Broken Colar Bone

Dear L.,

I've been through this not once but twice. My son is however 15 years old. Even though he's 15 and not 4 he's still a boy and is very active. First time he broke his Clavical bone (collar) he was riding his bike in the quarry. The break wasn't so bad. They say if a child is going to break a bone, this is the one to break. The second time my son did this he was skateboarding. This time he broke it and broke it good. He actually had what they call a displaced clavical fracture, meaning you can either have surgery to fix this or let it heal on it's own and do physical therapy afterwords, we went for the latter of the two. He is now doing fine, he will have an ugly bump in two places from each time he broke it. The upside to your son being so young is he heals quicker. Be greatful it wasn't an arm , wrist or leg, then you have to deal with the casts, and keeping it dry. Between my two very active children I should have the Orthopaedic Doctors office on speed dial. And as far as keeping him calm, good luck, it's hard. But he will be fine Im sure.

When my second son was about 2 years old or so, (it has been about 25 years since then!!)
my eldest pulled him off the couch, which caused his younger brother to have a bump.
This bump turned out to be a broken collar bone. I believe that collar bone injuries usually heal well on their own. I'm sure there are always exceptions to the rule, but I wouldn't worry to much about it. Sounds like he is pretty active, but if he were in much pain, he would slow down. If it were me, I'd double check with the doctor and you could google
it and see what you can gather from the internet. There is not too much one does for a
broken collar bone. My son, the one with the broken collar bone, has no problems to speak of has an adult or during his school sports days as a result of that break.

My older daughter broke her collar bone at 4 yrs. as well. This was a week before my brother's wedding in Florida and we were also going to Disney. Going back it as just a blur. She gave me no difficulty in taking it easy.
For the next few weeks, instead of engaging in outdoor play, have him play simple board games and card games that way he isn't even tempted to go on monkey bars. If he need to go outside,take him for walks. Explain to him that he has to allow time for his collar bone to heal or else it could take longer or he could hurt it more. Wow, 3 weeks! Hers only took 2 weeks.

just curious how he broke his collarbone but best bet is keep him away from activities that could hurt him more

Hi,
I don't have any "recent" experience with this, but both my sister and I had broken colar bones as children. I remember wearing the sling and the initial pain but not much else. We both healed fine and all I can say about your son not wanting to slow down is to maybe have the Doctor tell him. I've seen kids, including my own, do what they normally wouldn't because the "Doctor said so". I hope that this helps.
Good Luck,
S.