Hanging Out

Literally.

And as I write that, let me add this little tidbit about Henry and Hanging.

While chucking my son onto the bed Thursday night, using legs and arms to swing him, he came out of the pile of pillows crying and holding his arm instead of laughing uproariously. Ten minutes after not letting his parents touch his right arm, he was actually in the ER.

Expecting the child abuse questions, I got the wonderful statement of "this is probably a really common injury" from the triage nurse. And it was: Nursemaid's Elbow.

Common etiology, comes from swinging under-age-5 children by arms, briefly dislocating the radial head from the anular ligament at the ulna. Corrected in one jiffy by supinating the hand and raising the hand to shoulder. He was reaching for stickers from the doctor one minute later with the effected hand, and talking up a storm again 2 minutes later. New to me, and about half the people I tell. The other half have either had this themselves, or a sibling did. No swinging Henry until he's 5.

I will probably still toss him into the pillows, but will grab him under the arms.

He's cutting his 2-year molars right now too, so is especially emotional anyway. Poor guy.