of the bone), In severe breaks, the broken bone might poke through the skin.
• If a break is non-displaced (when the pieces on either side are straight in line with one another), it can be tricky to tell. If your child is complaining of pain or just that their limb feels funny, go to the ER!
• You or your child heard a snap or “grinding” noise when the injury happened.

We’re glad to hear Abby’s break wasn’t this dramatic! So, how did her story end?

According to Kim, “We had been warned by friends who had experienced broken bones with their little ones to be sure we inquired about a waterproof cast, so we were sure to do that. Insurance won’t generally cover the cost of the upgrade to waterproofing, but for a child as small as Abby, it was only an extra $40, which was money well spent to us. Not only was Abby able to bathe regularly without a hassle, but we were able to continue with her regularly scheduled swimming lessons!”

Casts have come a long way! Gone are the summers when you had to skip the pool because you were wearing a cast. And thank goodness for that!

“The worst part of the entire broken bone ordeal was having the cast removed. The machine that was used to cut the cast was really loud and poor Abby was petrified. Luckily the technician did a wonderful job and made it fast and painless, despite having to fend with a screaming toddler.

I wouldn’t wish a broken bone on any parent, but I am so thankful for the team at Dayton Children’s for making the experience as easy as possible for our family.”

Do you have questions or concerns? You can read more about broken bones and how they’re treated at Dayton Children’s here. 

If you have an emergency situation, use the Emergency Room locator to find the location nearest you.