18mo and falling over

My DD2 is 18 months old and in the last 3 months or so has had about 4 or so decent falls where she has smacked her head. Only 2 falls have resulted in a lump or bruise, the rest left no marks behind that we could find although most have been onto hard surfaces like our driveway, tiles etc.

I'm really worried about permanent issues from these. She has not had any ill effects from any fall but she has just had another one and it is really worrying me. I feel like wrapping her in bubble wrap!

I can't remember if DD1 bumped her head this much, I remember she did but can't remember how often.

Feedback?? Did your LO or is your LO getting bumps??

Hi mummaof2!!

My DS is 20 months and OMG he hits his head at least 3 times a day. Honestly, I can't even prevent it from happening. He will be standing there and randomly fall over his own feet and smack his head, climbs like there is no tomorrow so is often tumbling off things, will turn around and run smack into a wall :rolleyes: it gets beyond a joke some days! So you are not alone. My DD, who is older, I don't think had a bruise until she was about 2. NEVER fell over, everything was precision controlled. She never backed down stairs, mastered them the right way straight up etc. I guess it's different kids and differing ability levels/ more skills in different areas.

I must admit, I worried a lot my poor son would take a serious blow to the head too but so far no emergency room visits (well, for injuries anyway!)

My two younger kiddos have always been kids that banged around like dodgem cars lol. Dd1 hardly ever.

I do notice it most when they're going through a growth spurt - the extra clumsiness. Dd2 is nearly 3 and in the last 2 months has grown 2 1/2 inches. Sometimes she can be standing still and trip over lol.

My DD fell over a lot at that age too. I ended up going to the doctor just to have her checked out and it turned out she had terrible ear infections and that was causing her bad balance. After treating the initial infection, we went to the ENT who advised a dairy free diet long term, which worked for us. He told us a fairly large percentage of children react to dairy this way and apparently dairy can cause inflammation and swelling in the ENT area. Other wise she would have needed to get grommets.

ds went through a stage of falling over all the time, around 14-16 mths (he was walking at 11-12 mths). he had a couple of really bad ones, fell over & bumped his head on a metal chair leg & had a blue lump the size of a tennis ball... I rushed him to dr's expecting something really serious had happened but he was ok. dr checked his ears & he was fine.

I became a helicopter parent for a month or so bc I just had to, he was getting a fresh bruise every 3-4 days. I think it's bc he was trying to go too fast, he is much better now but it lasted at least a month or two. I'm glad that phase is over. :-/

I remember 18 months being a really key time for stacking it, I think my girls had been walking for a bit but by 18 months they had got more confidence and picked up speed and splat! I think it is just a part of life when they are still learning the skills and growing lots. And to a certain degree the human body is pretty well designed for this stage. Every child goes through it, some more than others though.......DD2 I'm talking about you!

Thanks ladies. :)
The majority of the incidents have had a cause or effect from DD1 who takes DD2 everywhere with her and hence accidents have occurred so I'm not worried about ear issues etc. She had a lump on the back of her head last night but it appears to have disappeared today and she seems fine this morning.

The youngest ALWAYS seems to be into more things than the older ones. I'm sure your DD is fine.

It turned out that my DS (who had a permanent bruise on his head!) has joint hyper extension which means he has weaker muscles so when he fell (which happened more often because of the hyper extension) his arms couldn't support his body weight and especially the weight of his head so his head would hit the ground. Just putting it out there.

If one more person said to me, oh look, another bump on his head, I'd have cried. Like we don't love and try to protect our children. They are just active and push boundaries - it's how they learn.