Big Ouchy

I haven’t quite gotten past using words from when the kids were little.  Ouchy just has a certain quality to it that abrasion seems to be lacking.  It’s as if an ouchy will heal faster and just saying the word will decrease the pain.  The Boy got series of ouchies this week.  The first was an infection on his pinky finger which he can barely feel because of his brachial plexus birth injury affecting his entire right arm and hand.  Infections in his hand are not infrequent unfortunately.  Here is a pic.

That's a mean infection!

Then he got a second ouchy that tore the skin off his finger, aggravating the infection and gave him a smart abrasion on his face.  He’s been explaining to everyone at school what has happened to him.  I wasn’t actually there at the time of the incident but Dearest Husband saw it go down and said he was afraid for a minute The Boy was concussed or worst.  In The Boy’s words here is what happened: “At the top of the stairs outside I was going down the metal railing and at the end I couldn’t touch my feet to the stairs anymore and there was a railing that I couldn’t get over so I flipped over facedown onto the ground.”  Yea.  Ouch.  Here is a pic.

Face Plant Injury

I’m actually surprised it wasn’t more serious.  If sliding down railings of an outside staircase sound good to you–think again.  But seriously  the question has to be asked: How much should we encourage our kids to take risks?  One of The Boy’s first Occupational Therapists said when he was just learning how to scoot (crawling requires the use of both arms), “Let him fall and figure out how to do things himself.”  Letting The Boy fall was hard–the monkey bars where especially hard. But The Boy figured out his own way of doing things.  He’s older now and still trying to live in a two handed world with one working hand.  Sliding down a railing isn’t the best idea granted, but we let him experiment and this was certainly an epic fail.  But I think if we were the kinds of parents that talked about how dangerous everything is and didn’t expect him to push his limits he wouldn’t have figured out half of his accommodations.  I hope next time he tries sliding down the railing he learns to slow down before he gets to the end.

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14 Responses to Big Ouchy

  1. Lori says:

    your son got his grace and elegance from his aunty from another family.

    Just sayin

  2. Trish says:

    I think it’s great that you give him the freedom to get ouchies! Many parents would be overprotective in your situation and I know it’s hard not to do that.

  3. Seana Smith says:

    Ouch, I can feel the pain. I do agree that it’s better to let kids explore and test their world. Amazed mine haven’t had any broken any bones yet!!

  4. veronica lee says:

    I am with Trish! You are an amazing mom!

  5. Carrie says:

    Oh, bless his heart…and his little finger!

    Goodness knows I’ve done plenty of face plants and such in life so I could figure out how to NOT do something. Probably a little guilty of still doing them from time to time.

    “Ouchy” is cute. I remember having certain words with my nieces on things that have stuck over the years. They’re 11 & 12 now and for some reason find no humor in hearing “Get your booty in the bathtub!”

    Yes. Booty. I know…I know. =)

    • Jennie says:

      Too funny! When they’re little they always show their cute tushies to everyone because let’s face it some kids are hard to keep clothes on! I can see how the word booty came into play 🙂

  6. LDiggitty says:

    Oh man, I fell on a daily/weekly basis and I never learned. In fact, I just slammed my head in the garage door last week (for the second time, mind you).

    So… if your child is a hopeless klutz, you may just need to get used to watching him fall. 🙂

    Glad he’s ok! Little boys are amazingly resilient (like rubber!).

  7. Jennie says:

    They are kind like rubber! DH said he actually bounced of the pavement!

  8. Vivian says:

    Jenny it is a interesting question that you pose. When we were children the jungle gyms were all hard metal spikey things, no padding and netting. Now we have all these plastic jungle gyms with padding and netting. There have been many cases recently where kids have terrible muscle tone and do not know how to cross their midline due to over protective mothers not allowing them to play freely outdoors. Do we draw a line or hope for the best?

  9. Mama Bear says:

    My little girl has a big scrape down the right side of her face ending in a busted lip (was running full toddler speed and then tripped onto concrete). It’s always the right side too, since that arm just doesn’t catch her as well as the left does. I figure each time she falls it helps her learn her balance a little better.

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