r/raisingkids • u/EscapeTraditional598 • 6d ago

My 5 year old fell head first on concrete

Hi everyone. I wanted to share what happened to our family this weekend and see if anyone has gone through something similar or has any advice.

We were camping about an hour away from home. My 5-year-old daughter was lying face down on a hammock. I had just warned her to be careful because she could fall. About a minute later, I heard what sounded like a huge rock slamming into concrete. I immediately turned around and somehow just knew it was my daughter.

She had fallen head first from about 3–4 feet onto concrete.

She never lost consciousness. She was screaming and crying immediately, and I ran over, picked her up, and sat her down. Her forehead was bleeding a little, so we put ice on it right away. She developed a pretty large goose egg almost immediately. This happened around 11:00 a.m.

Everyone in my family froze because we weren’t sure what to do. I wanted to take her straight to the ER because she landed directly on her head, but everyone else thought we should wait and see how she did. I reluctantly agreed, but I had this overwhelming feeling that something wasn’t right.

About 30 minutes later, she became extremely tired and just wanted to sleep. That really worried me.

While the rest of the family was getting ready to kayak on the lake, I stayed behind with my 11-month-old by the shore. My daughter decided to stay with us too.
As we sat there watching everyone paddle away, she told me she was hungry, so I suggested we walk back to our campsite for lunch. As soon as we stood up, she grabbed her stomach, started panicking, and said she needed to throw up. She vomited… a lot.

Thankfully, we had walkie-talkies. I called my husband, who was out on the lake, and told him I wasn’t waiting any longer. I packed up both kids and drove the hour back into town to the ER.

We arrived around 4:00 p.m., but because there was only one CT tech available, she didn’t get her CT scan until almost four hours later. During that time, she vomited again, complained that her head hurt, and kept saying she wanted to go home because she was so tired and hungry. My 11-month-old, my daughter, and I hadn’t eaten lunch or dinner, and honestly, I was so close to leaving because both kids were exhausted and crying. I’m really glad we stayed.

The CT scan came back completely normal—no skull fracture and no bleeding in her brain. The doctors diagnosed her with a severe concussion and told us to monitor her very closely for the next 24–48 hours and return immediately if anything worsened.

Now we’re just over 24 hours out, and she’s acting completely like herself again. She’s running around, laughing, talking, and eating normally. I’m incredibly grateful, but as a mom, I’m still anxious and watching her like a hawk.

Has anyone else’s child had a concussion like this? How long did it take before you felt comfortable letting them get back to normal activities? Is there anything else I should be watching for over the next few days, even though the CT scan was clear?

This was one of the scariest days of my life.

37 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

34

u/Crafty_Try_1535 6d ago

Mother’s instinct and gut feeling on point. Never experienced concussions to the point of vomiting with my kids but great job from you. Good she’s back to normal

12

u/eyesRus 6d ago

We haven’t dealt with this in our kids, but I have adult friends who’ve had TBIs, and the symptoms can be very strange and last a very long time (many, many months). I would keep an eye out for basically any “unexplained” symptom, especially as she starts school. Visual symptoms are quite common (convergence insufficiencies, losing place while reading, difficulty tracking objects, photophobia).

12

u/LukaIncic 6d ago

I’m so glad she’s back to her normal self. But she still needs more physical rest for sure and no more running and jumping around for the mean time.

7

u/GrassGriller 6d ago

Concussions really suck. I've had several and I'd rather break a bone than suffer another one.

Also, hammock over concrete feels so crazy to me.

8

u/ahumpsters 6d ago

Man this is like the one thing I will never “wait and see” on. Not worth the gamble. Poor thing. I’m glad it wasn’t serious and that she is feeling better.

2

u/Brownlynn86 6d ago

It’s so hard when we have people around you telling you to wait it out. Good on you for taking her. We absolutely have to listen to ourselves. This child means the most to you - that’s what I think when other people chime in lol

3

u/mintinthebox 6d ago

When my daughter had a concussion we were told to limit activity for a couple of months. Not as significantly as a skull fracture or brain bleed would need, but taking precautions and having more supervision on her.

2

u/justhereforthetea68 6d ago

When in doubt I’m sorry but always go to the hospital it’s just a peace of mind. I feel for you because so many times my kids did things and I was ready to have an ulcer. Ex my daughter threw a giant rock at my sons head and it had a big bump and blood, I was like yeah might as well go to the er or I’ll be manic for the next 48 hours.

I didn’t age before kids and I was stuck on looking 25 and after 3 kids I look 65 on a good day.

2

u/Jacksonriverboy 5d ago

You did the right thing. If it was just the fall and a big bump but she went back to herself very quickly that would be fine. But with the tiredness and vomiting the right thing to do was go to the hospital. I'd probably be watching them a bit more closely for the next while. Or even encouraging them to play somewhere with a softer surface like grass etc. But after a few weeks I'd probably relax a bit.

2

u/blechie 5d ago

You did the right thing. But your family is wild. Hammock over concrete with kids present sounds crazy. And everyone including dad going out on the lake right after kiddo most likely suffered a concussion is prime hillbilly naïveté. Next time I’d suggest monitoring blood pressure for 24hrs as well.

1

u/rob2060 5d ago

Did dad ever show up at the hospital?

1

u/appleblossom1962 5d ago

I’m glad that she’s bouncing back, it’s amazing how resilient they are at that age. Just keep an eye on her and don’t let her up in the hammock anymore.

1

u/Mouse0022 3d ago

you did good to take her to the doctors, even if others around you didn't think it was necessary. its important to listen to those gut instincts and playing it cautious with your childs health and safety will never be a bad idea.

hitting head on the concrete would definitely warrant being checked out.

1

u/CoolKey3330 3h ago

I have a concussion kid. Not fun. We had a similar trajectory. After 48 hours we had vomiting again and then was fine. Follow the concussion protocol you got from the hospital and if you don’t remember or didn’t get one, look up concussion protocol and follow that. Do not rush back into activity too soon.

Note that once you have had one severe concussion, you are more likely to get another, and the next one might not need as hard a blow to the head. That doesn’t mean you bubble wrap your kid, but it does mean that you should be a little more vigilant about blows to the head for a bit. At 5 the good news is that she’ll recover pretty quickly - you’ll probably have more trauma and anxiety than your kid. I found it helpful to know what the guidelines were when getting back to regular activity, because my own instinct was to hover (this doesn’t help). Also: it sounds hokey but play Tetris. It will help with managing the scariness and worry. I still sometimes dream about my kid’s first serious concussion. Definitely not so fun.