What to Do If You Drop Your Baby
“Try not to drop your baby,” pediatrician Trisha Jean Gold, a practitioner at Tribeca Pediatric Clinic in New York, said when I called her for advice.
Okay, okay, but what if one makes a fall child? It’s a terrible moment that many panicked parents go out to Gold every week. “They usually cry,” she says, “and I tell them, ‘I really want you to come in because I want to comfort you and hug you.’ In her ten years of practice, she has had very few instances of sending a child to the emergency room after being abandoned. “I am not belittling [the fear that arises when you drop a child], I am not devoid of empathy – they cry, they are upset – but … after five minutes they return to the child they were.” Summary: Your child is probably fine.
So what should a distraught parent look for? She says the obvious things, the things you know about , are wrong, such as loss of consciousness, persistent vomiting, irritability, excessive sleepiness, behavioral changes, and “unresponsiveness.”
“This is what happens right after it is most revealing,” says Gold. “Parents sometimes forget to check the general physical characteristics of their child’s body, focusing on the head and not paying attention to everything else,” such as the wrists or collarbone. “Give him half an hour and see if he behaves the same way. Sit down and start chatting with them as usual. Don’t try to feed them right away because sometimes they are still upset. ” Head bumps aren’t necessarily bad news, but Gold points out that not all parts of the head are equal – for example, a bump above the ear is more severe than, for example, in other areas.
“And try to calm down,” says Gold. In her practice, this is an ” extremely common phone call” and she rarely sends a child for a CT scan. “We have to think historically,” she says. “We fall from trees, children fall when walking, they fall from things on their backs.” She adds, “Thank goodness we’re not that fragile” that we can’t take a few blows and survive.
If they act the same way and have not passed out, they most likely will not meet the diagnostic criteria for an emergency department CT scan. Of course, if the child is simply not himself, call the doctor or go to the hospital.
While we’re at it, how not to drop a child
As a precautionary measure, I ask Gold to name the five most common “Oh shit, I dropped my baby” scenarios so you can try to avoid them:
Oh my god, I’m so tired: a parent falls asleep in a hang glider while feeding a baby and loses grip, or breastfeeds in bed, and a newborn baby is too close to the edge.
High kick: After the parents squeeze the baby into the couch (don’t do this), the baby’s step reflex knocks him off the couch.
Classic: Changing the diaper on the changing table, the parent says, “Oh shit, I left the diaper cream in the dressing table,” steps aside and screams!
Sleep Ender: When sleeping or sleeping together, a 6-9 month old baby rolls farther and faster than parents thought and falls off the edge of the bed.
Italian work : the stroller is not locked and rolls down the stairs, or the carrycot is not securely fixed in the stroller, or the child is covered with a blanket and the parent forgets to fasten it with the seat belts. These scenarios are the most severe on the list, Gold says, especially if the fall is in cement. These are situations in which she is more likely to bring the child.
This is all pretty reassuring, with the exception of the image of the wheelchair rolling down the stairs, but I ask Gold, “Is it okay to call the pediatrician anyway, even if she thinks you are overreacting?”
“Quite right,” she says. “This is really the best thing to do: you can keep everyone away from Google, you can calm them down, they can talk to someone they trust. Even when I just ask the questions [diagnostic criteria], the parent understands, “Oh, my child is fine.” And in 2% of more serious cases, there were no questions about what we need to do. “