Help! My son bit a gash in his tongue.

[kyra's mommy]

Tonight my 2 yr. old fell and when he did he somehow bit into his tongue. It's quite a gash and it's definately bothering him. We googled it and saw that it's unlikely his tongue would be stitched if we took him to emergency and I genuinely don't think it's bad enough to bring him in. I just don't know the best way to treat it. I gave him some tylenol but other then that I haven't done anything. Any advice?

 

[deva]

call your pediatrician. He or she should be able to tell you what warrants an ER visit.

 

[marlynnp]

Do you have a teething ring? Put it in the freezer for a bit, if it's not there already. He can suck on that if the bite is bothering him or seems a bit swollen.

 

[minkydog]

I've been a peds nurse for years and the only tongues i ever saw stitched were either bitten on the edge, splitting the tongue, or they were bitten clean through the tongue. All the others were treated with warm salt water rinse, cold water, popsicles, and tylenol. Mouth injuries generally heal up without much help.

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

If I remember correctly, the tongue is one of the fastest healing parts of your body. By this time tomorrow you probably won't hardly notice it was bitten. I know a friends child had something similar happen, bit almost the whole way thru the tongue, and a day or two later it was almost hard to tell were it had been bitten at.

I agree with minkydog, wash the mouth good with some warm salt water and give him some Tylenol for pain.

 

[kyra's mommy]

Thank you Minkydog for the advice.

I'm waiting for a call back from our Dr., it's funny I hadn't thought of calling him. I really don't know why I hadn't. Weird. Anyway, I put him to bed, he drank his milk and then I just laid him down and he wimpered but it seems he is sleeping. I didn't do any rinse because I worried he'd swallow anything I tried like salt water or listerine. So, I'll see if my Dr. thinks I should do something tonight or just let him sleep.

So sad, poor little guy.

Thanks for the help lovely Disboarders.

 

[kangareaux]

If it's still sore tomorrow, let him have as many popsicles as he want. (And colors except red and orange! LOL!)

 

[bumbershoot]

DS has done a few things to mouth and tongue, and the pain goes away rather fast, once you give enough hugs and cuddles, it seems. Then again he was still nursing like gangbusters at 2, and it seems that milk cures *everything*, at least for my guy. Oh I miss the magic milk days!

 

[disneychrista]

I bit my tongue in elementry school and to this days (30 years later) you can still see the cut. I took about 2 weeks or so to heal and I was one a soft food diet during that time, because I hurt to eat anything that had to be chewed.