Behaviour changes after an accident - any tips/ideas please?! *long!!*

Hi girls! Needing some help with this, hopefully have put it in the right place.

DS is 19 months old and just over a week ago he was playing outside, daddy was watching him but he somehow managed to pull the trailer (the tow bar bit was up in the air) down and crush his little hand. We got him to the hospital within 10 minutes of it happening and soon found out he'd broken his thumb.We did have to stay in hospital overnight as they wanted to see if the swelling would go down and were contemplating surgery. It's in a splint at the moment and they're happy with how it's healing the bone is split diagonally and is just fusing together, he was definitely lucky and it doesn't look like surgery will happen which we are very thankful for.


However, since the accident DS's behaviour has changed. I expected that for a few days he would be clingy and need extra love & care which I'm happy to provide but I'm worried.

During the day he's mostly his normal happy chatterbox self but he is clingier and sometimes whingier and constantly comes to me for cuddles while playing when before he'd quite happily play by himself and check in with me occasionally.
We had him going to sleep in his cot at night which he would happily do and same for day sleeps and besides the occasional night where he wouldn't settle and would fall asleep with cuddles on the lounge he was a great sleeper. But since the accident he's screaming like he's terrified when he's put into his bed and will only fall asleep with cuddles on the lounge and everynight around midnight he's waking up to what I think is nightmares and we can't settle him, even if we get him to fall asleep with us he's waking up as soon as he's put into his own bed so ends up spending the night in our bed. Even with us he's tossing and turning and whimpers occasionally.

I guess what I'm after are some tips for helping him through nightmares and getting him to be comfortable to sleep by himself again? I feel like he doesn't want to be alone and I want to help him feel secure enough and go back to his independent cheerful self.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks! :)

Hey hun, I'm sorry your little one broke his thumb :hug:. I'm definitely thinking he's behaving the way he is because of the accident. My suggestion would be to give his as much as TLC as possible ATM, but try and settle him in his own bed if you can. Even if it is staying in his room till he falls asleep or cuddles on the couch. Once he gets taken into your bed the habit is hard to break (been there done that! lol). With the nightmares, again try and settle him in his cot, but obviously if he is really distressed let him sleep in your bed for the time being. I think also building his confidence while playing is also important as he might be thinking that he will hurt himself again based on what happened to him. GL hun, sorry I couldn't be of more help!

He could also still be in some pain from the accident so that's waking him up and unsettling him at night. Poor little tike! Hope he gets better soon :hug:

This might sound silly, beucase it does haha but I used to with my cousins when they were little take them back to where the injury occured and show them there wasn't anything to be afraid of, does that make sense? We would check out what caused the injury, safely of course till they felt confident again. I dunno it is hard to explain but if you take your son out to the trailer you might notice him immediatley fearful thinking it will happen again without him doing anything if you know what I mean? We also used to do the "smack the bad whatever" this included the ground if they fell down and scraped their knee. Seemed to make them less concerned about doing it again, and less fearful.

That kind of thing is very traumatic poor kid, hope the nightmares settle down soon and hes feeling alot better. It is hard when their confidence that they are indestructible is shaken ;)

Do you think he could still be experiencing some pain? His behaviour sounds very much like my DD when she is in pain. Perhaps ride it out a bit longer (with lots of extra cuddles) and see if it sorts itself out in time, or see you GP about it if it goes on for too long?