Hi
I dropped by daughter when she was around 10months from the baby hammock around 3-4 feet high and hit her on the back of her head.We rushed her to the doc but it was close unfortunately. She stop crying after awhile and looks fine to us as she did not vomit and look strange. Now my daughter at the age of 14 had bad result in her studies and a very bad temperament where she can be in extreme anger with small matters. I am wondering is it possible that this fall causes her to be this way?Will there be symptoms where we overlook and has a repercussion to her brain? I really hope that shes just going thru the teenage phase and i just have to handle her more appropriately as a mum. Always feel guilty about the fall i give her! Please share your experience.Thanks
Thank you everyone for the kind replies! And yes shes been 'like that' since child just that it gotten worse now. i have to think positively and not blame it on the fall since she doesn't have a concussion. (after reading thru the great advice here i concluded that she doesnt have those symptoms even after a few days of fall). As shes staying with my mum when she was a child because i have to work. I think she got spoilt there and shes very good at taking advantages of my mum!
I think most of the world would have those issues if they were caused by falling on the head. I think it sounds like a normal teenager.
Hi!
Childhood head injuries are common and luckily - kids are very resilient.
I work with kids that struggle with studies and have tough mood swings and behaviors that exceed typical teenage stuff. Especially the type of tantrums that are around holding their emotions together or battles of homework.
You may want to look at my wesite and take time to answer the questionnaire. There are many symptoms that are troublesome and seem unrelated and they really all stem from the same place.
Good Luck
www.cerebellumcenter.com
Dear R.,
Honey, give up the guilt!! So you dropped her, she is alive and well and I am sure there were no lasting repercussions. BUT the one lasting repercussions that I see is that she has probably leared of your guilt and she uses it against you all the time? Right?
If your daughter is being rebellious it is because she needs better, tighter boundaries in her life. Children need good, strong fences! If you are too loose with your rules (because you feel guilty) then she feels unprotected in her life. If she breaks curfew, ground her one day for every minute she is late. If she doesn't do her chores at night, get her up at 5 am and make her do them then, before school.
We have 5 great, well adjusted children ages 22-10. One girl and 4 boys. They are happy, healthy youngsters and young adults. Read "the strong willed child" by James Dobson. It set us on the right path.
God Bless You!
W.
It's possible -- I've heard of people who have had severe head injuries in car accidents or things like that and their personality turns nasty as a result of a brain injury... but I would think that this would have manifested itself *much* earlier (like, within a few days), not 13 years later.
But you don't need to accept "extreme anger with small matters" as being normal teenage behavior -- it will help your daughter in the long run to be able to control her anger. I recommend books like "The Heart of Anger" by Lou Priolo and "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp for this. Also, you may want to see if there is a food connection -- not all food "allergies" or "intolerance" manifest as hives or a swelling throat, some people have problems with certain types of food which causes a chemical or hormonal imbalance in their brains and makes them get angry very quickly. [One of my friends says that corn does this to him -- he loves corn and could sit down and eat half a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of salsa as a snack... but he has figured out that corn makes him angry, so he avoids it as much as possible.]
Baby's heads are remarkably resilliant. There is very very little chance that the bump and the temperament are related. Truthfully, you would have seen issues in her development all along if they were linked- poor motor development, slow langauge development, bad memory, etc. Brain injuries don't suddenly appear like this! She's just being a teen- good luck and buy some extra strength Tylenol for yourself! It sounds like you are in for some door slamming, loud yelling and hormonal outbursts in the near future. Just remember that this too shall pass!
Eek! You just reminded me of a fall my daughter had on her head about the same age. Never occurred to me that her bad attitude now could be due to that. I have a feeling that it's unrelated. I don't need another thing to feel guilty about! Hope some expert chimes in.
That might play a part of it.Or it could be something else that's undiagnosed.Talk to her dr about it and request evaluations.Maybe a therapist might help.
I think it is her age.You would of noticed @ time of fall if u had 2 take her to the ER.
It couldn't hurt to have her injury checked out, yes even after all this time. You might consider taking her to a doctor, a D.O. who does cranial osteopathy. There is a Dr. Henderson in Louisville who is trained in C.O. per www.cranialacademy.org . Cranial Osteopathy is a very gentle technique, your daughter wouldn't even feel anything but the doctor could feel her head and found out if there is anything 'stuck' that needs to be 'unstuck'. Another option is a craniosacral therapist. You can search for a practitioner at www.iahp.com. Very gentle, less than a nickel's weight of pressure is used. Cranial Osteopathy ended my daughter's ear infections when she was little and stopped my son's headaches.
my money is on her teenage hormones going nuts :)
i feel bad for you for carrying the guilt over your baby's fall. it's not related. at least i don't think it is. did she have this behavior when she was 8? 9? 10? 11? or did it start when she approached the teenage years.
i highly doubt they are related if their was somethign wrong with her brain you would have seen it way before now shes just being 14. stay strong those are the hardest years
Welcome to the teens! No guilt, momma. My 16 year old flipped over in a stroller when he was a baby. He is moody and sometimes impossible to live with...but I doubt it's related.
Suggestion: Love and Logic CD series: Hormones and Wheels by Dr. Jim Fay. Fabulous 3 CD set with great advice for parents. You can find it online!
The best $25 we ever spent.
HIGHLY UNLIKELY - I am by no means an expert, but I used to work with children with traumatic brain injury and developmental delays. At 10 months, a baby's skull is still in pieces, allowing for shock absorption. A big concern with brain injury is damage that swelling and bleeding can cause becuase the swell/blood has nowhere to go. Again, with the flexible skull, there less chance of that.
Since she didn't have an obvious signs of a concussion right after the injury, I would be extremely surprised if this fall had anything to do with it. PS- Don't feel bad...it is a rare parent who's kid doesn't fall due to some form of parental neglegence and we ALL feel horribly guilty.
Use your intuitiuon...sounds like her behavior concerns you, so I would have her checked out by a pediatrician. You may mention the fall just to be on the safe side.
I am sure it is just the guilt that you are holding and her behavior has nothing to do with it. She's just being a teenager. When my son less than 6 month old, he rolled off the bed (I turned around for 2 seconds) and I felt such extreme guilt for a long time. I remember crying to my husband how I felt like such a terrible Mother to let that happen! He was fine, of course. I hear stories all the time about infants falling off beds, changing tables, etc and they turn out fine. Babies are very resilient!
It's extremely unlikely they are related. A visit to a chiropractor could resolve whether a misalignment of bones (possibly d/t the fall) could be at fault (something a regular doc would miss) Actual brain damage is even more unlikely, as the skull protects it very well, and if the fall was not severe enough to cause a concussion, the chance of effecting the brain is very slim indeed. An MRI could show if there is indeed any damaged brain tissue.
Chances are, he's just going through normal adolescent hormonal garbage. They do turn human again, somewhere in their 20's!
