Help me decide if DS is "fibbing"

[marshallandcartersmo]

DS4 and I were tossing a ball around the house last Monday (I know, I know, no ball in the house). He was running for the ball and his foot got caught underneath a recliner. He cried for a few minutes, then was fine.

No blood, no crack sound, no swelling, no bruising. He doesn't complain about it when he's sitting, laying down, wrestling with his brother , or busy.
However the yesterday and today (of course---on the weekend!!) he says the top of his foot hurts, and is walking on only the side of his foot.

Now, normally I'd take him to our Ped.'s office for an x-ray just to make sure. BUT, this happened last month with his arm. He fell at preschool and started favoring his arm for a few days. I started to get worried, so we went to the Ped's office, got an x-ray and the x-ray came back fine. No mention of hurt arm again after the x-ray.

Now, we're leaving for Disney in 8 days . What a horrible mother will I be if there really is something wrong with his foot and I let it go?? But again to take him to get an x-ray if he's faking?????

Like I said, there's no bruising, swelling, discoloration.

Is there a way to tell if something is broken in a foot w/out an x-ray??

 

[JessicaR]

A 4 year old wouldnt remember to 'fake' pain from something that happened a week ago. Get an x-ray. So many bones (26-28) in the foot. I hope all ends up being fine.

 

[mickeymedic]

You will probably need to get the X-ray just to be safe. I can't tell you how many times I have heard (and read) stories of kids who seemed fine - no swelling, bruising, defority, pain, etc. - only to discover later that they actually broke something.

For your own peace of mind take him to the doctor on Monday. Or if there are Urgent Care centers or After Hours offices open on weekends where you live, go to one of those for X-rays. You never know.

 

[figment52]

Could you make him an ice pack and see if he would sit still with that. If it really doesn't hurt I can't imagine he would like that ice on his foot.

Good luck, have a great trip.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Get an XRay to be on the safe side.
A 4yo that is walking on the side of his foot is out of the ordinary.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Another vote for the X-Ray today to be sure. Speaking from experience (and 3/4 of a day wasted...) you don't want to be visiting Lake Buena Vista's healthcare facilities when he can't walk all day in Disney.....

 

[mumom95]

I doubt he's fibbing, I agree with the other poster who said a four year old wouldn't think that far back.

But, if it was me, I would get the xray on Monday just to be safe, since you are leaving for the trip next week. It's probably nothing, but at least you would know.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, my 4 year old could certainly remember an injury from a week ago, so I am 50/50 on this one. Then again from my past career's training I know some orthopedic tests and I have some books about injuries so I could probably figure out if there was truth being told or not, just by his responses to the tests.

Since I assume you don't have those books or that info in your head, I would probably take him in somewhere (and since I know from personal history 3 times now that time is not so much of the essence if it's a crack in a bone that they aren't going to "fix" anyway, or if it's a ligament/tendon injury...they take AGES to heal and nothing much but time, ice, and not using the foot will help, so I might even wait until Monday if it was someone in my family, including me) and have them do some orthopedic tests to check for ligament or tendon involvement, and an xray as well. But I certainly wouldn't ONLY ask for the xray; have them do the movement tests too to be thorough.

 

[kellyg403]

I understand why you are hesitant, I do think that sometimes the amount of special attention a child receives determines what they will do the next time! I remember my little ds having a stomach ache forever, after several tests (and some pretty extensive ones) the dr could not find a thing wrong. DS is 14 now, and recently we were all sitting around talking about the kids when they were younger. DS pipes up and says I loved being sick, 1/2 the time I didn't even feel sick! We all cracked up.

That being said, the foot is a hard place to just let go because of all the little bones, ligaments and the growth plates in there. I would definitely go and get it checked. My grandson stepped on a car in the playroom, cried for a few minutes and went back to playing, no swelling bruising nothing. 3 days later (he is 2) he wouldn't put weight on that foot. Nothing broken but turns out he actually bruised his heel. I couldn't imagine how painful that was! He continued to walk on it for those two days and made it worse.

Hope it all ends up o.k....besides, 8 days you will be in WDW..better to go now then have to cut your trip time! Good luck to your little guy!

Kelly

 

[Chereya]

Have you pressed on the affected area with your own hands to guage his reaction and ask him where exactly it hurts? I have a 5yo and a 3 yo, both boys. The 3yo is generally the one who will do something like this. I wouldn't call it fibbing exactly, maybe more of getting carried away with their imagination and memory of what it felt like when it was first hurt. My son will cry and carry on like there's no tomorrow if he feels like he needs "medical attention" on his hurt area. Usually he wants a Sponge Bob bandaid. Other time I will catch him limping along because he banged his knee. He will moan and complain about it, limp around, then forget it's supposed to be "hurt" and wrestle or play then when he remembers he's supposed to be hurt, he'll go back to limping around.

If a similar experience happened last month with his arm, he may want the attention and go through the X-Ray process again - because it was interesting or exciting the first time. I'd say use your best judgement. Yes, there are a lot of bones and ligaments in the foot but you should be able to manually manipulate it enough to recreate the pain sensation if it's really there.

Maybe just having a sit down and chat with your son about the trip coming up will create a miraculous cure. If he's hurt and not able to walk around, he may need to sit out some of WDW and not have as much fun... or the expense of going to the dr and getting x-rays and examinations is going to cut into the souvenir and mickey bar fund, etc etc. In the weeks leading up to our DL trip I had MANY chats about how my sons' current behavior could negatively impact our trip if they continued to do it.

Just my 2c. Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[Mom2Nick]

Ug! - Well unfortunately the only thing to do is to get an X-ray.

We've been through this a few times ourselves. When I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest, my DD - 2 at the time - decided to try and "Fly" off of my kitchen island. I of course saw her just as she was getting ready to leap and being 8 months pregnant all I could do was yell - I just couldn't get there fast enough. She of course figured out she was not capable of flying and crashed to the ground. She was crying saying " Go to hopisal me hurt meself" and I am just nodding and saying things like "Well what do you expect?? You shouldn't be on the island and Mommy told you not to jump" blah blah blah.

2 hours later she's laying on the ground crying and I am telling her "Come to mommy tell me what's wrong" (Again 8 months pregnant - I was hoping she'd just come to me - lol) Well she could not get up as there was something wrong with her arm/shoulder. I had to pack her and my 5 yo old up and go to the ER to get an x-ray - but I could not go in with her so we had to get a nurse in there, she was crying for me etc. I felt HORRIBLE and yup - she broke her collar bone.

Ever since then - I have been MANY times for stupid thing that all turn out to be nothing but it's just me STILL feeling guilty 5 years later....

 

[golfgal]

Compress the bone or bones that might be involved--squeeze his foot on both sides pushing toward the middle of his foot. If he sits and says ouch but doesn't move his foot, probably ok. If he pulls his foot back, take him for an x-ray. The hard part is isolating the right bones. You might need to push from the bottom of the foot upward or from the top down but work it around some to see if you can get a reaction from his foot, not his mouth.

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

A 4 year old wouldnt remember to 'fake' pain from something that happened a week ago. Get an x-ray. So many bones (26-28) in the foot. I hope all ends up being fine.

I agree with getting the x-ray just to make sure, but I do not agree with the "A 4 year old wouldnt remember to 'fake' pain from something that happened a week ago." comment at all! My oldest is only 3, and she remembers wierd stuff from weeks and months ago just out of the blue. Don't under-estimate (SP?) the memory of a kid!!!

And if faking an pain will get that kid some sympathy ice cream - all the more reason to suspect!

 

[LoveKermit]

I agree. But wanted to add some thoughts anyway. Someone mentioned pressing the foot all over. That's a good idea. Maybe try to make it a game. If it is just ligaments or tendons, those can feel good one day but be sore/swollen the next--especially if your child has been real active (i.e, roughhousing with sibling) or sleeps on it funny, etc. I'm guessing that's what it is anyway, but you'll feel better if you get the x-ray.