How This Common Park Activity Broke My Baby’s Leg

Throughout my life, I have always been one of those people who has to learn my lessons the hard way.

This was one of those times.

My sweet girl was only 18 months old, and we had walked to the park at the elementary school a few houses down from ours. She was hesitant to go down the slide, so naturally, I climbed up so she could go down on my lap. We had done this multiple times before with no problems.

Halfway down the slide, there was a turn and her little leg bounced out of my lap and got stuck between the slide and my leg.

I heard the snap, and she immediately started screaming inconsolably.

I instantly knew something was very wrong.

We rushed to the ER, where she had an X-ray done. 

Then we discovered that I was responsible for breaking my sweet baby’s leg in two different places: her fibula and tibia were both broken.

That night was super rough because my sweet girl could only get it splinted in the ER, and we could not see the orthopedic doctor to get a cast put on until the next morning. She was in so much pain and was just a sweet little baby…

And it was all my fault.

Sweet girl snoozing with her cast.

Save yourself this guilt and do not slide with babies or toddlers.

When meeting with the orthopedic doctor, he informed me that this is a very common occurrence and politely tried to calm my shame-tears as he put a cast on my baby. 

He said that when toddlers come in with a broken leg bone, it is almost always from a slide accident while riding on a parent’s lap. How could no one have told me this was dangerous?!

My only reasoning is the shame and guilt behind these accidental injuries keep parents from spreading the word. I get it.

She ended up having to wear a full leg cast for 8 weeks and luckily for me, she is a very resilient girl. She made a full recovery, and surprisingly even got to the point where she was walking and dancing in her full leg cast.

My cute girl made it look so easy.

Hopefully, through all of my hard-learned lessons, I can at least spread some knowledge to keep other mommies from traveling down the shame spiral of being responsible for breaking your own babies’ limbs.

Have you caused an accidental injury?

Do you have any slide horror stories?

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katyjohnson
I was born and raised in Edmond, OK and after high school I attended NSU in Tahlequah where I majored in broadcast journalism. I met my husband Will while in school and we moved to his home town of Tulsa to begin our family where we resided for 8 years. We were relocated back to OKC about 3 years ago and while I really miss my Tulsa friends, I absolutely LOVE being home. We have 3 crazy, super loud, extremely fun kiddos ages 8, 6, and 4. My kids are my everything and I could have never anticipated the roller coaster of chaos that is my life now. We live on 5 acres in Guthrie and I am terrified and also very excited for this next chapter in our lives. My favorite things are spending time with family & friends, music, going to the lake, reading, gardening, cherry blow pops, Dr. pepper, crafting, cleaning, and fireworks. We are trying to raise our kids to be kind, loving, respectful human beings and to truly understand that no two humans are the same and to love people for who they are. I am very excited to share my sweet yet crazy family with you and connect with other moms!

4 COMMENTS

  1. I was at the doctor for regular check up with my twins and I told him that Jack could climb out of his crib. I asked him how i could prevent this and he responded, “Put him in a toddler bed.” I told him i wasn’t ready for that. He quickly informed that it didn’t matter if I was ready, Jack was ready and that is not uncommon for children to dislocate their arm climbing out of the crib. ? i went home and changed him to a toddler bed that night.

    • Wow! My middle use to climb out of her crib all of the time! Add this to the list of accidental injuries I had no clue about. Thanks for reading and sharing!!

  2. You aren’t alone. My daughter broke her leg at 11 months by rolling off a bed during a diaper change. My hand was on her, but she was so quick. We were on vacation in Dallas so we had to find an ER and they didn’t know what was broken so they had to take several x-rays of her whole body. That was on Saturday. When we got home we couldn’t find and orthopedist that would help a child so young. I think it was Wednesday by the time she got her cast on. I got so many dirty looks from people in the store or whenever we would take her out somewhere. Accidents happen though.

    • Accidents definitely do happen ALL OF THE TIME! I also got many shame stares with my toddler in a full leg cast so I totally feel you there. So sorry you and your little had to go through this and thank you so much for sharing!

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