Monday, September 22, 2008

Day at the Park

Yesterday, my day at the park turned into a mini-disaster as my daughter took an unfortunately routine tumble on the jungle gym. We had a pretty good routine going as she was becoming very comfortable with the tall slide and has been able to navigate the bridges and steps without much incidence.

Unfortunately with the emergence of teeth come some serious repercussions with a face first fall can occur. This did occur as the result of a roughly 12-18” drop from one level of the gym to another. The bleeding was pretty unsightly even though the cut did not protrude externally. It also seemed contained to a moderately deep sliver on the center of her lower lip.

It did seem painful and she was less interested than usual in solid foods and snacks. She also had more difficulty sleeping than usual as we withheld her pacifier. I somehow came under the impression that the pacifier (and associated suckling) facilitating the wound rather than allowing it to clot properly. A trip to the pediatricians would have been in order if she didn’t appear to be in relatively good spirits this morning. She ate her cheerios and drank her milk without any complaints.

The end of the day lesson is that no activity is truly safe, but reasonable precautions do need to be taken. These include proper dress including well fitting shoes and durable pants and shirts. Also it is important to be aware of attention span as she is easily distracted and will not watch where she is going. This can be a sign to call it a day and head home. Similarly if she observes children above and below her motor skill level she will make adjustments in her activity. This could be a similar sign to take a break from playing for a little while.

The statistics on playground injuries are pretty staggering as the following links show.

http://www.preventinjury.org/PDFs/PLAYGROUND_INJURY.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/playgr.htm

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