Bubby D’s dislocated elbow – and how to avoid them

Dislocated elbows are fairly common in children under 5. Children have much more flexible arms, and anything which causes a child’s arm to be suddenly yanked can result in the bone popping out of place. Often this results in the child complaining of pain and dangling their arm uselessly by their side. It’s a fairly simple procedure to put it back into place (although it is momentarily painful), however the longer it’s left the harder it can be to do.

Dislocations can be avoided by always lifting children by their upper arms, rather than the lower arms or wrists.

And how do I know this? Well, aside from having had various different dislocations myself:

After a fun day out at LolliBop, I was looking forward to getting home to my bed. The kids had fallen asleep in the car, exhausted. All seemed hopeful for an early and fairly stress free night.

Except then I went to lift Bubby D out of her car seat – and she screamed.

Not the kind of ‘you woke me up and I’m tired’ half hearted kind of scream. But a full on ‘I’m in pain’ one.

Just before we left LolliBop, in her tired-excited-yet-irritable 2 year old state, she’d started running off and the Other Half had grabbed her arm to stop her getting lost in the crowds. She was cross, she wanted Mummy hugs, but we thought nothing of it at the time. She hadn’t had her usual nap and she was grumpy about leaving what had been a very fun day, so it seemed pretty normal.

But it’s not normal to be screaming in pain two hours later.

So I phoned NHS 111, and told them she wasn’t able to move her arm and she said it was ‘hurt and poorly’. First they recommended self-care at home, and I was relieved momentarily that they didn’t think it was anything to worry about. Then they said ‘but if she loses movement, she’ll need to go to hospital’.

‘I just told you she’s not moving it. And that she says she CAN’T move it’ I said.

‘Oh, well then you need to go to hospital within the hour’ they replied.

‘I WANT MUMMY’ screamed Bubby D. ‘I want Mummy too!’ joined in the Wee Man. Little B just looked at me.

So that’s why we all ended up sitting in A&E on a Friday night.

It’s strange, that period of waiting. Wondering if it’s something minor, or something more serious. Seeing your two year old wandering around playing in the waiting room, with one arm hanging limp and useless. Feeling awful that you didn’t get there sooner, that you didn’t realise earlier that something was wrong, then feeling exhausted and wishing for bed, then feeling guilty for feeling resentful about having to sit around in a hospital when you’re not the one in pain.

Finally her name was called, and we were through to the triage nurse, where I said I thought Bubby D might have dislocated her elbow. She asked if she could try a ‘little wiggle’ and see if it helped. I remember that ‘little wiggle’ from when I was young and it’s not as fun as the name implies.

But it had to be done, and – hurrah – it worked.

After a brief shout of pain, Bubby D was smiling and using her arm again, and we were heading home.

Fingers crossed (but not in a dislocated kind of way) it will not be the first time of many.