My Child Bumped His Head — when should I worry?

When your child (or baby or toddler) bumps their head or has a head injury you WORRY.  Find out the facts about WHEN to worry, signs of a concussion and how long it will take for the swelling to disappear?

Head injury in children can be scary!  Whether it’s a fall from the grocery cart, hitting their head on the hardwood or simple toddler friends clanking noggins on the playground it makes parents nervous.

They’re going to need those brains for a long time!

First, I really want to preface this by listening to your inner mother voice.  If something is telling you that something is wrong, head trauma is the time to listen to it.  BUT, I even worry a lot when they get a big bonk on the head.  Here are a few simple things to watch for when your child hurts their head:

**(Trauma is any time your body is hit, it’s how we term it in the hospital, I couldn’t think of a better way to say it — but this is any head bonk — not when they REALLY hit your head and you KNOW something is wrong).

Child bumped head when to worry?

(These are also the head injury signs of concussions)

1.  Is the area still firm?  If they have skull fracture, you might be able to feel it, or it may feel mushy (eww, I know).  Just gently palpate (or press) the area.  Is it all firm?

2.  Head trauma swells.  Big bumps  (or goose eggs) are normal and fine.  You can ice them if that’s something your child is OK with.  Most of mine tended to not want ice in it (and the fight to get the ice on is worse then it would be if I just left it alone).  The ice may help it to be smaller but that’s the only thing you’re doing with ice.  It doesn’t treat an actual issue.

3.  Are they acting OK?  Do they know their name, who their teacher is, just appropriate questions?  Things they readily know the answer to before, they should be fine to answer.  However, my kids tend to be more in the crying until their eyes bleed type situation after this.  They’re not in the mood to answer questions, so this doesn’t always work for me.

4.  Are they vomiting?  Now, if they’re crying their eyes out and suddenly gag on their tears and it makes them heave…. that is something questionable.  BUT, if they throw-up out of the blue, that’s something that needs to head to the doctor, most likely the ER.

5.  PERLA.  Pupils Equally Responsive to Light… Those medical people… they like to make up anacronyms for everything.  If you shine a flashlight in their eyes, the pupil should adjust.  Also, both pupils should be about the same size.  Drew was always checking our kids eyes after they fell, but I haven’t a clue what he was looking for.  This is a pretty slow sign if there’s a problem, you’ll probably notice other things wrong with them before this.

When should you worry about a bump on the head

The main thing to watch is if they’re acting normal.  Sure, you’ll have enough tears to clog your bathtub, but after that’s over do they act OK?  If they fall asleep, maybe wake them up after 15 minutes and make sure they’re responsive and all that jazz.

How long for the bump on the head to disappear

Ice will help the bump not swell so much — and it may help it go away faster if you apply it in the first 24 hours.

However, every person heals at different rates.  Kids heal faster than adults, for the most part.  It should be down quite a bit within the week.

Baby falling of bed — is it a brain injury

With babies you want to do an initial assessment. Make sure nothing else is broken.

Then, watch for the symptoms above, make sure the skull feels firm.  Because babies don’t talk you might feel more comfortable taking them in, and plenty of doctor visits are made for this.

Delayed Symptoms

Kids may feel fine initially, but then start to show some of the symptoms above.  You’ll still want to take those seriously.  Actual brain injury often takes a few hours to show up.

Head trauma can be really serious though, and if you have a question that’s the time to call the doctor.  They’ll give you better/more specific advice, but this is a brief overview.  I hope it’s helpful. 🙂

Hilary is an RN, BSN who has worked in various medical fields since 1997, however, none of the information on this blog, should be substituted for the care of a physician. The information provided on this blog is informational only and shouldn’t be taken as medical advice. If you have questions, please ask your doctor. If you think you have a medical or psychiatric emergency, please call 911. Also, please don’t delay contacting a physician due to something you have read on here. Pulling Curls doesn’t take responsibility for your health. That’s your job. We’re just a nice read.

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