Dear Dumplin,
Last Thursday, you received your first major boo boo. As any parent can understand, receiving a call from your child’s school in the middle of the day is rarely a good thing. As soon as the phone rang, I got anxious. It was one of the first days of the season where it was warm enough for you and your classmates to go outside. As they put your coats on, you and your friends got excited and started to run around. You lost your balance and fell head first into the table. I have to tell myself to breath just thinking about it. As your teacher and Director reassure me on the phone that you are ok, there is no bleeding, you have no fever and are behaving normally, I wonder could this have been prevented? They tell me you have a bump beneath your eye and that they are putting ice on it as we speak. You are not crying so this makes me feel better. This feeling is short lived.
When I pick you up, you have a black eye. A BLACK EYE. My beautiful 16 month old has a BLACK EYE. What happened to the small bump? Apparently your eye swelled as the day progressed. After I calmed down, and called a few close friends and family members, I realized that these things happen. You are a busy bee! Busy Izzy! You don’t like to stop moving. Hours of Googling later, I felt comfortable that this was normal and that I should not be alarmed.
However, I noticed that major boos are very common amongst toddlers in my research and decided to post three things to keep in mind should anyone be dealing with a toddler and a major boo boo. This is what I did for you and a week later, your eye is almost 100% back to normal.
If you are dealing with a toddler and a major boo boo you should:
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Take a deep breath. Your instinct is going to be to hit the fan! You are going to want someone to pay for the harm your cutie pie has suffered. Relax as much as you can. Thinking irrationally does not help you or your munchkin.
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Document everything. My daughter’s school gave me an incident report. At first I thought this was a little dramatic but that quickly changed. I went to the pharmacy to get an ice pack. I decided to ask the pharmacist if there was anything else I should be doing to help the swelling and relieve your discomfort. I asked the lady what I should do and she said, “HOW DID SHE GET THAT???” I then had to defend myself against your black eye. Jeez! I wasn’t expecting that. In that moment I was glad I had an incident report to prove what happened. When I got home? I took pictures of your eye.
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Give your snookie wookie lots of hugs and kisses. Sounds obvious right? Sometimes as parents we forget to just be nurturing and loving. We focus on the things that need to get done and the problems that need to be solved and forget that a hug and a kiss can move mountains.
I hope my tips help someone. And can I ask you for a favor? Please no more boo boos! Mama’s heart can’t take it!
Love,
Mama