What If Your Child Hurts Her Head? How Do You Know If It’s Serious?
Most of the time, when a child hurts her head, she gets well and has no ongoing problems. However, with brain injuries, some children may have problems that are hard to notice right away. One by one, the problems may not seem so unusual. But, in the case of a brain injury, the problems don’t go away. Here are things to look out for — especially if they don’t go away.
HEADACHES that keep coming back or other pain in and around the head (e.g., the eyes or jaw)
BALANCE or dizziness problems
SENSORY problems -bothered by smells or light or sounds or has blurry or double vision; changes in taste or appetite; feels too hot or too cold; hearing loss or ringing in ears
Changes in SLEEP patterns – doesn’t sleep through the night, sleeps too much, gets days and nights mixed up
PAIN problems – especially frequent pain in neck and shoulders or other places on the body that are unexplained
BEHAVIOR changes – in personality or mood; irritable, restless, upset, frustrated easily; overreacts, cries or laughs too easily; mood swings, wants to be alone or away from people, is afraid or others, blames others; wants to be taken care of, doesn’t know how to act with people, takes risks without thinking; is sad, depressed, can’t “get started” doing anything, is tired, drowsy or slow to respond; trips, falls, drops things, is awkward; eats too little, eats all the time, or eats thing that aren’t food; takes off clothes in public; for older children: has different sexual behavior, starts using or has a different reaction to alcohol or drugs
THINKING Problems – can’t remember things, has trouble paying attention, reacts slowly, thinks slowly, takes things too literally, doesn’t get jokes; understands words but not their meaning; thinks about the same thing over and over; has trouble learning new things, putting things in order (desk, room, papers), making decisions; planning, starting, doing and finishing a task and emembering to do things on time; makes poor choices (loss of common sense)
COMMUNICATING- changes the subject, has trouble staying on topic; has trouble reading, listening, thinking of the right word, paying attention and having long conversations; doesn’t say things clearly, talks too much
If your child exhibits any of these problems AND THEY DO NOT GO AWAY, call your doctor.
The Washington State Traumatic Brain Injury Council has more information on what to look out for and what to do if your child has suffered a brain injury.
If your child has hurt her head and has any of these problems that do not go away, you may want to speak to a lawyer experienced in representing children with traumatic brain injuries. I will be glad to answer your questions about rights your child may have to recover for her losses from her brain injury caused by someone else. Call me at 703-273-9500, or send me an email at srohrstaff@WRSattorneys.com.
Resources for Car Safety Seats and Booster Seats
Here are some of the resources I used for the information in my blogs about car seats. (See my blog posts this past week about safe car seats for your child as she grows.)
Here’s a video explaining how to move from one car seat to another as your child “ages up” made by “Dad Labs”.
Other resources:
Car Safety Seats Information for Families
How to Choose and Use A Booster Seat
Your Child Grows into a Forward-Facing Car Seat
I’ve been posting about safe car seats for your child as she grows from infancy into older childhood. See my two prior posts for birth to about one year. We had just moved into forward-facing seats.
Forward-facing models should all have a 5-point restraint harness. Children should stay in this model until at least 40 pounds, but can usually fit until 65 pounds. These are especially helpful if you have a restless child who might try to get out of the seat belt.
When you think your child might be ready to move to a booster seat, be sure to test it out first. If they fit, their legs should not stick out straight and they should not slouch or slide forward in the seat. Once again, keep you child in the forward-facing car seat for as long as possible — it’s safer.
Booster seats are the newest addition to child car safety. Most likely you didn’t use a booster seat when you were a kid. Seat belts are designed for adults, not for children, so children need to be boosted into a higher position so that the seat belt can do its job correctly. 
Children need to be in a booster seat until they reach a height of 4’9”. At this height, the seat belt will fall correctly on the child as to protect them in a crash. Once again, there are multiple types of booster seats. There are full backed seats that resemble a forward facing seat and there are half booster seats which only have a bottom portion. In deciding which one to purchase for your child, you should consider factors such as support while sleeping in the car and the height of the seats in your car. The booster should position the child so that the seat belt falls on the hips, not the stomach, and the collarbone, not the neck. Once they reach 4’9”, the belt should fit properly without any additional support. Even once they no longer need a booster seat, children though should stay in the back seat until they reach 13 years old.
Post a comment to let us know how your child has grown into her various types of car seats.
Dangers in Your Kitchen Cabinet
I was reading a medical publication today, and found this information interesting. It’s certainly something I didn’t know when my children were very young.
Vanilla Extract – I often heard that a person could get drunk by drinking vanilla extract. I’ve wondered if that’s true. The answer seems to be “yes”. For children, that’s a real danger. Vanilla extract contains ethanol, the same type of alcohol found in beer, wine, and hard liquor (and other types of flavoring extract, perfume, cologne, aftershave, and mouthwash, too). The amount of extract called for in recipes would not be dangerous. But a child who swallowed the contents of a bottle might be at risk of alcohol poisoning. Keep flavoring extracts out of reach, along with other alcohol-containing liquids.
But, there are more dangers lurking. Nutmeg tastes great in cookies and eggnog, but too much can cause hallucinations. Children who get into the container, and people who deliberately swallow a lot of nutmeg trying to get high, can become miserably sick. Nausea, vomiting, agitation, prolonged drowsiness, and coma are all possible. Keep the nutmeg, and its relative, mace, out of the reach of children.
How Do I Know When to Change My Child’s Car Seat?
From the day you take your baby home from the hospital they should be in a properly attached car seat. The difference between a car seat and a booster seat is that a car seat is the means of protection for the child. A booster seat simply boosts the child to fit properly in the car’s preexisting restraint system.
Children from birth to age one should ride in a rear facing car seat. 
The minimum age to turn a child around to a forward facing car seat is one year and 20 pounds. However, your childshould stay rear facing as long as the seat allows, usually up to around 30 pounds. Rear facing is the safest position for a child.
There are two main types of rear facing seats. The first is infant-only seats which allow the seat to be removed without disturbing a sleeping child. They include a mount that remains firmly secured in the car and a carrier that snaps in an out. Often, the carrier attaches to a stroller for optimal mobility.
The second kind is a convertible model. These are able to hold the child from birth to about age four or five by converting from a rear facing infant seat to a front facing toddler seat.
Once again, the child should not be transferred to the front facing position until he/she reaches the maximum weight for the rear facing position. The plus for these models is that they can be used for a long time, but the down side is that it is difficult to remove a sleeping infant without waking them.
Whether you are using a convertible model or a uniquely front-facing model, a child should move to this model only once he outgrows the rear facing model, usually around 30 pounds and at least one year of age.
I’ll post more later this week. Post a comment to let me know what your experiences have been with these kinds of seats.
Which Car Seat Is Right for My Child?
I don’t mean to sound old, but things sure have changed since you and I were children, haven’t they? The way things were when we were kids often doesn’t apply anymore — not to mention the extraordinary technological advancements.
Sure, we had seatbelts and car seats in our cars when we were kids, but how many times did you double buckle with your friends or siblings or ride backwards in the back of the station wagon? Attempts to reduce the number of preventable highway deaths have prompted authorities to pass more stringent guidelines on the safety measures required for children riding in automobiles.
These guidelines are based on the height, weight, and age of the child in order to best secure the child in case of a collision. However, all of these new rules can be confusing.
• When do I use the next sized seat?
• How long does my child have to ride in the back seat?
• What is the difference between the different types of seats and belts?
Although you have to work at finding them, there are fairly clear guidelines about which type of seat you should use for your child based on their age, height and weight. Here are a few tips to get you started.
•• The first step is a rear-facing, 5-point harness child safety seat for newborns and infants.
•• At about one year of age, your child will “age up” to forward-facing child safety seats. These maintain the 5-point harness, but allow the child to sit in an upright position. These are the two safest seats and children should stay in them as long as possible.
•• School age children should use booster seats to position them correctly in the seat belt until they reach a height of 4’9”.
We’ll explore each stage in the process of moving your child from one seat to another in more depth, because each one has slight nuances that can be confusing. I’ll publish several more postings with additional information in the next few days. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from anyone who has experiences, good or bad, with buying, installing and using car seats for their children.
Toys That Can Hurt Your Child – Resources
ToySafety.mobi – Good, clear summaries of a variety of child hazards. Many are divided by age range – choking dangers for infants and noise injuries for music-listening adolescents.
Keeping Your Child Safe in Your Car – Resources
Car Information
Car Safety Seats Information – Detailed guidelines for children based on age and weight with illustrations sponsored by Healthychildren.org
Kids And Cars –This website helps prevent accidental vehicular injuries by offering educational information, technological devices, and a breadth of news stories.
Child Burn Injuries – Resources
Burn Resources
International Society for Burn Injuries – hosts conferences and supports organizations in burn research
Camp Susquehanna – A camp for survivors of burn injuries of all ages in Lancaster, PA
Burn Resource Centre – Provides information and links to resources for burn survivors
American Burn Association – Information about advocacy, prevention and other aspects of burn injuries and survival
Child Abuse Prevention – Resources
Child Abuse Prevention
Childhelp USA: (800)-4-A-CHILD A hotline provides crisis counseling and literature about child abuse.
National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse: 800-Children This organization provides information and referrals about child abuse.
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, 1-888-273-007 The National Center for Shaken Baby Syndrome is a private, nonprofit organization that provides information to professionals and parents about SBS.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides general information about health and safety issues, including links to child abuse information and topics.
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